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Trust Weighted
Good
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66Trust Points
Wick's Review
Summary - Good 3.0
“Introducing Warren Beatty” reads the opening credits, reason enough to watch this overwrought high school movie. The legendary womanizer shot out of the gates a bona fide heartthrob – the richest boy in town, captain of the football team, and nice guy to boot. Natalie Wood matches him in to-die-for attractiveness and bests him in acting.
Double-barreled star power notwithstanding, this isn’t a great movie, not even a great high school movie. Even allowing for how dated it is – set in the ‘20s, released in ‘61 – it’s still more caricature than genuine, the parents especially. The Academy thought differently half a century ago, awarding it an Oscar for Best Screenplay. Bully, if only it aged well.
Acting - Great 4.0
The role of Bud Stamper emblazoned young Warren Beatty as a leading man, kind of a shambler, yet so matinee idol handsome and apparently genuine that he naturally charmed the pants off girls. Having only recently turned down 10 football scholarships himself, he played to type as a high school football star.
Natalie Wood – already the star of Rebel Without a Cause and The Searchers – travels a much greater emotional distance than her stolid beau. An all time screen queen, she sparkles as ‘Deanie’ Loomis, the girl driven mad by thwarted desire.
Male Stars - Great 4.0
Female Stars - Really Great 4.5
Female Costars - Good 3.0
Male Costars - Very Good 3.5
Film - Good 3.0
Elia Kazan’s great films – Gentleman’s Agreement, A Streetcar Named Desire and On The Waterfront among them – were behind him when he directed Splendor in the Grass.
Direction - Very Good 3.5
Dialogue - OK 2.5
The abortive story of Ginny Stamper - Bud's messed up older sister - never gets resolved, a significant flaw in the screenplay. More flaws? The bad parents - Deanie's manipulative Mother and Bud's demented Dad - are especially sketchy. Standard fare though that may be in high school movies ("Rebel Without A Cause":http://www.viewguide.com/movies/28469-rebel-without-a-cause then, "Kick Ass":http://www.viewguide.com/movie_reviews/2336-kick-ass now), it's an especially cheap storyteller's shortcut here given the parents' centrality to the story.Music - Good 3.0
Visuals - Very Good 3.5
Edge - Tame 1.5
Will they go all the way? Will they? Will they?
Sex Titillating 1.7
Violence Gentle 1.4
Rudeness Polite 1.3
Reality - Glib 1.2
The backdrop of the Great Crash of ’29 adds adult interest to the proceedings.