Rebel Without a Cause

Rebel Without a Cause is a 1955 American drama film about emotionally confused suburban, middle-class teenagers. Filmed in the recently introduced CinemaScope format and directed by Nicholas Ray, it offered both social commentary and an alternative to previous films depicting delinquents in urban slum environments. The film stars James Dean, Sal Mineo, and Natalie Wood. 
The film was a groundbreaking attempt to portray the moral decay of American youth, critique parental style, and explore the differences and conflicts between generations. The title was adopted from psychiatrist Robert M. Lindner's 1944 book, Rebel Without a Cause: The Hypnoanalysis of a Criminal Psychopath. The film, however, does not make any references to Lindner's book in any way. Warner Bros. released the film on October 27, 1955.
In 1990, Rebel Without a Cause was added to the Library of Congress's National Film Registry as being deemed "culturally, historically, and aesthetically significant". Released one month after Dean's death in a car crash, the film elevated Dean, fresh from his Oscar-nominated role in East Of Eden, to a cultural icon. This was the only film during Dean's lifetime in which he received top billing. 
==Plot==
One night, teenager Jim Stark (Dean) drunkenly lies down on a sidewalk in suburban Los Angeles before he is arrested and taken to the juvenile division at the police station for "plain drunkenness". At the station he meets John "Plato" Crawford (Mineo), who was brought in for shooting a litter of puppies with his mother's gun, and Judy (Wood), who was brought in for curfew violation (she was wearing a bright red dress with matching lipstick and was mistaken for being a streetwalker). The three each separately reveal their innermost frustrations to different police officers; all three of them suffer from problems at home:
* Jim, who just moved to town with his parents Frank (Jim Backus) and Carol (Ann Doran), is tormented by their incessant bickering, but he also feels betrayed by Frank's meek attitude and failure to stand up to Carol (and her meddling mother, who lives with them). His frustrations are made manifest to officer Ray Fremick (Edward Platt) when Jim is released to their custody.
* Judy is convinced that her irascible father (William Hopper) has callously withdrawn his affections from her because she's no longer a little girl (that evening when she kisses her father he slaps her face, and she angrily storms away), so she dresses up in racier clothes to get attention, but it only causes her father to call her a "dirty tramp". 
* Plato comes from a broken family. His father abandoned them when he was a toddler, and his neglectful mother is often away from home, leaving Plato in the care of her housekeeper.
The next morning, Jim sets out for his first day at Dawson High School and again meets Judy (who lives nearby) waiting on the corner and offers her a ride. Seemingly unimpressed by Jim at first, she declines and sarcastically says, "You know, I bet you're a real yo-yo," and then is picked up by her "friends", a gang of delinquents led by "Buzz" Gunderson (Corey Allen). 
Arriving at school, Jim immediately gets in hot water for unknowingly stepping on the school insignia. While shunned by most of the student body, Jim is befriended by Plato, who quickly comes to idolize him as a father figure. That afternoon, Jim's class goes on a field trip to the Griffith Observatory, where they see a dramatic presentation of the bleak future of the Earth as the Sun goes through its red giant phase and post red-giant phase. As he walks out, Buzz and his gang slash one of Jim's tires and then begin taunting him by clucking and calling him "chicken", which is sure to set him off. When Jim asks Judy, revealed to be the "property" of Buzz, why she hangs around with them, Buzz pushes Jim away from her, then whips out a switchblade and challenges Jim to a knife fight. Having no knife, Jim refuses, so Buzz orders one of his gang to lend Jim his knife, but even then Jim still refuses. When Buzz again calls Jim chicken he goes off, and the two begin fighting, each one getting minor jabs on the other until Jim knocks Buzz' knife away and subdues him. Buzz wants another shot at Jim, which he accepts but not with knives. Buzz suggests stealing a couple of cars to have a "Chickie Run" at Millertown Bluff, a high seaside cliff. Jim agrees to meet them that evening before the observatory security guard runs the gang off. After they leave, Jim asks Plato what a Chickie Run is.
At home, before leaving for the chickie run, Jim ambiguously asks Frank for advice about defending one's honor in a risky, dangerous situation. But Frank, dressed in a frilly apron and doing housework while Carol is sick in bed, instead gives Jim a long-winded speech about avoiding confrontation of any kind. Jim changes his clothes and drives to Millertown Bluff. Buzz shows him the two stolen cars they'll be racing, and then go to the edge of the cliff alone and share a cigarette, where Buzz confides in Jim that he likes him. When Jim asks Buzz why they're doing the run, Buzz replies "You gotta do something, now don't you?". Meanwhile, Judy asks Plato about Jim; though they barely know one another, Plato calls Jim his best friend. When Judy asks what Jim is like Plato merely replies "You have to get to know him," but adds that people Jim likes most get to call him "Jamie".
