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Late
one night, in a well-to-do part of Los Angeles, police find teenager Jim
Stark sprawled drunk on the sidewalk, playing with a toy monkey. He is
taken to the police station, where two other young people have also been
brought in: sixteen-year-old Judy, who was found wandering the streets, and
John Crawford, nicknamed "Plato," who was caught shooting puppies. Ray
Framek, the juvenile division counselor, interviews the three children
individually. After talking to Judy, he realizes that her father has
been withholding his affection because he is uncomfortable with her passage
from adolescence to womanhood. The only affection Plato receives is
from the family housekeeper, a sympathetic and caring black woman, as his
father permanently abandoned the family and his mother, neglectful of her
lonely son, travels frequently.
When the Stark family arrives, Jim’s father, an ineffectual
man who is henpecked by Jim’s mother and grandmother, tries to make light of
his son’s drunkenness. His reminiscence that he got "loaded" when he
was a young man sparks a family argument, prompting Jim to cry out, "You’re
tearing me apart!" After taking Jim into his office to talk to him
alone, Ray learns that the family, who recently moved to the area, has
changed residences often to give Jim a new start whenever he gets into
trouble. Instead of helping him, the disruption has prevented Jim from
making meaningful friendships. Jim is further frustrated that his
father does not stand up to the women. Sympathetically, Ray offers Jim
an open invitation to visit and talk with him.
On the first day of school, Jim learns that Judy is a
neighbor. He tries to befriend her, but she refuses his offer of a
ride to school and instead joins her boyfriend, Buzz Gunderson, and their
rowdy friends in his crowded convertible. Jim proceeds alone to
school, where he is harassed by fellow students for stepping on the school’s
insignia embedded on the front steps.
Later
in the day, Jim drives alone to Griffith Observatory for a school field
trip. During the planetarium show, the lecturer remarks about man’s
insignificance in the vast universe and presents a light show demonstrating
the end of the world. After listening to Jim make a joke meant to
impress Judy and her friends, Plato warns him that the group is cliquish.
After the lecture, Buzz and his restless friends decide to harass Jim.
Plato warns Jim about their intention and points out an abandoned mansion in
the nearby hills, where they can escape. However, the troublemakers,
among them Judy, reach Jim’s car first and Buzz punctures his tire with a
switchblade. While Jim calmly changes the tire, his classmates call
him a "chicken," an insult that is particularly hurtful to him, and Buzz
taunts him into a knife fight. After knocking the switchblade out of
Buzz’s hands, Jim offers to settle the matter elsewhere, without knives.
When Buzz invites him to meet at a cliff overlooking the sea that evening
for a "chickie run," Jim agrees, without knowing what a "chickie run"
entails.
Later, at home, Jim is ashamed to find his father on his
knees wearing an apron, cleaning up a spilled tray of food. Wanting
guidance from his father, Jim talks about a matter of honor, but his father
lets him down by evading his question.
At Judy’s house, her father scolds her for kissing him,
saying she is "too old for that," causing her to leave the house in tears.
When Jim later arrives at the cliff that night, he finds a
crowd waiting to watch, including Plato, who hitchhiked there to support
him. While explaining the procedure for the "chickie run" to Jim, Buzz
reveals that he is beginning to like him. When Jim asks why they are
continuing, Buzz says enigmatically, "Because you have to do something."
Meanwhile, Judy, intrigued by Jim, questions Plato about him, and Plato,
claiming that Jim is his best friend, describes him as "sincere." At
Judy's signal, Buzz and Jim drive two stolen cars toward the cliff’s edge,
where the first to jump out of the car will be declared the "chickie."
However, Buzz’s leather jacket catches on the door handle, preventing him
from escaping at the last minute, and he plummets, trapped in the car, to
his death in the sea. Fearing the arrival of the police, the observers
drive off and Jim takes Judy’s hand and drives her and Plato home.
Later,
Jim tells his parents what happened and reminds his dad about their
conversation regarding "a matter of honor." Heedless of Buzz’s death,
the Stark adults worry whether anyone can identify Jim as having been there
and his mother announces they must move again. Wanting to do the right
thing, Jim says he will go to the police, but his family urges him not to
get involved. Their voices rise and soon they are screaming at each
other. Feeling that his father will not "stand up" for him, Jim
attacks him, and then leaves the house, heading for the police station.
Finding that Ray is out on a call, Jim phones Judy and she
sneaks out to meet him. Apologizing for the way she treated him when
she was with her friends, she says, "Nobody acts sincere." Buzz’s
friends, who were brought to the police station for questioning, see Jim
there, and concerned that he might inform on them, beat up Plato to get his
address. Afterward, the frightened Plato finds his mother’s gun and
goes out to warn Jim, and eventually finds Jim and Judy at the mansion.
