While there are a couple of moments in this film that are sub par, the superb quality of the other scenes more than make up for it. Splendor in the Grass treats adolescence like an incurable disease. Natalie Wood looking up at the camera and slowly assuring us “I’m not a good girl” is, like, one of the five most riveting moments in all of cinema. She is beyond magnificent and she even pulls of the going-to-the-loony-bin scenes. (Why do all the women in Kazan’s films go crazy?) It is also fun to see the Warren Beatty persona in its embryonic form here. Unfortunately we bring our later knowledge of Warren to this film and it does alter our perception of the character, but you can’t fault him or Kazan for that. It’s a very original movie and, I think, still resonant today despite the surface changes in our social codes. Has that much really changed? Also — hadn’t anybody in the 1920s heard of masturbating?