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A Warner
Brothers Presentation
Produced and Directed by Elia Kazan.
CinemaScope and WarnerColor. Screenplay by Paul Osborn.
Art Direction by James Basevi and Malcolm Bert.
Photography by Ted McCord. Music Direction by Leonard
Rosenman. Edited by Owen Marks. 115 min. |
| Since his untimely death in 1955, James Dean (1931-1955) is still considered a movie icon, a cult hero who personified the troubled youth of America after the Second World War. All this after only making three films in a little over a year. A native of Marion, Indiana, he migrated to California with his parents, where his father worked as a dental technician. But, after the death of his mother, he was forced to live with relatives on their Iowa farm. After graduating from high school, he went back to live with his father in Los Angeles, where he attended UCLA and began acting in a small theatre group run by James Whitmore. Landing odd jobs in television commercials and bit parts, the determined actor fled to New York City, where his luck would eventually change. |  |
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| Working days as a busboy, he finally got his first Broadway roles in “See the Jaguar” and “The Immoralist”, which caught the attention of the Warner Brothers top brass, who auditioned him in the lead role of Cal in John Steinbeck’s film version of EAST OF EDEN. With a superb screenplay by Paul Osborn and directed under the tutelage of Elia Kazan, this remains one of the finest filmic adaptations of John Steinbeck’s works. Of all of his books that were transferred to the screen, only two others were unanimously successful critically. The first one of these was 1939’s “Of Mice and Men” followed by “The Grapes of Wrath”, a few months later | |||
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This was
director Elia Kazan’s first experience with the
wide-screen process called Cinemascope. Like most
directors, who were used to the old-fashioned 1.37 to 1
ratio, this new format took some getting used to. Another
problem with the production was James Dean himself, who
would improvise as soon as the cameras began cranking.
This proved problematic, especially to veteran character
actor Raymond Massey, who rarely varied from the
director’s suggestions and the printed script. In
the scene where Cal is accused of stealing the money,
which Cal had given his father for a birthday present,
the script had Dean running out of the house sobbing.
Instead, Dean walked up to a stunned Raymond Massey and
put his arms around him, crying uncontrollably. A true
professional, all Massey could muster up in response was
yelling the name “Cal!” to James Dean. At this
Dean exits the house in hysterics. Another great addition to the cast was thirty-five year old Jo Van Fleet, who made her film debut as Kate, the prostitute mother of Cal and Aron. A veteran of New York City’s Neighborhood Playhouse, she later won numerous awards on the Broadway stage, playing dynamic character roles. For EAST OF EDEN, she copped the Best Supporting Actress Award, beating such hopefuls as Besty Blair for “Marty”, Peggy Lee for “Pete Kelly’s Blues”, Marisa Pavan for “The Rose Tatoo”, and Natalie Wood for “Rebel Without a Cause”. EAST OF EDEN was also nominated in the Best Direction category (Elia Kazan), but lost to Delbert Mann for “Marty”. |
| As for James Dean, his portrayal of Cal was also nominated in the Best Actor category, but was overtaken by Ernest Borgnine’s sensational portrayal of “Marty”. After eliciting rave reviews, James Dean was quickly put into another brooding drama about troubled youths entitled “Rebel Without a Cause”. After only one more film (“Giant”), James Dean died tragically in a car crash on “September 30, 1955”, which incidentally, became a title of a film in 1977, loosely based on the incident. |
