The Making of a Celluloid Rebel

Rebel without a Cause tells a story as old as Tom Brown's School Days: a boy's adventures, travails and triumph on his first day at a new school. James Dean plays the part of the fledgling Jim Stark, a new boy at Dawson High. On the first day of classes, he tries to make friends by offering a ride to the girl next door (Natalie Wood). She snubs him. And when he arrives at school, he finds it is dominated by a group of bullies (the gang) who persecute the weaker boys. The hero then befriends the weakling (Sal Mineo), defends him from the others and emerges vindicated and triumphant in the best tradition of boys' weeklies.

Jim Stark appears initially in the guise of a modest, amenable fellow. Awkward and shy, dressed in a drab brown jacket, he's pegged straight away as a square by the "wheels," though we sense a smoldering resentment which will later burst into flame. Finally, the new boy is forced to reveal his secret powers in a contest of strength — a fight in which the villain is forced to give way.

By involving police and parents, Rebel moves the old story into modern society and portrays Jim Stark's tests and triumphs as a positive social force. Finally, through the hero's bravery and compassion, he convinces his parents to face their self-deceptions, wins the girl's love and takes on "adult" status.

Rebel without a Cause is clearly James Dean's film. He dominates, absorbs and incorporates its drama as its dynamic, instrumental force. In Rebel, Jimmy plays himself. He is both victim and hero, and he injects the film with all the diffuse fragments of his own personality. In his role, he reveals all that we know about Jimmy as James Dean, and in his innocence exposes the corruption and compromise that surround Jim Stark.

"I didn't pick Jimmy for Rebel," director Nicholas Ray said. "We sniffed each other out, like a couple of Siamese cats. We went to New York together so I could see where he lived. You should have seen his room — a tiny place, cluttered with books and boxes. We hung out together for about a week — played basketball, went to the movies, got drunk with his friends. We were really close by the time we came back to start the picture."

Though Ray recognized Jimmy as ideal for the part, he didn't yet realize all that Jimmy would bring to it. Ray had wanted to make a film that would take the problem of juvenile delinquency from the other side of the tracks and move it into middle-class homes. He understood the paradox of rich kids who steal a car while there are two others sitting in the family garage.

"Romeo And Juliet has always struck me as the best play ever written about 'juvenile delinquency,"' said Ray. "I wanted a Romeo And Juliet feeling about Jim and Judy — and their families. Out of this came a conviction about the shape of the story: Try to follow the classic form of tragedy. The main action would be compressed into one day — beginning in trouble and confusion for Jim and ending in something different. One of my notes was: 'A boy wants to be a man, quick.' The problem was to show, during this day, how he started to become one."

It became Jimmy's monumental task to collect in himself all these conflicts, confront them and resolve the dangerous situation which they so obviously suggest. He would portray a hero who was a constantly moving target, and the center of that target was close to the center of Jimmy's own being.

Nick Ray was not about to sacrifice his film by filling it with stereotypes from central casting. Believable juveniles were rare in Hollywood, and the way Ray assembled his authentic teenage types was a departure from traditional movie making. Hundreds of kids turned out to answer the initial casting call and wandered around a stage set that had been used in A Streetcar Named Desire, waiting for their individual auditions. Ray and his producer, David Wisebart, personally screened them all, asking unprecedented questions such as, "How did you get along with your mother?" Out of these interviews, nine non-professionals were chosen to play "the gang."

For the part of Judy — the girl opposite Jimmy — Warner Brothers sent Ray an unlikely collection of familiar ingenues. Ray passed on Margaret O'Brien because she answered all the questions by professing love for parents and teachers. Jayne Mansfield showed up, but Ray said, "I didn't even put any film in the camera for her screen test. That was just an hallucination of the casting department." Then he tested Natalie Wood.