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What
though the
radiance which was
once so bright
Be now for ever
taken from my
sight,
Though nothing can
bring back the
hour
Of splendor in the
grass, of glory in
the flower;
We will grieve
not, rather find
Strength in what
remains behind...
|
SONG:
"A Very Precious
Love"


What
though the radiance
which was once so
bright,
be now forever taken
from my sight,
though nothing can bring
back the hour
of splendor in the
grass, of glory in the
flower;
We will grieve not,
rather find strength in
what remains behind.

Splendor
in the Grass (1961) [NR]
124
minutes; in Color
Genre(s):
Roaring '20s, Sex &
Sexuality, Teen Angst
Cast:
Natalie Wood, Warren
Beatty, Audrey Christie,
Barbara Loden, Zohra
Lampert, Phyllis Diller,
Sandy Dennis;
DIRECTED BY:
Elia Kazan; WRITTEN
BY: William Inge;
CINEMATOGRAPHY
BY: Charles
Durnham; MUSIC
BY: David Amram.
Awards:
Oscars 1961: Story &
Screenplay.

Review:
A drama set in rural
Kansas in 1925,
concerning a teenage
couple who try to keep
their love on a strictly
intellectual plane and
the sexual and family
pressures that tear them
apart. After suffering a
mental breakdown and
being institutionalized,
the girl returns years
later in order to settle
her life. Film debuts of
Beatty, Dennis, and
Diller. Inge wrote the
screenplay specifically
with Beatty in mind,
after the actor appeared
in one of Inge's stage
plays. Filmed not in
Kansas, but on Staten
Island and in upstate
New York.


Splendor
in the Grass (1961) is
another of director Elia
Kazan's dramatic,
hyperbolic films with
daring and controversial
content for its times -
sexual repression and
neurosis. The
intriguing, over-wrought
film is a tragic,
coming-of-age melodrama
from Pulitzer
Prize-winning playwright
William Inge's original
screenplay - it was
Inge's first story
written directly for the
screen and he received a
nomination (and the
film's sole Oscar) for
the Best Original Story
and Screenplay for his
work (one of the film's
two Academy Award
nominations).
 


The
time period of the plot
occurs during the late
1920s and early 30s at
the start of the
disastrous Depression in
a rural, SE Kansas town,
coinciding with the
intensity of a first
love and the devastating
consequences of
repressed sexuality upon
a pair of love-struck
teenagers. The film's
tagline expressed this
theme: "There is a
miracle in being
young...and a
fear." A poster
also described the
reality of a 'first
love' when feelings that
are new and somewhat
frightening are
heightened by a
constricting society:

Whether
you live in a small town
the way they do, or in a
city, maybe this is
happening to you right
now...maybe (if you're
older), you
remember...when suddenly
the kissing isn't a
kid's game anymore,
suddenly it's wide-eyed,
scary and dangerous.

The
film's title is taken
from English romantic William
Wordsworth's 1807 Ode,
Intimations of
Immortality from
Reflections of Early
Childhood, some
of which is quoted
here:

Though
nothing can bring back
the hour
Of splendor in the
grass, of glory in the
flower
We will grieve not, but
rather find
Strength in what remains
behind.

The
mood and story line of
the stormy relationship
between two
star-crossed, teenaged
lovers parallels the
poem as the adolescents
meet, fall obsessively
in love and become
sexually awakened, face
repressed sexual
attitudes, parental
pressures, turmoil,
social constraints and
class differences, and
ultimately break up and
are traumatized without
consummating their love.
The values of the
business-oriented
civilization - at the
time of its greatest
crash - coincides with
the collapse of their
tender romance.

In
a quasi-Romeo
and Juliet script,
Warren Beatty marked his
screen debut (after
starring in the Broadway
play A Loss of Roses),
and co-star Natalie Wood
received a Best Actress
nomination (her second
of three career
nominations) for one of
her finest (if not the
best) screen roles.
Reportedly, the stars
began an off-screen love
affair while making this
film - a story of
unconsummated passion
between a rich
midwestern boy and a
passionate young
girl.