As they prepare to race, Buzz explains the rules: the two are to race toward the edge of the cliff, and whoever jumps out of their car first is declared the "chicken". As the two cars speed toward the cliff, Jim tumbles out of his car, but Buzz is killed when his jacket sleeve gets caught on the door handle preventing him from jumping out before both cars plummet to the rocky shores below. The rest of the gang flee leaving Judy stranded, but Jim, with Plato in tow, gives Judy a ride home, giving her back the purse mirror she left at the police station. Still with Plato along, Jim drives home. Plato then asks Jim if he would like to go with him up to an old abandoned mansion near the Observatory and stay there for the night, but Jim declines and sends him home, but not before Plato writes down Jim's address in his pocket notebook.Back at home, Jim tells of his involvement in the crash to Frank and Carol, who saw a news report about it on TV, but when Jim considers turning himself in, they warn him not to volunteer himself to the police. When Carol declares they're moving again, Jim asserts that he won't let her use him as an excuse to keep running away, which she denies. Jim then begs Frank to stand up with him against her, but when he again fails to do so, Jim angrily jumps and strangles Frank until Carol pulls him away. He storms off to the police station and is accosted by Buzz' fellow gang members Crunch (Frank Mazzola), Goon (Dennis Hopper) and Moose (Jack Grinnage) who were just released from custody. Jim ignores them and goes in looking for Fremick, but the desk sergeant rudely tells him that Fremick will be out all night. Before leaving, Jim tries to call Judy at her home, but the call is intercepted by her father who abruptly hangs up.
Jim drives back home and finds Judy waiting at the same spot where they met that morning (she greets him with "Hello, Jamie"). When Jim reveals he was attracted to her from the moment he saw her (and even gently kisses the side of her forehead), Judy apologizes for the way she treated Jim that morning, blaming peer pressure, and the two begin to fall for one another. Agreeing that they will never go back to their respective homes, Jim suggests they go to the mansion Plato told him about saying, "You can trust me, Judy."
Meanwhile, Plato is just arriving home on his motor scooter when he is grabbed by Crunch, Goon and Moose. Convinced that Jim ratted them out to the police, and looking to avenge Buzz' death, they demand to know where they can find Jim, but Plato refuses to talk. They grab Plato's pocket notebook as he gets to the front door and run off. Plato runs upstairs to his bedroom and, after throwing away a child support check from his father, grabs his mother's gun and runs off to find and warn Jim. At Jim's house Frank and Carol hear knocking at the front door. Frank answers to find a live chicken hanging over their door, and Buzz' friends asking about Jim, but Frank hurriedly shuts the door. After they take off, Plato shows up for the same reason, but when Frank asks Plato about Jim, Plato quickly apologizes and hurries off to the mansion where he finds Jim and Judy.
The three new friends act out a fantasy as a family, and Plato tells them about when the "head shrink" got him to open up about hearing his parents fight when he was a baby, and how his mother later decided the money being spent on his therapy was better spent going off alone to Hawaii. Wishing they could stay there, but unable to ignore his situation, Plato decides he "might as well be dead anyway" and lies down to doze. Judy hums the Brahms' Lullaby to him before she and Jim go exploring the rest of the mansion. 
Crunch, Goon and Moose, now armed with chains, find their way to the mansion and wake up Plato. Frightened and distraught, Plato fights them off until he finds his gun and wounds Moose, and then mistakenly fires at Jim when he comes back. Jim tries to restrain Plato, but he runs from the mansion, shooting at police who have just arrived. Plato runs to the Observatory and barricades himself inside as more police converge including Fremick who, with Frank and Carol, was out looking for Jim. 
After Jim confides in Judy his realization that Plato was longing for a family and looking for new parental figures in his life, they follow Plato into the observatory; seeing his red jacket, Frank immediately recognizes Jim as he runs inside. Jim quietly persuades Plato to trade the gun for his red jacket, and Jim silently removes the ammo clip before giving it back. Jim then convinces Plato to come outside after asking Fremick to turn the police lights off, but as they start to come out the police notice Plato still has the gun and turn their lights back on, which incites Plato to break away and charge the police. When he is shot down, Jim screams, "I got the bullets!! Look!!" Seeing Jim's jacket, Frank initially believes that Jim had been shot. 
