Splendor In The Grass

SPLENDOR IN THE GRASS has a few firsts attached to it. It was Beatty's debut in the movies; it was Inge's first work done specifically for the screen; and it was Kazan's first picture that failed to satisfy. A self-consciously Freudian melodrama of repressed sexuality and its consequences, the film takes place in 1925 in Kansas, where Inge grew up. Beatty and Wood are high schoolers who can't consummate their love due to social constraints. Their frustration is exacerbated by Wood's shrewish mom (Christie) and Beatty's rigid, unloving dad (Hingle); madness and heartbreak result.

The title comes from Wordsworth: "There's nothing can bring back the hour / Of sple...