[The
irony of Wood's film
role here was that her
accidental drowning
death in 1981, off of
her yacht named the Splendour,
was pre-figured by the
shocking bathtub scene
and an attempted
suicidal drowning scene
at the reservoir.]

Although
it was an early 60s
film, it followed a
number of films from the
50s (some of which were
youth exploitation
films) that portrayed
the problems of youth,
such as Picnic
(1955) (another
filming of a William
Inge play),
Rebel Without a
Cause (1955)
(with Natalie
Wood), Kazan's own
East of Eden
(1955),
Peyton Place (1957), A
Summer Place (1959), and
the same year's great
musical West Side Story
(1961).

After
the credits sequence -
red lettering on a
grayish background, a
teenaged boy and girl
are seated in the front
of an open, yellow
roadster convertible
after school in the
early evening - on a
lover's lane a short
distance in front of a
raging waterfall. The
attractive couple are
passionately kissing and
breathing heavily -
their raging hormones
are symbolized by the
flow of churning water
over the falls behind
them. The Commerce High
School senior
sweethearts are
beautiful, dark-haired
Wilma Dean ("Deanie")
Loomis (Natalie
Wood, 26 years old)
and hunky sports hero
Arthur ("Bud")
Stamper (Warren Beatty)
- he begs her to go
further, but she resists
expressing her physical
needs:

Bud:
Deanie, please..
Deanie:
Bud, I'm afraid.
(They kiss and
embrace more.)
Don't, Bud.
Bud:
Deanie...
Deanie:
We mustn't, Bud.

Angry
at her, sexually
frustrated and slightly
humiliated, Bud
leaves the car and
stands by the waterfall,
stating: "I'd
better take you
home," as she slips
on her boyfriend's
striped letter sweater.

A
title card 1928,
SOUTHEAST KANSAS - is
superimposed over a
plain, wood-frame house
(the Loomis residence)
and storefront for the
family butcher business
- Fancy Groceries. Bud
pulls the roadster up in
front, as Deanie's
mother Mrs.
Frieda
Loomis (Audrey
Christie) notices their
arrival on the porch and
overhears Bud
tell Deanie:
"We've had enough
kissing for
tonight." Not
wanting to be seen, she
stealthily peers at them
through the front door
window as they can't
restrain themselves for
a goodbye kiss.

In
the dark living room, Deanie's
body language exhibits
tremendous sexual
longing - she leans
backward as she strokes
her hair and neck. She
hugs a pillow as she
reclines on a sofa with
her legs extended.

Her
domineering mother, who
forces her daughter to
drink a glass of milk,
reveals that they are a
from a poor family that
is struggling
financially to afford
her education, and
there's little
possibility that their
shares of rising stock
in the Stamper oil
company may help
("If we sold those
stocks, we'd make
$15,000 and maybe we can
even send you away to
college next year. Well,
we're not going to
sell.") Deanie
dreamily places her ear
next to a giant shell -
listening to the
far-away roar of the
ocean elsewhere. She
stutters her
unconvincing excuse for
being with Bud:
"We were studying
together."

Upstairs,
as Deanie
undresses for bed
and hides herself for
privacy in the bathroom
to brush her teeth, her
mother follows her and
tries to instill her own
sexual fears into her.
Her rigid, puritanical
mother vows that boys
never respect a girl who
goes all the way -
love-struck Deanie
is troubled by
her own emerging, raw
physical feelings:

Mrs.
Loomis:
Now Wilma Dean. Bud
Stamper could get
you into a whole lot of
trouble. And you know
how I mean. Boys don't
respect a girl they can
go all the way with.
Boys want a nice girl
for a wife. (She
slightly cracks open the
door.) Wilma Dean, you
and Bud haven't gone too
far already, have you?

