Plot: Deanie and Bud are a young couple growing up in a small town in Kansas. They are very much in love, but their parents have other plans for them. Deanie's mother is prude and old-fashioned, hoping her girl grows up to be a proper woman, whereas Bud's parents expect him to become a successful student before even thinking of marriage.
Watches
January 18, 2025
Kazan isn't the most subtle of the classic US directors, but this was pretty next-level. The setup of Splendor in the Grass is so crude that it loses almost all of its charm right away. And nowhere in the following 100-something minutes is Kazan able to recover from that. The result is dire.
The performances are one-dimensional, the drama is unglamorously sentimental and two hours is way too long for a film with so little nuance. Kazan's films aren't for me, but this is by far one of the worst of his I've seen. It's probably a good film if you like classic Hollywood drama, for me, it was a nuisance.