There Plato fantasizes that Jim and Judy are his family, while they pretend
to be married. When Plato falls asleep, Jim and Judy explore the
mansion.
After hanging a chicken on the Starks’s doorframe, Buzz's
friends realize that Jim is not there and cruise the streets until they spot
his parked car. Entering the mansion, they torment Plato, who awakens
thinking Jim and Judy deserted him. Plato shoots one of the boys, then
runs out toward the observatory, where he is seen by a policeman.
Plato breaks into the observatory and shoots at the policeman.
The
shots bring backup police cars, Plato’s housekeeper and Ray and the Starks,
who have been searching for Jim since the hoodlums’ visit. As they all
converge on the front lawn, Jim and Judy feel obligated to help Plato,
running into the building and finding the boy hiding in the planetarium.
After calming Plato, Jim asks to see his gun, promising to return it, and
secretly removes the bullets. Remembering the lecture, Plato asks if
the end of the world will come at night and Jim says it will come at dawn.
Jim and Judy accompany Plato outside after asking Ray, at Plato’s request,
to turn off a spotlight aimed at the door. However, when a policeman
points a light at them, Plato panics and runs, brandishing the gun.
Although Jim calls out that the weapon is empty, the policemen shoot and
kill the boy. Jim cries over Plato’s body, while his father tries to
comfort him, saying that he "did everything a man can do." Jim’s
father promises to try to be strong for Jim and to stand beside him in
whatever happens next. After Plato’s body is taken away, Jim
introduces Judy to his parents. As they all leave, a man with a
briefcase walks toward the planetarium and a new day begins.
Notes
The HR review erroneously listed
the film's duration as 116 minutes. The film’s story spans twenty-four hours
in the lives of its characters. Although some character names, such as
Jim’s father “Frank,” can be gleaned from viewing the film, all cast lists
in reviews and production notes refer to the parents in relation to their
children, e.g., “Jim’s father,” “Jim’s mother," ”Judy’s father,” etc.
During the police station sequence, director Nicholas Ray employed the use
of three frames within a frame, using glass partitions of office windows and
doorways to split the screen, in order to show simultaneously the three main
characters, "Jim," "Judy" and "Plato." During the Stark family
sequence, after the “chickie run,” the entrance of Jim’s mother is shown
upside down, from the perspective of Jim, who is lying on the couch.
The camera then pans 180 degrees vertically as she walked down the stairs.
In February 1946, a HR news item reported
that Warner Bros. purchased the screen rights to Rebel Without a Cause:
The Hypnoanalysis of a Criminal Psychopath (New York, 1944), Dr. Robert
M. Lindner’s true case history of a young inmate in a Pennsylvania
penitentiary. Files on the film in the Warner Bros. Archive at the USC
Cinema-Television Library contain several script versions of that
incarnation of the story, all of which were titled Rebel Without a Cause:
a February 1946 treatment by Jacques Le Mareschal based on Lindner’s book; a
June 1946 first draft by Theodor Seuss Geisel (known later as children’s
book author Dr. Seuss); an April 1947 screenplay by Peter Viertel; and a May
1949 screenplay credited to H. L. Fishel and Lindner. In 1947, Warner
Bros. screen tested the rising young New York actor
Marlon Brando for the part of the psychopathic “rebel.” Brando,
who was then unknown to films, had had great success portraying “Stanley
Kowalski” in Broadway's
A Streetcar Named Desire.
The project was dropped for several years.
However, in the early 1950s, black and white B movies about teenage
rebellion were finding markets, and Columbia would soon produce its 1954
The Wild
One, and MGM, the 1955 The Blackboard Jungle (see entries below
and above). In mid-September 1954, Ray wrote, within a few hours,
according to modern sources, a film treatment about three teenagers, Eve,
Demo, who would be tried and condemned to death during the course of the
story, and gang leader Jimmy. Ray’s treatment minimized Lindner’s
psychopathic element and veered away from other films’ concept that juvenile
delinquency was the problem of lower-income classes. He instead
focused on the discontent and isolation of modern teenagers.
Within a few weeks, Warner Bros. bought Ray’s
treatment, which was titled The Blind Run, and according to a late
September 1954 HR news item, Ray was also hired to direct.
According to modern sources, Ray consulted with the Culver City, CA police,
and legal and psychiatric professionals specializing in juvenile
delinquents, as he prepared for the film. A HR news item
reported that, during pre-production, Dr. Douglas M. Kelly, a University of
California, Berkeley professor of criminology, analyzed the psychiatric
motives of all the characters and viewed rushes during filming.
