Splendor in the Grass (1961)

Rich Bud and poor Deanie are teenagers in love in late-’20s Kansas.  So what's the problem?  Well, his blowhard dad wants something better for him (with a little bit of trash on the side to keep his desires satisfied) and her nervous mother wants to make sure she is sufficiently shamed for having “those kinds of feelings.”

I can see why the relationship wouldn't survive these obstacles, but the fact that Deanie's sanity snaps, causing a two-and-a-half year (!) stay in a mental sanitorium, doesn't really wash.  This movie was both too shrill and too dull to achieve the weight it apparently thought it carried.

D+