Splendor in the Grass Trivia Quiz

Answer: Natalie Wood

Natalie Wood played a character known as Deanie, the girlfriend of Beatty's character Bud Stamper. The film was set in 1928 and the plot involved the wish of the couple for their relationship to become more physical and the pressure put on them by both sets of parents to avoid this. Deanie's parents are worried about her reputation while Bud's want him to go to college.

The only other actress of those listed to appear in the film was Sandy Dennis, also making her debut.

Answer: Elia Kazan

Elia Kazan was born in what is now Turkey, and came to the USA with his parents while still a child. Kazan was particularly known for topics which he considered to be socially significant, and was the director of 'A Tree Grows in Brooklyn' (1941), 'A Streetcar Named Desire' (1951) and 'On the Waterfront' (1954).

'Splendor in the Grass' makes the point that the pressure of conformity to society and the wishes of their parents leads neither of the main characters to happiness.

Answer: Ginny

Ginny (Virginia) was a flapper, having broken away from her family to live and work in Chicago. She has had a marriage annulled and may have had an abortion, which her parents believe has brought shame on the family. Her life doesn't improve much by returning home and we learn later in the film that she has died in a car accident.

Answer: Wilma

She is Wilma Dean Loomis and appears to be an only child - no siblings are depicted in the film. Deanie finds the breakup with Bud hard to deal with, knowing it is due to his parents and is upset when he has a liaison with a friend named Juanita. She goes to a school dance with a male friend named Toots where she sees Bud and tries to persuade him to have sex with her. When rebuffed, she goes back to Toots who comes close to raping her.

The situation overwhelms Deanie and she tries to commit suicide by drowning herself but is rescued in time. Her parents sell their shares to pay for her to be cared for in an asylum, where she remains for over two years.

Answer: Yale

Bud agrees to go to college, although his own dreams are very different. Once at Yale, he finds it hard to concentrate on his work and fails most of his courses. It is while his father is at the college, hoping to persuade them not to expel Bud, that the Wall Street Crash occurs taking the family money with it. The event has dire consequences for father and son.

Answer: Jumps off a building

There is irony in this situation as Deanie's fragile mental health means her family sold their shares, and made a profit, just before the crash came, to raise funds for her treatment. By contrast, the Stamper family finds their fortune wiped out and Ace Stamper (played by Pat Hingle who also appeared in 'On the Waterfront') followed many of his peers by killing himself. Suicide by jumping off a building seems to be particularly associated with this period of American history.

Bud has the task of identifying his father's body, and we later learn that his mother has moved away to live with other relatives.

Answer: False

When Deanie is released from the asylum she returns home. Her mother does her utmost to prevent her meeting Bud again, even to the extent of asking her friends to pretend that they don't know where he is. He father believes she shouldn't be sheltered and tells her where he is living.

The pair do meet again, at Bud's home, but he is now married and they realise there is no future for them together. Although both express some dissatisfaction with the way their lives have turned out, they accept that they must do the best they can with where fate has taken them.

Answer: His father's ranch

Bud has always wanted to become a rancher, despite the efforts of his father to push him in a different direction. He is married to Angelina, who he met at college, and has a child already, with Angelina being pregnant for a second time the last time we see him.

Although he is doing what he wanted, it seems that his life is not fulfilling him completely.

Answer: Ode: Intimations of Immortality

The poem is quite a long one, but the relevant lines are the ones that give the film its title and invoke the theme of dealing with reality rather than wishing for what might have been:

'Though nothing can bring back the hour
Of splendour in the grass, of glory in the flower;
We will grieve not, rather find
Strength in what remains behind'

The first time we hear these lines is when Deanie is still at school and is made to read them when she is caught daydreaming. She then quotes them after visiting Bud for the last time and having refused to admit whether she still loves him, even though she is now engaged to another man.

All the poems listed were written by Wordsworth, one of Britain's leading romantic poets.

Answer: Best Screenplay

The film received two nominations, one for the script and the other for Natalie Wood as best actress. Wood didn't win, but William Inge did win, with the full title of the Oscar he won being 'Best Story and Screenplay - Written Directly for the Screen'. This award now has the rather more manageable title of 'Best Original Screenplay' to distinguish it from the many films which are adapted from novels and the like.

William Inge was a renowned playwright and novelist from Kansas and became known as the 'Playwright of the Midwest'. He wrote the play 'Bus Stop', later adapted (not by him) into a 1956 film starring Marilyn Monroe.