With a personal life to rival that of any movie, Natalie Wood was one of the most beloved stars of her time. Her story ended with a mysterious drowning in 1981 that left behind more questions than answers.
She starred with Dean and Sal Mineo in the groundbreaking 1955 depiction of teenage rebellion and angst, Rebel Without a Cause.
This iconic film is a holiday classic that has become a part of many families’ traditions. It is proof that gentle sentimentalism can make a wonderful movie without being treacly, and it has all the right ingredients to generate a feeling of wonder and magic this season.
In the film, a man claiming to be Santa Claus lands a job at Macy’s Department Store and becomes an in-store Santa during the Thanksgiving Day parade. Doris Walker (Maureen O’Hara) hires him as a permanent fixture in her store because of his charming personality. When Kris Kringle begins to show up at children’s homes, he is met with skepticism. Doris and her lawyer Fred Gailey (John Payne) investigate. Ultimately, it is up to them to prove that Kris Kringle is the real deal.
Natalie Wood was a young actress at the time of this release, but she was already making a name for herself. She had previously been cast in a small role in 1943’s Happy Land, which got her attention from producer Irving Pichel, who cast her as the lead in this Christmas film. Known as “One-Take Natalie,” she was adept at nailing her lines with ease, and this movie is no exception.
The climax of the film is a scene in which Susan sees her own house, with a for-sale sign in front of it, and knows that it is hers. She also tells her parents that she is going to have a baby brother soon, which was one of her other wishes. This arouses the suspicions of Dorey and Bryan, who conclude that she is lying. However, Kris shows up at Susan’s house with a big red bag and her father’s cane left behind by the fireplace, which convinces them that she is telling the truth.
In 1994, the film was remade by director Les Mayfield with Richard Attenborough and Elizabeth Perkins, in addition to the original stars. The movie was retitled Miracle on 34th Street (1994 film), and it had a much more serious tone than the 1947 original. Macy’s Department Store declined to be involved with this remake, saying that they felt the original stood on its own and couldn’t be improved upon; it was replaced by the fictitious Cole’s department store.
Rebel Without a Cause
The movie that immortalized Dean and launched Wood to stardom was a drama of parental pressures, teenage rebellion and reckless delinquency. The film is known for its depiction of the moral decay of American youth and the critique of parental styles in the 1950’s.
When the movie was released, it was a smashing success and remains one of the most influential films of all time. It was also Natalie’s first role as a grown up and she fought hard to get the part. Her performance as Judy was outstanding. She played the girl who wanted to be good but was better at being bad. She was a rebellious innocent with daddy issues and life changing crushes on bad boys.
Although her parents had pushed her into acting as a child star, she claimed that “Rebel Without a Cause” was the film where she decided she wanted to act on her own terms and not because her parents wanted her to. She would go on to receive two Academy Award nominations and win one before the age of 25.
Director Nicholas Ray cast Wood after her first screen test where she slammed her hands on his desk in an effort to show him that she was what he was looking for. He said he could see in her Judy’s “big talk, daddy issues and life-changing crushes on bad boys.”
Wood was a natural on camera with a flair for dramatic expressions and an ability to convey youthful emotions. She was also a talented singer and dancer. When paired with Dean, she brought the kind of chemistry that audiences had been waiting to see since the first release of West Side Story.
Other actors in the movie include Dennis Hopper, who plays Jim Stark’s best friend and a foil to his own rebellious tendencies. Hopper started his career on Broadway and then worked in classic TV. He is recognizable to many as “The Chief of Control” on the cult 1960s TV series, Get Smart.
Another actor in the film is Edward Platt who plays Police Inspector Fremick. He was a talented singer and Broadway performer before starting to work in classic movies. He acted until his death in 1974.
Splendor in the Grass
William Wordsworth’s poem is about a natural phenomenon that occurs when grass, flowers and other growing things have a brilliant and glorious period of their lives. This dazzling radiance is then lost as they mature and grow older. Wordsworth uses personification to imbue these natural features with human qualities and compares them to the way that people have a radiant youth and then lose the beauty of their earlier years as they age.
The movie version of this classic work is one of Natalie Wood’s finest films. Directed by Elia Kazan and written by William Inge, Splendor in the Grass stars Warren Beatty and Wood as Deanie Loomis and Bud Stamper, high school sweethearts who struggle with feelings of sexual repression and love. They are the heirs to an oil fortune that is managed by their patriarch, Ace.
Their repressed desires lead to unfaithfulness, and ultimately, to a suicide attempt that ends with Deanie in a sanitarium for years. Despite the film’s grim themes, the acting of Wood and Beatty is so superb that it allows viewers to experience their feelings as if they are happening to them.
Richard Sylbert’s sets capture small town America in vivid Technicolor and the chemistry between the two actors is powerful and moving. The film is not without its flaws and the ending feels somewhat rushed, but it is still an excellent portrayal of young love and the struggle to control one’s sexual urges.
Splendor in the Grass is also notable for its perfect rhyme scheme, which consists of a pattern of two unstressed syllables followed by a stressed syllable and then two iambs. This poetic device helps to create a sense of rhythm that heightens the dramatic effect of the work.
The tragic death of Natalie Wood at age 40 is a reminder that the star system does brutal things to women (River of Souls, 1981). But her films give us a glimpse into the life of a remarkable actress who was able to rise above the petty jealousies and self-deprecating behavior of those around her and carve out an incredibly successful career for herself.
West Side Story
In 1961, Wood starred as Maria in the Jerome Robbins and Robert Wise musical West Side Story. A critical and commercial success, it was a modern allegory of the Romeo and Juliet tale, with youth gangs and juvenile delinquency evoking its themes of private restlessness and public alienation. The film marked a significant change in Wood’s acting style, from the sweet child actress of films like Miracle on 34th Street and Rebel Without a Cause to an ingenue with a range of emotions.
In the years following West Side Story, Wood took a series of small roles in films such as The Searchers (1956), a western where she played the abducted daughter of John Wayne’s character; and The Girl Who Played with Fire (1962), a burlesque drama about stripper Gypsy Rose Lee. In her roles, she displayed a greater emotional range and more complex characterization than in previous films.
By the late 1950s, it was clear that Wood was a talented performer, but she was also growing dissatisfied with the type of movies she was being cast in. She was a studio contract player who received rote scripts, typically playing the girlfriend of the film’s hero and receiving dialogue that was often trite and clichéd.
She was unhappy with her personal life as well; she had been engaged to actor Robert Wagner at the time of her death and had a daughter with British producer Richard Gregson, with whom she shared a long relationship that produced a son, Natasha. Wood had a rocky relationship with her mother, who was obsessed with her daughter’s acting career and had many misguided ideas about raising children.
A memoir by her sister, Lana, reveals that Wood was a highly intelligent young woman with an excellent vocabulary and a gift for music. She was also a shrewd businesswoman and had her own production company, Associated Artists Productions. She financed and directed several low-budget films that went on to become successful, including the horror film The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1949). By the end of her life, Wood had appeared in 56 films for cinema and television.