Rebel Without a Cause Presentation Notes
- James Dean (1931-1955)
i.Born: Indiana to Wilton Dean & Mildred Wilson. Pre-matial conception
ii.Homelife: Unhappy marriage. Mother a dreamer. Father resented wife & child
iii.Mother shared loved of performance, poetry, stories
iv.Move to Los Angeles for father’s work.
v.Mother’s Death: Died of cancer at 29, when Jim was nine
vi.Sent back to Indiana to live with aunt & uncle (unemotional father)
b.Teen Years:
i.Loner, but craved attention & liked to perform
ii.Introvert/Exhibitionist/loner/child
iii.Could be polite one minute, completely rude the next.
c.Early Career:
i.James Whitmore acting classes in Los Angeles (most important teacher)
1.Encouraged Jim to move to NY for further training
ii.Actors Studio: acceptance/one class/shredded by Kazan/never returned
iii.Early TV parts
1.Rehearsal stuntman on Beat the Clock
d.Personal Relationships:
i.Roger Bracket. Helped Jim get early roles/introductions/live-in relationship/social graces. Sexual relationship
ii.Dizzy Sheridan (first love): Jerry’s mother on Seinfeld. Lived together in NYC
iii.Pier Angeli: Peter Pan & Wendy Darling. Fancy for him, a fantasy for her. Engaged to Vic Damone 3 days later. Drug overdose at 39. Claimed to love Dean till the end.
e.Influences:
i.Marlon Brando
1.The Wild One, On the Waterfront, Streetcar Named Desire
2.Dean stalked Brando via telephone, imitated dress, attitude, bongos
ii.Montgomery Clift
f.Performance Style:
i.“The desire to be free-to break a sense of entrapment, to allow some elemental sadness to emerge before his heart breaks-this is the conjunction of feelings at the root of every great scene Dean ever performed.” -Donald Spoto Rebel: life & legend of James Dean
g.Perception:
i.Elia Kazan: Brando’s not sick, he’s just troubled. Jimmy is sick inside.” P 165 Spoto
ii.Julie Harris (East of Edan): compared him to Tom Sawyer, no manners or awareness, always looking for adventure & trouble. Never settled. A little lost Boy.
iii.Nicholas Ray: (on Dean) “an ability to meld into another person. The drama desiring to belong and fearing to belong…the intensity of his desires, his fears, could make the search arrogant, egocentric, but behind it was such a desperate vulnerability that one was moved, even frightened.” P. 27
h.Other Films:
i.East of Eden (April 10th, 1955)
1.Kazan gave him wide latitude, which infuriated veteran actors, particularly Raymond Massey.
a.Fractured relationship palpable on screen
2.Boy’s struggle for acceptance from his father (real life implications)
3.Cal twice compared to animal
4.James Dean Buzz
a.Pre-release buzz centered around Dean’s breathtaking performance
b.Released just after Rebel started shooting
ii.Giant (George Stevens 1955)
1.Elizabeth Taylor loaned from MGM. Dean to MGM for Someone Up There Likes Me (Paul Newman).
2.Start delayed 2 months for Taylor’s pregnancy
3.Looming start date put pressure on Ray/producers to finish Rebel
4.Initially thought to be Gone with the Wind set in Texas-EPIC
i.Impact
i.Different kind of masculinity. Ultimately combined Clift’s sensitivity & vulnerability with Brando’s cockiness and physical mannerisms.
ii.Women wanted to love & protect Dean
iii.Men wanted to be him
j.Death
i.Need for speed: dangerous driver, who went too fast (kicked off WB lot), took chances. Folks often avoided driving with him.
ii.Racing: recently finished 3rd at local race
iii.Purchased Porsche Spyder weeks before death
iv.Was to trailer car to Salinas race, but wanted to gain more experience driving it.
v.Driver pulled out in front of Dean’s car. Died instantly.