Deanie:
(from inside) No,
mother.
Mrs.
Loomis: Tell
me the truth, Wilma
Dean!
Deanie:
(opening the door all
the way) No, Mom, we
haven't gone too far.
Mrs.
Loomis: That's
a relief.
Deanie:
Mom...is it so
terrible to have those
feelings about a boy?
Mrs.
Loomis: No
nice girl does.
Deanie:
Doesn't she?
Mrs.
Loomis: No, no
nice girl.

A
prudish Mrs.
Loomis asserts
that women don't enjoy
sex or have sexual
urges, and that they
dutifully have sex with
their husbands only to
have children. She was
always physically
repelled by her husband
and men's aggressive
tendencies. But a
virginal Deanie
is already experiencing
(and repressing) strong,
out-of-control physical
drives, although she
struggles with wanting
to be 'a good girl' and
worries about staying
pure until marriage.
[Her bedroom's
decorations - including
a brown bear on top of
her pillow - project her
childlike innocence
that's on the verge of
breaking traditional
bounds.]:

Deanie:
But Mom, didn't,
didn't you ever -
well, I mean, didn't
you ever feel that way
about Dad? (She hugs
and clutches onto her
mother in a desperate
fashion)
Mrs.
Loomis:
Your father never laid
a hand on me until we
were married. And then
I-I just gave in
because a wife has to.
A woman doesn't enjoy
those things the way a
man does. She just
lets her husband come
near her in order to
have children. (Deanie
stands with her back
toward her mother.) Deanie,
what's troubling you?
Deanie:
Oh, nothing, Mom.

After
her mother leaves, Deanie
throws herself
onto her bed, casts away
her brown bear in
disgust, grabs her
pillow, and thrusts her
chest into it. Her
sexual longings burst
forth as she imagines
hugging her sweetheart
while glancing at Bud's
many pictures plastered
above her dresser.
Deanie caresses
each one with a kiss,
and then kneels at her
bedside to recite the
Lord's Prayer. In the
Loomis' master bedroom
where Mr.
Del Loomis (Fred
Stewart) snores noisily,
Mrs.
Loomis excitely
tells him that Deanie
is "in love"
with the Stamper
boy: "He'd
be the catch of a
lifetime, Del!" She
is in favor of their
romance, but expects
marriage before physical
affection.



When
Bud
arrives home, his
limping father Ace
Stamper (Pat
Hingle) is leading a
celebration in the
kitchen - hired
workhands from the
Stamper oil fields are
boisterously eating
venison and drinking
"home brew"
beer. The prosperous,
self-made millionaire Mr.
Stamper has just
brought in a new well
that is flowing with
over a hundred barrels
an hour ("Them big
Eastern companies - they
begin to sit up and take
notice of us"). But
with aspirations for his
son to succeed him and
follow in his footsteps,
he is concerned that Bud,
the captain of the
football team, is
keeping late hours with
"that li'l Loomis
girl" when
he should be watching
his training or looking
ambitiously into the
future. He overwhelms
his son with advice
about putting off
thoughts of marriage (or
not getting his
girlfriend pregnant and
being forced to marry
her) because there are
other better prospects
in his life - an
education at Yale
University and a merging
with the oil business. Stamper
warns about not
disappointing him in
sports and in other life
choices:

You're
watchin' yourself with
her now, aren't ya, son?
You-you're not doin'
anything, boy, you're
gonna be ashamed of, are
ya?...She's a nice kid,
son. She's a
good-looker. I've known
her folks ever since -
well, old Del and I were
boys together. I got
nothin' against 'em,
Bud, 'cause they're
poor. I'm not a snob or
anything like that. The
only difference between
me and Del is that I got
ambition. But if
anything was to happen,
you'd have to marry her!
You'd have to marry her,
son! You realize that,
don't ya? You get a girl
in trouble, boy, and you
gotta take the
consequences. (They
engage in horseplay by
punching each other
playfully in the arm.)
We got a future,
boy...The first thing
we're gonna do, we're
gonna get you an
education - the best.
Four years at Yale...My
company is gonna merge
with one of those big
Eastern companies. I'm
gonna put you in there.
I wanna put you in
there, boy...I'm linin'
up a future for ya,
boy...Bud, there is
nothing in this world
that I wouldn't do for
you, boy. There's
nothing I wouldn't do if
you do right. If you do
right, Bud. Now don't
disappoint me, son.

