Everything about this film is great except the leads. Interesting retelling of Romeo and Juliet in the 1950s urban setting with racial overtones. Tremendous, memorable musical score (thank you, Lenny Bernstein) and outstanding choreography (J. Robbins was a genius). Very decent acting for a musical (especially Ned Glass, John Astin and Simon Oakland in small supporting roles) and fine art direction. Russ Tamblyn (Riff) is a very underrated song and dance type. However, Natalie Wood is totally miscast as Maria: it's hard to suspend disbelief when a California girl of Russian descent tries to come off as a Puerto Rican gal from the Bronx. Also, Marnie Nixon's voice was dubbed in for Natalie's singing parts, which is pretty lame for a film of this stature (Nixon also ghost-sang for that notable no-talent, Audrey Hepburn, in My Fair Lady). Richard Breymer, as Tony, was totally wooden and ridiculous. They tried to make a star of this guy in the late 50s and early 60s, but failed. No wonder, as he's totally talentless. The only fault of this picture is that the producers made, once again, the Cardinal Error of Hollywood Musicals, i.e., putting non-singers in lead roles for the sake of box office appeal. Doesn't work here as in any other case, but the other attributes of this film compensate for this, which is very rare indeed.