Modern sources state that Ray’s first choice for
screenwriter, Clifford Odets, was unavailable. Writer Leon Uris was
assigned only briefly to the project, because, many modern sources suggest,
Uris’ vision of the story required a larger cast and scale than Ray’s.
Uris was soon replaced by writer Irving Shulman, whose December 1954 script
based on Ray’s treatment was titled Juvenile Story. Modern
sources credit Shulman with setting the story in upper middle-class Southern
California, and adding the first planetarium sequence and the “chickie run,”
which was inspired by a real-life event he and Ray read about in the
newspaper. The final character names of the three protagonists, Jim,
Judy and Plato, were first used in Shulman's version. Although a
January 1955 Var news item reported that writer Stewart Stern was
“joining” Shulman in the writing of the screenplay, modern sources state
that either Ray fired Shulman or that the studio rejected his screenplay.
Stern worked alone on subsequent versions of the script, which reverted to
Lindner’s original title, Rebel Without a Cause.
Notes found on the Shulman screenplay in the
Warner Bros. archive suggest that the studio had been considering actors
James Dean and Tab Hunter for the part of Jim, and Lois Smith for Judy.
Modern sources say Ray fought studio heads against casting Hunter and
Jayne Mansfield in the lead roles. Although a December 1954 HR
news item reported that Ray flew to New York to test young television
and stage players for the lead, modern sources say that he wanted Dean after
seeing screenings of his portrayal of “Caleb,” Dean’s first major film role,
in East of
Eden. Dean had been scheduled to appear
in Warner’s Giant,
but production of that film was postponed until June 1955 because of
Elizabeth Taylor’s pregnancy, freeing Dean to take the role in Rebel
Without a Cause. According to modern sources, to train for the
role, Dean spent time with Los Angeles gang members and befriended Frank
Mazzola, a former gang member hired as a consultant and actor for Rebel
Without a Cause.
February 1955 HR news items reported that
many young people were tested for various roles in the film. According
to lists found in the Warner Bros. Archives,
Debbie Reynolds and
Carroll Baker were top contenders for the role of Judy, which
Natalie Wood ultimately won. Another of the many actresses
considered for the part was Patricia Crowley. Some of the actresses
considered for the roles of either Judy’s or Plato’s mothers were
Ruth Hussey, Maureen Stapleton, Jeanette Nolan, Barbara Billingsley and
Adele Jergens.
Marsha Hunt was initially cast as Jim’s mother, according to a March
1955 HR news item, but was replaced by
Ann Doran. For the role of Jim’s father, Rod Cameron, Walter
Matthau and Raymond Burr were considered. James Whitmore, Peter Gray,
Richard Crane,
George Reeves and Walter Reed were considered for the sympathetic
juvenile division counselor “Ray Framek,” a character modern sources report
was named for the film's director. Modern sources also state that Jeff
Silver, Billy Gray and Dennis Hopper were considered for the role of Plato.
Despite concerns about child welfare regulations, Ray cast minors Wood and
Sal Mineo for the roles of Judy and Plato. Although their
appearance in the film has not been confirmed, an April 1955 HR news
item adds Joel Smith and Charles Fredericks to the cast as police officers,
Tom Hennesy as a teacher, and Chris Randall, Georgette Michele, Stephan
Michael and Richard Espinosa.
According to information in the film’s file in
the MPAA/PCA Collection at the AMPAS Library, the Breen office had many
concerns about the film. In letters to studio head Jack L. Warner, the
censors warned against the general brutality of the delinquent teenagers,
the latent homosexuality of Plato, hints of sexual activity between Jim and
Judy in the mansion sequence, the inference of the idea of incest in the
relationship between Judy and her father, and Judy’s promiscuity, which was
more pronounced in an earlier version of the script in which she was brought
to the police station for soliciting. Modern sources state that the
script continued to change. In one version, Plato did not die.
The sex and violence were, in some cases, minimized. Modern interviews with
actors and crew from the film reveal that, after shooting commenced, Ray
allowed Dean to make improvisatory changes to his lines on the set.
The film was conceived as a black and white B
movie, and several scenes, particularly at Griffith Observatory, were shot
only in black and white and never used. In some of the black and white
footage, Dean appears wearing eyeglasses. Another scene shot in black
and white shows a large group of teenagers on the driveway behind the
observatory; when the scene was later shot in color, few extras were
retained, leaving only a handful of teenagers to taunt Dean's character.