- Natalie Wood
i.Started acting at age 5
ii.Simultaneously shot 3 films at age 8 (Miracle, Scudda Hoo, Ghost & Mrs Muir)
iii.Injured Wrist: 11 yrs old & on set accident ((Green Promise) disfigured wrist
1.Mother refused care
2.Protruding bump perpetually covered by bracelets in public
iv.Child actor (Miracle on 34th st) struggling to transition to adult roles
v.Domineering mother insisting on keeping her appearance childlike to maintain meal ticket
b.Pre-Rebel Status
i.Hadn’t worked (in movies) in 14 months before Rebel
1.Rebellious streak during pre-production (leave home, late nights, drinking)
ii.
c.Signed 7-year contract at Warner as part of getting Rebel (regretted it shortly thereafter)
d.Was raped during pre-production timeframe by prominent actor (Kirk Douglas?)
- Nicholas Ray
i.In a Lonely Place (screenwriter)
ii.They Live By Night (young criminals)
iii.Johnny Guitar (western)
b.Pre-Rebel Career
i.Disciple of Elia Kazan (assistant on A Tree Grows in Brooklyn)
ii.Debut: They Live By Night
1.Teen angst & isolation in cold, uncaring world (Granger & Cathy O’Donnel)
c.Personal Life
i.Once had a relationship with Lew Wasserman’s wife (most powerful man in H’wood)
ii.2nd wife, Gloria Grahame caught in bed with 14 year old son (1951)
1.Married son (Tony) 8 years later, 2 kids 14 yr marriage
2.Relationship with Grahame began while she was dating president of MGM (Dory Schary). One month later she’s pregnant
iii.Estranged from son
iv.Ladies-man who was a bisexual
d.“Turn trauma in drama”-Kazan mantra utilized by Ray
- Pre-Production
i.Published 1946. Warner Owned the rights. Several attempts to turn into screenplay
1.Leon Uris (Exodus)
2.Clifford Odets
3.Dr Suess
ii.Youth Culture
1.Teen delinquency (40% increase ’48-’53)
a.TC Police Chief warned against chicken runs in ‘52
2. Blackboard Jungle
b.Nicholas Ray treatment: 17 pages called “The Blind Run”
i.Contained only “chickie run” & knife fight in final screenplay. More hostile & violent
ii.Influences: Los Olvidados (Bunuel)
iii.Wanted to show angst & youth in ‘normal’ setting, not as a reflection of poverty
iv.Teens at the forefront, adults background
v.Dr. Suess wrote a discarded draft
c.Dean announced to star on January 4th, 1955.
d.Studio Attitude
i.Minor B level movie to be shot in black & White.
ii.Jack Warner had no faith
e.Casting
i.Jim Stark (Dean)
1.Ray seduced Dean for months to take role. Dean finally committed less than month before shooting. Fled to NY in early March precipitated search
2.Robert Wagner, Tab Hunter & John Kerr considered by Studio, as was John Cassavettes
ii.Judy (Wood)
1.Dean/Ray considered Carrol Baker
2.Studio wanted Debbie Reynolds 14 other girls tested
3.Natalie Wood
a.Smitten with Dean (followed him/stalked him)
b.Admitted to friends she ‘would do whatever it takes”
c.Ray (43) had affair with Wood (16 yrs) before, during and after Rebel
i.Dinner date/dispute on who pursued whom
d.Studio brass unconvinced Wood could handle emotional complexity of role
i.Also didn’t want any minors to slow down production
e.Ray lobbied for Wood, made her test & pushed her emotionally (groomed her)
i.Wood auditioned with Dennis Hopper (she asked him out, they started affair)
f.Drunken car crash w/Hopper led to hospital stay. Pulled visiting Ray close & whispered “you wanted a juvenile delinquent? Now do I get the part?” Fable Or Fact?
i.Ray narked on Wood/Hopper affair, getting Hopper in trouble with studio, which had just signed him
ii.Hopper threatened to beat up Ray night of Chickie run when Wood’s parents showed up
iii.Plato (Sal Mineo)
1.Role not cast 2 weeks before start of production
2.Jack Simmons, Dean’s live in right hand man (boyfriend?) auditioned, at Dean’s insitsance, but was thought ot be too effeminate & androgynous (Stern)
3.Richard Baymer (West Side Story) tested
4.Sal Mineo
a.15 years old. Bronx born
b.The Rose Tattoo on Broadway for over a year/King & I 900 times
c.Mineo tested for minor gang role. Ray saw him like Tony & supported him for role.
