n 1928 in Southeast Kansas, Wilma Dean “Deanie” Loomis (Natalie Wood) and Bud Stamper (Warren Beatty) passionately kiss in a car parked on the edge of a scenic waterfall. But when Bud tries to make stronger moves on her, Wilma pulls away, upsetting the boy and generating confusion for the girl, who struggles with her own gnawing desires. “No, mom. We haven’t gone too far,” she insists when she’s interrogated upon a late return.

Bud has his own issues with his father, too. The Stamper family is set for extreme wealth with a significant uptick in their oil stock, which makes patriarch Ace (Pat Hingle) caution his son about making mistakes with the considerably poorer Loomis girl. If he were to get her pregnant, he’d be forced to marry her. And with vexatious, promiscuous daughter Virginia (Barbara Loden) – a lost cause – already causing problems concerning propriety and reputation, there’s a lot of pressure on Bud to focus on school, sports, and picking up the family business … and not on the gorgeous girl constantly clinging to him and fawning over his every movement. “A boy your age doesn’t even know what he wants.”

These two kids are head-over-heels in love, bursting with unsatisfied lust, but they’re exceptionally uneducated and misguided when it comes to sex, intimacy, and reproduction. In this naive, innocent world, they’re expected to be wholesome, respectable, and proper; image is everything. Yet without sufficient information, they can’t possibly make the right choices. It’s a bit of a combination of “Rebel Without a Cause” and “Romeo and Juliet,” updated with a ’60s sensibility toward sexuality, despite its setting in the ’20s (which it rarely grasps with notable authenticity). At least it tackles themes that were far too taboo for earlier pictures set during this same period.

Virginia becomes a prime example of a wild, reckless, wanton girl, attracting all the wrong kinds of attention. This creates a stark contrast with Wilma Dean, whose righteous character is more societally valuable. Yet happiness eludes them both, for opposite reasons; Virginia’s connections are emotionally fleeting and meaningless, while Wilma’s pent-up libido (right alongside Bud’s) isn’t allowed a release, resulting in distraction, angst, and disappointment. “It’s no fun to be in love.”

Here, self-control is impossible and carnal urges are unbearable. It’s enough to cause physical illnesses and hysterical outbursts; the anger and rebellion is practically tangible (again, like in “Rebel Without a Cause”). Despite some brief moments of heartfelt romance, adolescence and young love is nightmarish in the hands of director Elia Kazan. And overbearing parents are of no help whatsoever, as if alien lifeforms incapable of effectively communicating (Hingle, along with Audrey Christie as Mrs. Loomis, are particularly potent). The late ’20s setting comes into play again when the market historically crashes, but this tale isn’t specifically confined to this era – nor is its originality. The concepts are mostly universal, even if this is a rare setting for teenage anguish (with uncommon directness toward sexual topics), but the overall appeal is limited. Fortunately, the love story stands out, particularly at the end; the shattering of the classical notion of love being an unstoppable force, undeterred by tragedy or time, is incredibly powerful.

– Mike Massie