A different opening scene for the film was made during black and white
shooting, in which an innocent person is harassed by a mob of teenagers,
resulting in a toy monkey falling to the street. In the later color
version, the scene was cut, allowing the film to begin with a drunken Jim
Stark lying on the street playing with the monkey. That scene,
according to a modern source, was shot at four a.m. on Hollywood Blvd.
A different ending scene, filmed through the aperture of the planetarium
dome, was also shot in black and white, but discarded for the ending in the
released film.
Soon after the premiere of
East of
Eden, it became clear that Dean had achieved star status. Modern
sources speculate that, because of his new box-office appeal and the growing
success of teenage rebel movies, Warner decided to “upgrade” Rebel
Without a Cause, budgeting it more money and production time, and
ordered that it be filmed in color. One supporting gang member’s
character was excised and sequences depicting the teenage gang were also cut
from the script, resulting in the loss of the individual personalities in
the group. Modern sources suggest that the cuts were made to give Dean
more screen time.
As mentioned above, portions of the film were
shot at Los Angeles’ Griffith Park Observatory. The former J. Paul Getty
mansion built in the 1920s at the corner of Wilshire Blvd. and Crenshaw
Blvd., which also served as a shooting site for the 1950 Paramount
production
Sunset
Boulevard (see AFI Catalog of Feature Films, 1941-50 ),
appeared as the mansion in the film shortly before the house's real-life
demolition.
A LAEx article reported that Dean was
injured several times while shooting the switchblade fight, during which a
real weapon was used. He also injured his hand, according to a modern
source, when he pounded on Ray’s desk at the police station and Ray had to
shoot around his bandaged hand for a week. That scene was later cut
from the British version of the film, according to a Nov ember1955 DV
news item, because British censors found the scene excessively emotional.
Rebel Without a Cause soon developed the
reputation as being the first film to tackle problems of middle-class youth,
but when it opened, the impact of its violence and sexuality shocked some
reviewers into mixed, albeit strong, criticism. Some reviews found the
development of the parental characters weak or unfair. The film marked
Wood’s first adult role, and one for which she was nominated for an Academy
Award for Best Supporting Actress, losing to Jo Van Fleet in
East of
Eden. Mineo, whose role is considered by critics the first
instance of a homosexual boy on film, was nominated for Best Actor in a
Supporting Role, but lost to
Jack Lemmon in
Mister
Roberts. Ray was nominated for Best Motion Picture Story, but lost to
Daniel Fuchs’s Love Me or Leave Me. In 1997, Rebel Without a
Cause was rated fifty-nine in AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies list of the
greatest American films.
In 1958, James Fuller adapted the film for the
stage in a play bearing the same title. According to Warner Bros.
files, there were plans to produce a television show in 1962 based on the
film; however, this project never reached fruition. An April 1966
DV news item reported that Mayo Simon was to write a musical remake of
the film and a June 1967 HR news item reported that playwright Sidney
Michaels was rewriting a musical version for Hal Wallis. No further
information about these productions has been found. Although Dean made
only three major motion pictures, he became the subject of several films.
Among them are Warner’s 1957 documentary, The James Dean Story,
directed by George W. George and Robert Altman; the 1997 Mars
production, Race With Destiny, which was directed by Mardi Rustam and
starred Casper Van Dien; and James Dean, starring James Franco, which
was directed by Mark Rydell and aired on TNT cable network in 2001.
Immediately after completing Rebel Without a
Cause in late May, Dean reported to the set of
Giant, his third
major film. On September 30, 1955, having just completed his role and
experiencing only six and a half months of stardom, Dean, aged twenty-four,
was killed in a car accident at the junction of highways 46 and 41, near
Cholame, California. When Rebel Without a Cause had its
premiere four weeks after his death, reviews continued to compare Dean to
Brando. However, most reviews allowed that he was no longer using what
the DV review called “the
Marlon Brando mannerisms” that some reviewers had accused him of in
East of
Eden. Most reviewers mourned Dean’s death, as did Var ,
which expressed “genuine artistic regret, for here was a talent which might
have touched the heights.”
In 1988, a bronze bust of Dean, which was a
casting of Kenneth Kendall’s 1956 original that was placed at Dean’s Indiana
gravesite, was unveiled outside Griffith Observatory, where Rebel Without
a Cause was filmed. In 1999, Dean was declared by AFI one of the
century’s top twenty-five male actors. Partly due to the way Warner
Bros. advertised Rebel Without a Cause after his death, Dean’s name
became synonymous with the film and the rebel teenager. His line in
the film, “You’re tearing me apart,” the epitome of teenage anguish, still
has impact and is often parodied. Into the twenty-first century, Dean
remains an icon of rebellious youth and the story of “Jimmy Dean’s” short
life is frequently examined in film documentaries. |
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