Splendor in the Grass

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Splendor in the Grass

1961,

2h 4m,

Drama

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Watchlist

77%

26 Reviews

Tomatometer

90%

5,000+ Ratings

Popcornmeter

77%

Tomatometer

26 Reviews

90%

Popcornmeter

5,000+ Ratings

Bud (Warren Beatty) and his high school sweetheart, Deanie (Natalie Wood), are weighed down by their parents' oppressive expectations, which threaten the future of their relationship. Deanie's mother (Audrey Christie) and Bud's father (Pat Hingle) caution their children against engaging in a sexual relationship, but for opposing reasons: Deanie's mother thinks Bud won't marry a girl with loose morals, while Bud's father is afraid of marriage and pregnancy that would ruin Bud's future at Yale.

Lisa Schwarzbaum

Entertainment Weekly

Jun 28, 2019

B

With his ripe lips, flirty eyes, and pre-Calvin Klein-era androgynous appeal, the 24-year-old Warren is utterly believable as a boy who drives Natalie Wood plumb insane with sexual frustration in William Inge's overheated melodrama.

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Nell Minow

Movie Mom

Mar 4, 2019

Classic of repressed teenage sexuality.

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Variety Staff

Variety

Mar 26, 2009

There is something awkward about the picture's mechanical rhythm. There are missing links and blind alleys within the story.

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Nick Rogers

Midwest Film Journal

Aug 25, 2025

2/5

Surely among the most historically embarrassing winners of an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay. It's not that the melodramatic horniness is corny. It's that the screenplay treats it with the cruel regard of scientific specimens rather than human beings.

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Matt Brunson

Film Frenzy

Aug 11, 2025

3/4

The amorous feelings and carnal longings are played at such a fever pitch that many viewers will find them exaggerated while others will recognize in them their own oversized emotions.

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Louie Robinson

Jet Magazine

Jan 16, 2024

Under the direction of famed Elia Kazan, Natalie Wood turns in a performance that will surprise many moviegoers for its excellence, and Warren Beatty makes his debut as a film actor slightly spectacular.

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Abraham G

Jun 29, 2018

Strange but interesting.

Poe L

Nov 26, 2017

Taking a line as the title, Elia Kazan relates poignantly the quintessence of naïveté lost but enlightenment gained in William Wordsworth's Ode to Intimations of Immortality with a doomed romance starring Oscar-nominee Natalie Wood and Warren Beatty in his acting film debut.

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Poe R

Jul 21, 2017

A decent psychological drama that takes too long to end, but Wood and Beatty are great throughout.

Finn L

Jun 10, 2017

Splendor in the Grass is one phenomenal teen romantic drama which deals with its subject of sexual repression in a tragic and very dramatic manner. The performances are very good with Natalie Wood being fantastic, it has a wonderful ending and a couple of tragic scenes while being moving and relatable throughout its runtime. It is a movie that was very modern and sensual owing to its two very good looking actors and thematically bold for its time and it should be regarded better nowadays.

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Leia M

Feb 17, 2016

This romantic sudser is darker than those of its day, as it shockingly deals with matters Hollywood had previously kept under wraps.

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Theodore P

Feb 7, 2015

A film that confronts traditional taboos with contemporary problems via youth trying to find themselves. 1001 movies to see before you die.

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Elia Kazan

Director

Natalie Wood

Wilma Dean Loomis

Warren Beatty

Bud Stamper

Pat Hingle

Ace Stamper

Audrey Christie

Mrs. Loomis

Barbara Loden

Ginny Stamper

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Synopsis

Bud (Warren Beatty) and his high school sweetheart, Deanie (Natalie Wood), are weighed down by their parents' oppressive expectations, which threaten the future of their relationship. Deanie's mother (Audrey Christie) and Bud's father (Pat Hingle) caution their children against engaging in a sexual relationship, but for opposing reasons: Deanie's mother thinks Bud won't marry a girl with loose morals, while Bud's father is afraid of marriage and pregnancy that would ruin Bud's future at Yale.

Director: Elia Kazan
Producer: Elia Kazan
Screenwriter: William Inge
Distributor: Warner Bros. Pictures
Production Co: NBI Productions
Genre: Drama
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Oct 10, 1961, Original
Release Date (Streaming): Nov 21, 2016
Runtime: 2h 4m

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