Two young lovers find their awakening sensuality in conflict with both their own moral values and those of the small town in which they live. This intense, tragic film marked the screen debut of Warren Beatty. Academy Award Nominations: 2, including Best Actress--Natalie Wood. Academy Awards: Best (Original) Story and Screenplay.

Set in rural Kansas, "Splendor in the Grass" tells the tragically romantic tale of teenagers Deanie and Bud who repress their desires because of their families' disapproval. Coming from radically different backgrounds -- one wealthy, the other staunchly puritanical -- they allow class differences to prevent any possible union. Their passions exist purely in their hearts and minds, but the couple never physically or socially express this forbidden love. Later in life, Deanie is institutionalized following a breakdown, and she eventually returns home to resolve her feelings about Bud.

Film acting debuts for actor/director/producer Warren Beatty, and actresses Sandy Dennis and Phyllis Diller.

In later years, director Elia Kazan remarked that, of all the Actors Studio graduates, Warren Beatty's skills have most surprised him.

William Inge wrote this screenplay as a vehicle for Warren Beatty, who had acted in one of his stage plays.

Playwright/screenwriter William Inge also appears in the film as the minister.

In 1981, this film was remade as a TV movie starring Melissa Gilbert and featuring Michelle Pfeiffer and Ally Sheedy.

Shot in Technicolor in upstate New York and Staten Island.

Additional cast: Joanna Roos (Mrs. Stamper), Jan Norris (Juanita Howard), Crystal Field (Hazel), Marla Adams (June), Martine Bartlett (Miss Metcalf), Sean Garrison (Glenn).

DVD Features:

Keep Case
Full Frame - 1.33
Audio:
(unspecified) English

Natalie Wood: American actress, WEST SIDE STORY
Warren Beatty: Actor, director, producer, REDS (1981)
Audrey Christie: American Actress
Pat Hingle: American Actor
Barbara Loden: American Actress
Zohra Lampert: American Character Actress
Fred Stewart: Actor\In The Heat...Night
Gary Lockwood: American TV/Film Actor

Elia Kazan: Director/screenwriter, ON THE WATERFRONT

Elia Kazan: Director/screenwriter, ON THE WATERFRONT

David Amram: American Composer

Gene Milford: 

3 stars out of 5 -- "[A] landmark in Hollywood melodrama, standing squarely between elegantly overwrought classical studio style and the fresh, intimate immediacy of French New Wave."
"...Here was innocence, here was sexual power, here was the Casanova who would, over time, be[come Warren Beatty]..." -- Rating: B