As Jim zips up the jacket on the unconscious Plato while Judy replaces the shoe he lost while running outside, Frank goes to comfort the openly grieving Jim, and promises to try and be a stronger father, one that Jim can depend on. Now reconciled to his parents, Jim introduces them to Judy saying, "She's my friend". Carol is initially dubious, but Frank quietly and gently assuages her doubts with a smile.
As dawn encroaches, and as everyone leaves in their respective cars, a lone figure in a business suit and carrying a briefcase walks toward the Observatory, completely unaware of what just transpired.
==Cast==
*James Dean as Jim Stark
*Natalie Wood as Judy
*Sal Mineo as John "Plato" Crawford
*Jim Backus as Frank Stark
*Ann Doran as Carol Stark
*Corey Allen as Buzz Gunderson
*William Hopper as Judy's father
*Rochelle Hudson as Judy's mother
*Edward Platt as Inspector Ray Fremick
*Marietta Canty as the Crawford family maid
*Virginia Brissac as Grandma Stark
*Dennis Hopper as Goon
*Jack Grinnage as Moose
*Frank Mazzola as Crunch
*Ian Wolfe as Dr. Minton, astronomy professor
*Beverly Long as Helen
*Robert Foulk as Gene
*Jack Simmons as Cookie
*Tom Bernard as Harry
*Nick Adams as Chick
*Steffi Sidney as Mil
*Clifford Morris as Cliff
Jim Backus, who was known mainly for his comedic roles (particularly the TV sitcom I Married Joan, the title voice of Mr. Magoo, and his later role as Mr. Howell in Gilligan's Island), played supporting character Frank Stark, father to Dean's character Jim. 
William Hopper, who played Judy's father, became better known for his role as detective Paul Drake in the Perry Mason TV series. Edward Platt, who played Detective Fremick, was also later known for his role as "The Chief" in the mid-late 60s sitcom Get Smart. Dennis Hopper would go on to star in several westerns, he would direct, co-write and co-star in the 1969 counterculture film Easy Rider, and later co-star in the hit 1994 film Speed with Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock.
==Production==
Warner Brothers had bought the rights to Lindner's book, intending to use the title for a film. Attempts to create a film version in the late 1940s eventually ended without a film or even a full script being produced. When Marlon Brando did a five-minute screen test for the studio in 1947, he was given fragments of one of the partial scripts. However, Brando was not auditioning for Rebel Without a Cause, and there was no offer of any part made by the studio. The film, as it later appeared, was the result of a totally new script written in the 1950s that had nothing to do with the Brando test. The screen test is included on a 2006 special edition DVD of the 1951 film A Streetcar Named Desire.
According to a biography of Natalie Wood, she almost did not get the role of Judy because Nicholas Ray thought that she did not fit the role of the wild teen character. While on a night out with friends, she got into a car accident. Upon hearing this, Ray rushed to the hospital. While in delirium, Wood overheard the doctor murmuring and calling her a "goddamn juvenile delinquent"; she soon yelled to Ray, "Did you hear what he called me, Nick?! He called me a goddamn juvenile delinquent! Now do I get the part?!"
Dawson High School, the school in the film, was actually Santa Monica High School, located in Santa Monica, California.
Exterior scenes at the abandoned mansion to which the characters retreat were filmed at the William O. Jenkins House, previously used in the film Sunset Boulevard (1950). It was demolished just two years after filming.
Irving Shulman, who adapted Nicholas Ray's initial film story into the screenplay, had considered changing the name of James Dean's character to Herman Deville, according to Jurgen Muller's "Movies of the '50s". He had also originally written a number of scenes that were shot and later cut from the final version of the film. According to an AFI interview with Stewart Stern, with whom Shulman worked on the screenplay, one of the scenes was thought to be too emotionally provocative to be included in the final print of the film. It portrayed the character of Jim Stark inebriated to the point of belligerence screaming at a car in the parking lot, "It's a little jeep jeep! Little jeep, jeep!" The scene was considered unproductive to the story's progression by head editor William H. Ziegler and ultimately ended up on the cutting room floor. In 2006, members of the Lincoln Film Society petitioned to have the scene printed and archived for historical preservation.
The film was in production from March 28 to May 25, 1955. When production began, Warner Bros. considered it a B-movie project, and Ray used black and white film stock. When Jack L. Warner realized James Dean was a rising star and a hot property, filming was switched to color stock, and many scenes had to be reshot in color. It was shot in the widescreen CinemaScope format, which had been introduced two years previously. With its densely expressive images, the film has been called a "landmark; a quantum leap forward in the artistic and technical evolution of a format."