As
he states that he's
"had one
disappointment
already" [his
daughter], his frail,
soft-spoken wife Mrs.
Stamper (Joanna
Roos) enters the room.
In his own bedroom, Bud
is also frustrated by
his father's words as Deanie
was. He hurls a soccer
ball at the wall and
also buries his head
under his pillow on his
bed.


The Stamper's
"spoiled,"
willful,
"headstrong,"
20s flapper daughter Ginny
("Sister"
or Virginia) (Barbara
Loden), with bleached
hair and makeup, has
been something of an
embarrassing
disappointment for the
family - at finishing
school, she broke all
the rules and was
expelled; then at a
university, she went
"hog wild" and
flunked all her courses;
finally, in a Chicago
art school, she got
"tied up with some
cake-eater that gets her
into trouble just so he
can marry her" -
but Ace
had it annulled by his
lawyer. Bud's
older sister has
returned home a failure
for the third time,
causing Bud's
father to pressure him
even more into being a
successful flag-bearer
for the family.
Rebellious,
Ginny has gained
a bad reputation and has
no intention of
reforming herself in the
backward, rural town:

If
you think I'm going to
stay here in this
god-forsaken town and
have people laugh at
me and gossip about
me, you've got another
thing coming, 'cause
I'll really give them
something to gossip
about...I hate it
here. I'm a freak in
this town. Everybody
stares at me on the
street like I was
something out of a
carnival...This is the
ugliest place in the
whole world.
Everywhere you look
there's an oil well,
even on the front
lawn.

Mrs.
Stamper's comment
about her
breakfast-deprived
children is rich in
emotional meaning:
"Neither of my
children gets any real
nourishment."

In
the crowded high school
hallway of classmates,
both Deanie
and Bud
walk together
hand-in-hand - obviously
a radiant Deanie
is pleased to be admired
and possessed by the
school's handsome
football hero.
Chivalrously, he
accompanies her to her
English class and
carries her textbooks
for her. She is tardy to
her seat and reprimanded
by her prim,
bespectacled teacher Miss
Metcalf (Martine
Bartlett). [A student is
writing on the
chalkboard "still
unravished."]
Oblivious as her teacher
lectures about
literature of the Middle
Ages and stories of King
Arthur and the Knights
of the Round Table, Deanie
doodles in her
notebook, scrawling
various versions of
"Mrs.
Arthur Stamper"
and "Bud
& Deanie."
Girlfriends June
(Marla Adams), Carolyn
(Lynn Loring), and
Kay (Sandy
Dennis in her first film
appearance) whisper
about Bud
and who's taking
whom to the football
game:

Kay:
Just because his
father's got money...
Carolyn:
That's not true,
Kay...
June:
Bud Stamper isn't
stuck on himself at
all.

A
flapper-styled,
not-so-innocent, slutty Juanita
Howard (Jan Norris)
answers the teacher's
question about a
characteristic of the
Age of Chivalry:
"The Knights of the
Round Table had a very
high regard for
women...They looked on
women as very
pure." Kay
snidely utters an
aside: "They
wouldn't look on her as
very pure." Deanie
appears dreamy-eyed when
Miss
Metcalf
rhetorically asks
whether chivalry is
dead: "Well, how
about it, girls? Do any
of you feel that you are
on a pedestal?"

