Daily Dialogue — April 18, 2020

“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!”

— Splendor in the Grass (1961), written by William Inge

The Daily Dialogue theme for the week: Bath.

Trivia: As filmed, this film included a sequence in which Wilma Dean Loomis takes a bath while arguing with her mother. The bickering finally becomes so intense that Wilma jumps out of the tub and runs nude down a hallway to her bedroom, where the camera cuts to a close-up of her bare legs kicking hysterically on the mattress. Both the Hollywood censors and the Catholic Legion Of Decency objected to the hallway scene, finding the bare backside unsuitable for public display. Consequently, director Elia Kazan dropped the piece, leaving an abrupt jump from tub to bed. Later, in an early 1970s TV interview with Mike Douglas, Wood claimed that the European cut of the film she eventually saw in France left in the partial nudity scene in the hallway.

Dialogue On Dialogue: One hell of a performance by Natalie Wood, a pivotal moment in her descent into madness.