The 1949 Mercury Coupe James Dean drove in the movie is part of the permanent collection at the National Automobile Museum in Reno, Nevada.
==Reception==
The film received accolades for its story and for the performance of James Dean and the young stars who appeared, including teenagers Natalie Wood, Sal Mineo and Dennis Hopper, as well as Nick Adams and Corey Allen.
The film holds a 96% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
The film was banned in New Zealand in 1955 by Chief Censor Gordon Mirams, out of fears that it would incite 'teenage delinquency', only to be released on appeal the following year with scenes cut. In Britain, the film was released with an X-rating with scenes cut.
==Awards and accolades==
Wins
*1990 National Film Registry
Nominations
*Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor: Sal Mineo
*Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress: Natalie Wood
*Academy Award for Best Writing, Motion Picture Story: Nicholas Ray
*BAFTA Award for Best Film
*BAFTA Award for Best Foreign Actor: James Dean
American Film Institute recognition
*1998 AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movies #59
*2005 AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movie Quotes
**"You're tearing me apart!" Nominated
Empire magazine recognition
*Ranked 477th on list of the 500 greatest movies of all time in 2008.
==Costumes and props==
The switchblade James Dean's character used in the fight scene at Griffith Observatory was offered at auction on September 30, 2015 by Profiles in History with an estimated value of US$12,000 to $15,000, with a winning bid of US$12,000. Also offered at the same auction were production photographs and a final shooting script dated August 17, 1955 for a behind-the-scenes television promotional film titled Behind the Cameras: Rebel Without a Cause hosted by Gig Young and that had scripted interviews and staged footage by the cast and crew (script winning bid US $225.)
==In popular culture==
===Music===
*The 1971 hit single "American Pie" contains the lyrics "When the Jester sang for the King and Queen in a coat he borrowed from James Dean", widely believed to be a reference to the red jacket worn by Dean's character in the film and an allusion to the windbreaker worn by Bob Dylan on the cover of his 1963 album "The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan".
===Film===
*Tommy Wiseau borrowed the line "You're tearing me apart" and used it in his 2003 cult hit film The Room, which is widely considered to be the worst film ever made. In the original script, it was written as "You're taking me apart, Lisa"
== Legacy ==
All three of the film's stars (Dean, Wood and Mineo) would die under tragic or mysterious circumstances at relatively young ages (all before the age of 45), creating what is now known as "the Curse of the Rebel Without A Cause":
* James Dean was the youngest to die at age 24 when he was killed in a traffic crash while driving his Porsche 550 Spyder near Cholame, California in late September 1955; this happened nearly one month before Rebel Without A Cause was released.
* At age 37, Sal Mineo was murdered near his apartment in West Hollywood by a mugger in February 1976,
* Natalie Wood, 43, reportedly fell off a boat and drowned near Santa Catalina Island in November 1981; despite several re-investigations over the years, the circumstances of Wood's demise remain a mystery.
== Goof(s) ==
In the final scene as Jim mourns Plato he notices his off-colored socks (a red left sock and a blue right sock) and that his left shoe is missing, but a close-up shot of Plato's feet shows the right shoe is missing rather than the left; Judy finds Plato's missing shoe, the left one, and puts it back on Plato's foot.
==See also==
*List of American films of 1955
==Videos==
===Trailer===
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==External links==
*Rebel Without a Cause at the American Film Institute Catalog
*Rebel Without a Cause on IMDb
*Rebel Without a Cause at the TCM Movie Database
*Rebel Without a Cause at AllMovie
*Rebel Without a Cause at Rotten Tomatoes
*Behind the Scenes of Rebel Without a Cause: James Dean, Sal Mineo, Natalie Wood—Living Fast, Dying Young, in Life and Onscreen (Archived)
*The Making of Rebel Without a Cause by Sam Kashner A Vanity Fair piece about Nicholas Ray with a particular focus on Rebel.
*"Rebel Without a Cause" by Raymond Weschler
Category:1955 films
Category:1950s drama films
Category:1950s teen films
Category:American films
Category:American coming-of-age films
Category:American teen drama films
Category:English-language films
Category:Films scored by Leonard Rosenman
Category:Films about dysfunctional families
Category:Films directed by Nicholas Ray
Category:Films set in Los Angeles
Category:Films shot in Los Angeles
Category:Screenplays by Stewart Stern
Category:United States National Film Registry films
Category:Warner Bros. films