iv.Gang Members
1.Buzz (Correy Allen)
2.Crunch (Frank Mazolla): real gang member in HS
a.Allen & Mazolla hated each other & nearly came to blows on occasion
3.Hopper: Ray hated him. Had bigger part, but Ray kept reducing it
1.Screenplay (Stewart Stern)
a.Structure: Aristotlian in that it should be told straightforward in a limited timeframe, in this case one complete day. GREEK TRAGEDY
i.One revolution of the sun
b.Naturalist Tone influenced by On the Waterfront
c.Initial draft had Jim & Plato dying: “Jim needed to DO SOMETHING to resolve story
d.Final Draft (note): “Jim Stark, filled with confusion about his role in life. Because of his ‘nowhere’ father, he does not know how to be a man. Because of his wounding mother, he anticipates destruction in all women.” -Stern
1.Production
a.Start Date: March 30, 1955 Finish Date: May 27, 1955
b.Authenticity
i.Car Culture
1.Consulted by George Burris (Batmobile, Munsters, Love Bug)
2.’49 Merc iconic in youth culture. Subtly customized for those in the know
c.CinemaScope
i.Fish eye lenses precluded DP from seeing actual image clearly
ii.Lights had to be set out of much wider frame causing issues
d.Switch to Color (5 days)
e.Ended Over budget & over schedule
2.Post Production
a.Writing Credits
i.Story by: Ray
ii.Adaptation by: Irving Shulman
iii.Screenplay: Stern
b.Preview Screening (September 1st)
i.High praise (13 cuts to increase pace)
3.Release
a.Less than one month after Dean’s death
b.$4,500,000 BO in year 1 (’56 #11)
- Key Scenes
i.Shorthand revelation of each Family life
1.Hen pecked father/domineering mother
a.Parents try to buy love
2.Neglected/abandoned rich kid
3.Daddy issues & emotional neglected
a.“dirty tramp”
b.“She’ll grow out of it. What are we supposed to do?”
b.Knife Fight/Planetarium
i.Show/field Trip
1.End of the universe (“happens at dawn”)
2.INSIGNIFICANCE OF LIFE AS WE KNOW IT
3.Jim moos, echoes meeting with Stern
ii.Knife Fight
1.Censors limited intensity/blood
2.Knives borrowed from police juvenile lockup
3.Father in Apron upon return/unable to give advice
c.“Chickie Run”
i.Logistics
1.Stunt Coordinators: Bill Hickman & Carey Loften (Bullitt & French Connection)
2.Multiple Locations, including studio & processed shots
a.Burning cars shot from miles away during daylight & processed
3.Cars: Dean’s-’46 Ford
4.2-3 Cameras/Trenches dug to keep cars in shot
5.Lighting issues w/cinemascope cameras
6.Faye Newall doubled for Wood in iconic shot (curfew for minors)
7.Confrontation between Hopper & Ray over Wood
ii.Emotion
1.“You gotta do SOMETHING”-Buzz to Jim
2.Intimate sharing of cigarette
3.Iconic red jacket
4.Jim extends hand to Judy after Buzz’s death-A New Family
d.Parental Confrontation
i.Hypocritical response to Jim wanting to go to police
ii.Dean surprised Backus in vilent confrontation, but supported him so he wouldn’t fall & be hurt (“that boy was as strong as a bull’)
iii.“You’ll learn when you’re older.”-Cop out
e.Mansion
i.Logistics
1.Getty owned/abandoned set for destruction
2.$350/day, but limited time
ii.Emotion
1.Pretend/idyllic world
2.Couple being shown mansion ($3,000,000/month)
3.“what about children?” “they’re horrible”
f.Finale
i.Alternate ending-Ray: Plato climbs dome, is shot & falls to his death.