During
the school's football
game, Bud
is thrown out by
the referee for
unsportsmanlike conduct.
In the shower room after
the game, Bud
(with his face under a
steady shower stream)
overhears his teammates
joke with Alan Tuttle ("Toots")
(Gary Lockwood) about
taking out the
sexually-experienced Juanita.
According to him, "Juanita's
the only girl in school
who knows what it's all
about...I never look
twice at those other
girls anymore. Ya take
them out and spend good
money on 'em, and they
expect you to feel
satisfied if they even
kiss you good
night."

Outside
the school gym, Deanie
jealously reprimands Bud
after he flirts with
red-headed Juanita
on his way to the car -
and he is furious:
"I'm not even
supposed to know girls
like that exist,
huh?" When they
reach her house, she is
still repeatedly
apologizing for her
possessiveness and they
affectionately make up:

Deanie:
(with her head
on his shoulder) I
just can't stand it
when you're mad at
me...
Bud:
I don't know what's
the matter with me
lately. I'm always
losing my temper.
You're the only girl
in the world for me.
Don't you know that,
Deanie?
Deanie:
I want to be.
Bud:
If it weren't for
you...if it weren't
for you, Deanie
- I don't
know. (He smashes a
fist into his hand)
Deanie:
(She caresses
his cheek gently and
kisses him. He kisses
her back and pulls her
toward him.) Oh, Bud,
Bud, it's broad
daylight. Stop it.
Stop it. Come on now.
Bud! People can see
us.
Bud:
I don't care!

They
enter the empty house
and check to insure
their privacy in the
parlor. Being
head-over-heels in love
with him, Deanie
begins to show her
sacrificial devotion
after he has shown
interest in someone
else. She peppers him
with kisses all over his
face - and then when
they hear voices, they
retreat into the side
dining room. Through a
framed doorway, the
camera eavesdrops on
their overheated love
scene. Deanie
presses her groin into
his as they lean against
a door. Bud
forcefully grabs her
shoulders and presses
her down to her knees to
make her confess her
utter obedience to his
will:

Bud:
You're nuts about me,
aren't you? You're
nuts about
me....(After making
out a while, he begins
to touch her below the
waist.)
Deanie:
No, Bud...
Bud:
(He pushes her down to
her knees in front of
him.) At my feet,
slave.
Deanie:
Bud, don't.
Bud:
Tell me you love me.
Deanie:
Bud, you're hurting
me.
Bud:
Tell me you can't live
without me. Say it.
Deanie:
I do.
Bud:
You do what?
Deanie:
I do love you.
Bud:
And you can't live
without me...And you'd
do anything I'd ever
ask you, anything.
Deanie:
(fearfully) I-I'd do
anything for you.
Bud:
Deanie, I didn't mean
to hurt you. (She lies
on the floor, curled
up protectively.) Deanie,
Deanie!
Deanie, I was
just kidding. Look,
I'm the one who should
go down on his knees
to you, Deanie.
Deanie, I was
just kidding. I
thought you knew that.
Deanie:
(sincerely) I can't
kid about these
things. Because I am
nuts about you, and I
would go down on my
knees to worship you
if you really wanted
me to. Bud,
I can't get along
without you. And I
would do anything
you'd ask me to. I
would! I would!
Anything!

After
her confession of
complete submission, she
rolls over onto her back
in a sublime, vulnerable
state of passionate
surrender, moaning
orgasmically and begging
for "anything"
to happen: "Oh
Bud. - Bud! - Bud."
When they hear the
intrusive Mrs. Loomis
returning to the house, Deanie
hurriedly
straightens herself and
they begin playing a
regimented duet of
Chopsticks on the piano.
With lines dripping with
sexual innuendo, Deanie
is prepared to give into
her passions now that Bud
has increased his sexual
demands and they can't
ignore their emotions -
the two make plans for
an eventful evening:

Deanie:
Are we going to the
Victory Dance?
Bud:
I can think of things
I'd rather do.
Deanie:
(after warily looking
around) I'll be ready.
Once
Bud
has left and promised to
return to pick her up
for the dance after
dinner, Deanie
learns from her mother
that Bud's
sister Ginny
has a bad reputation.
She was put "in the
family way" by a
man in Chicago and had
to be taken to a doctor
for an abortion -
"one of those awful
operations." The
shrewish Mrs.
Loomis strikes
fear in her daughter
about falling in love:
"That's what
happens to girls who go
wild and boy
crazy."

