Splendor in the Grass - 1961

Splendor in the Grass Framed Art Print
16 in. x 22 in.

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A tragic, coming-of-age melodrama set in the mid-1920s in a small, rural Kansas town, from playwright William Inge's original, award-winning script. Star-crossed, teenaged sweethearts, poor HS senior Wilma Dean "Deanie" Loomis (Wood) and rich Bud Stamper (Beatty in his film debut) fall deeply and passionately in love, but are repressed by the sexual mores of the time, their class differences, and disapproval from their parents - especially her prudish, puritanical mother (Christie) and his rigid, domineering father (Hingle).

Deanie's pent-up sexual longings cause her to almost go insane in a memorable bathtub scene. Repercussions cause Bud to chase after slutty girl Juanita Howard (Norris), and eventually marry Italian Angelina (Lampert), while Deanie is institutionalized following a suicidal nervous breakdown. Years later, the two meet again and she resolves her feelings about him.

West Side Story - 1961

Knife Fight Scene from West Side Story Premium Photographic Print
Mili, Gjon
24 in. x 18 in.

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West Side Story (1961) is an energetic, widely-acclaimed, melodramatic musical - a modern-day, loose re-telling of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet tragedy of feuding families, although the setting is the Upper West Side of New York City in the late 1950s with conflict between rival street gangs rather than families. West Side Story is still one of the best film adaptations of a musical ever created, and the finest musical film of the 60s. It arrived at a time when the silver screen was realizing tremendous competition from TV and other genres of cinematic entertainment.

Like many other musicals of its time, Hollywood again looked to a successful Broadway stage play (first starring Carol Lawrence and Larry Kert) for its source material (e.g., in earlier years, South Pacific (1958), Oklahoma! (1955), and Carousel (1956) were chosen, among others) and it was no different for this film. An almost completely new cast was assembled, except for actor George Chakiris (who played Riff, NOT Bernardo, in the London production). After her success in Spendor in the Grass (1961), Natalie Wood was chosen for the lead female role after Barbara Luna was considered. And Richard Beymer, known for his performance as Peter Van Daan in George Stevens' The Diary of Anne Frank (1959), took the lead male role which was also considered for Marlon Brando and Elvis Presley. Chita Rivera, the Broadway actress who played the part of the tempestuous Anita, was replaced by Rita Moreno, known for her role as Tuptim in The King and I (1956). Supporting actor Russ Tamblyn, known for many roles in films such as Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (1954) and Peyton Place (1957), played the role of Riff.




West Side Story Poster
Bass, Saul
24 in. x 36 in.

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Rebel Without a Cause - 1955

Rebel Without a Cause Framed Art Print
18 in. x 23.75 in.
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Rebel Without a Cause (1955) is a film that sympathetically views rebellious, American, restless, misunderstood, middle-class youth. The tale of youthful defiance, which could have been exploitative - but wasn't, provides a rich, but stylized (and partly out-dated) look at the world of the conformist mid-1950s from the perspective of the main adolescent male character - a troubled teen with ineffectual parents, who faces a new school environment.

The screenplay (by Stewart Stern from an adaptation by Irving Shulman of an original storyline synopsis by director Nicholas Ray) was based on an actual case study (contained in Dr. Robert Lindner's 1944 factual book titled Rebel Without a Cause: The Story of a Criminal Psychopath) of a delinquent, imprisoned teenage psychopath in the post-war years. The film was originally titled The Blind Run - the same as the title of the series of vignettes, both violent and strangely erotic, that Ray had penned. The actual film's title, Rebel Without a Cause, was the same as the title of Lindner's psychological study - signifying the rebellious and idealistic protagonist's search for a 'cause' - honesty and decency in a hypocritical world.