Splendor in the Grass was a hit when it was released in the fall of 1961. Reviews were somewhat mixed, but almost all singled out the remarkable performances of Natalie Wood and Warren Beatty for praise. Just as Wood had hoped, the film's success gave her career a huge boost. She was now at the top of her game again and could pick and choose from the choice leading roles--adult leading roles--that she had always wanted. For Warren Beatty, the film catapulted him to instant stardom, just as he had also hoped, and the skills he learned from his first outing with Elia Kazan helped him not only as an actor, but also as a future Oscar-winning director and producer.

When Inge won the Academy Award for his Splendor screenplay, director Elia Kazan made no secret that he felt he deserved at least some of the credit. "He produced a novelette and I made it into the screenplay for which he was to win an Academy Award," said Kazan. "He'd done some fussing with the scenes, and some of the dialogue he added was good and some not necessary; photographed action would tell most of it. His story had the one essential, an excellent flow of incident to a true conclusion. Bill was an accomplished storyteller; it's a special talent. But I also knew how much I'd contributed..."

Still, Kazan knew that Splendor was something special that grew out of it being a collaboration. "The film was a typical Bill Inge work," he said, "a soap opera until suddenly it appears there is a little more depth and humanity there, as well as a balanced view of life. That 'little more' was what gave our film its distinction."

"It's not my favorite of my films," said Kazan, "but the last reel is my favorite last reel, at once the saddest and the happiest...What I like about this ending is its bittersweet ambivalence, full of what Bill had learned from his own life; that you have to accept limited happiness, because all happiness is limited, and that to expect perfection is the most neurotic thing of all; you must live with the sadness as well as with the joy."

Robert Wagner and Natalie Wood named their boat the Splendour in honor of the film after they were married for the second time in 1972. According to Wagner's 2008 autobiography Pieces of My Heart, they used the English spelling of "Splendor" for the boat as a symbolic gesture "to differentiate between then and now." The Splendour was also the boat the couple was on when Wood fell into the water and drowned off the coast of Catalina in 1981.

Screenwriter William Inge has a small role in Splendor in the Grass as Reverend Whitman.

Comedienne Phyllis Diller appears in the film as a nightclub entertainer named Texas Guinan.

Actress and future Oscar® winner Sandy Dennis (Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? [1966]) has a small role in the film as Kay, one of Bud and Deanie's classmates.

Splendor in the Grass marked the film debut of Warren Beatty.

The title Splendor in the Grass is a line taken from poet William Wordsworth's Ode on Intimations of Immortality.

Following the Splendor in the Grass shoot, stars Natalie Wood and Warren Beatty became one of Hollywood's hottest real-life couples.

When Natalie Wood received an Academy Award nomination as Best Actress for Splendor, her estranged husband Robert Wagner sent her a note that said, "I hope with all my heart that when they open the envelope, it's you."

Screenwriter William Inge was born and raised in small town Kansas, and drew his inspiration for the story and characters in Splendor in the Grass from his experiences growing up there.

Future playwright Mart Crowley (The Boys in the Band) was working as an assistant to director Elia Kazan during the making of Splendor in the Grass. It was on this shoot that he met Natalie Wood, who became a close friend.

Warren Beatty got engaged to his girlfriend, actress Joan Collins, during the filming of Splendor in the Grass, although the engagement was later broken.

Natalie Wood initially didn't like working with Warren Beatty because she didn't think he bathed enough.

Warren Beatty and Natalie Wood attended the Academy Awards together in 1962 when Splendor in the Grass was up for its three Oscars, including Wood for Best Actress.

When Natalie Wood lost the Best Actress Academy Award to Sophia Loren in Two Women, gossip columnist Hedda Hopper said, "Natalie Wood was robbed! But at least she got the nicest consolation prize--Warren Beatty."

Memorable Quotes from SPLENDOR IN THE GRASS

"Mom, is it so terrible to have those feelings about a boy?"
"No nice girl does."
"Doesn't she?"
"No, no nice girl."
"But, Mom, didn't you ever...didn't you ever feel that way about Dad?"

"Your father never laid a hand on me until we were married. And then I just gave in because a wife has to. A woman doesn't enjoy those things the way a man does. She just lets her husband come near her in order to have children."
--Deanie (Natalie Wood) and her mother, Mrs. Loomis (Audrey Christie) discussing Deanie's relationship with Bud

"Bud, I got all my hopes pinned on you now."
- Ace Stamper (Pat Hingle) to his son, Bud (Warren Beatty)

"If you think I'm going to stay here in this God forsaken town and have people laugh at me and gossip about me, you've got another thing coming. 'Cause I'll really give them something to gossip about."
- Ginny Stamper (Barbara Loden) to her father, Ace

"I'm going to California and live with Aunt Blossom and study art."
"Art who?"
- Ginny / Ace

"This is the ugliest place in the whole world. Everywhere you look there's an oil well, even on the front lawn. I'll bet you'd drill for a well right here in the dining room."
"You're damn right I would, if I thought there was any oil in there!"
- Ginny / Ace

"Did he spoil you?"
"Spoil?! Did he spoil me?! No! No, Mom! I'm not spoiled! I'm not spoiled, Mom! I'm just as fresh and virginal like the day I was born, Mom!"
- Mrs. Loomis and Deanie, discussing Deanie's relationship with Bud

"Deanie, where's your pride?"
"My pride?! My pride?! I haven't any pride!"
- Bud and Deanie, after Bud rejects her advances

"I like metal work, though. You can get rid of a lot of hostilities this way. Watch. Every time I pound, I tell myself it's my old man."
- Johnny (Charles Robinson), to Deanie

"There's nothing the matter with you. You just remember that. You are perfectly alright." -
Mrs. Loomis, to Deanie

"Mom kept calling me her baby, and Dad kept calling me his little girl. Dr. Judd, don't they realize I'm me?"
- Deanie to her psychiatrist, Dr. Judd (Ivor Francis), following a visit from her parents

"You know, it would be nice if children could be born into this world with an absolute guarantee they'd have just the right kind of bringing up and all lead happy normal lives, but, well, I guess when we get born we just all have to take our chances."
- Mrs. Loomis

Compiled by Andrea Passafiume