Upon
his return home, Bud
announces personal
decisions to his
manipulative father
about his career plans,
asserting: "It's
what I want that
counts." His true
wishes are to marry Deanie
and attend an
agricultural college:

Dad,
I'm gonna marry Deanie...I
don't really want to go
to Yale. I'm not a very
good student...I'd like
to go away to a good
agricultural college for
a couple of years. I'd
really like to do that,
Dad. I could come right
back here and I could
take over your ranch
just south of town...I
could marry Deanie.
I could take her off to
college with me. That's
what I really want.
She'd be a big help to
me, Dad.

Mr.
Stamper ignores
his son's deepest goals,
and attempts to convince
him to wait about
marriage. But Bud,
sexually frustrated and
unable to postpone his
pent-up desires any
longer, clenches his
teeth in protest. He is
advised that there are
"two kinds of
girls" - and the
'loose' ones are
available to sow some
wild oats ("get a
little steam outa our
system"). Adding to
the complexity of Bud's
confusion is that
he feels sexual passion
for Deanie
- one of the 'good'
girls. After realizing
he's beaten by his
dominating father's
hypocritical,
morally-corrupt bargain,
Bud
doesn't follow
his own heart - he
agrees to go to Yale for
four years before
marriage:

Mr.
Stamper: Son, a
boy your age doesn't
even know what he
wants. After you've
had a college
education, then you
might change your
mind...Trust me, trust
me this time,
son....(rising and
moving forward) Son,
all I'm asking you to
do is to finish Yale.
And then if you still
want to marry the li'l
Loomis girl, you come
back here and you
marry her, boy, with
my blessing. I'll send
you both off to Europe
for a honeymoon. Bud,
please wait, son!
Bud:
I just don't
know if I can, Dad! I
feel like I'm going
nuts sometimes.
Mr.
Stamper: I
understand. (He places
his arm over his boy's
shoulder.) Your old
man understands. What
you need for the time
being, Bud,
is a different kind of
girl. When I was a
boy, son, there was
always two kinds of
girls. Us boys -
we-we'd never even
mention them in the
same breath. But every
now and then, one of
us boys'd sneak off
with a girl - and we'd
get a little steam
outa our system.
Bud:
Dad, Dad, no girl
looks good to me
except Deanie.
Mr.
Stamper: I
know.
Bud:
I love her, Dad!
Mr.
Stamper: I
know, son, I know!
Bud:
See, I don't want to
do that. (agonizing)
OK. I'll go to Yale.
But I want you to know
that I'm gonna marry
her as soon as I get
out.
Mr.
Stamper:
That's a
promise.
Bud:
I want you to remember
that.

Rain
streaks down the
windshield of Bud's
sportster parked by the
waterfall - the couple's
faces are blurred by the
glass as she vows to be
faithful for four long
years:
Bud,
I'll wait for you. I'll
wait for you forever.
I'll do anything you
want, Bud.


In
the Sunday church
service, Reverend
Whiteman (uncredited
screenwriter William
Inge himself)
sermonizes: "Lay
not up treasures for
yourself on earth. Where
moth and rust doth
corrupt and where
thieves do break through
and steal. But lay up
for yourself treasures
in heaven where neither
moth nor rust doth
corrupt and where
thieves do not break
through and steal. Where
your treasure is, there
will your heart be
also."
Deanie
lovingly reaches for Bud
seated next to her,

while Mr. Stamper, the
one most in need of
heeding the Biblical
words, snoozes.

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