Rebel grabbed us by the sensibilities of the times, and it's impact was due to the performance and persona of a young man who rocketed out of the cornfields of Fairmont, Indiana and would shortly lodge himself firmly into the fabric of American pop culture legend. James Byron Dean, the cool one, emerged in his red jacket in the film "Rebel Without A Cause" and his portrayal of youth in angst struck a resonant chord with it's audience. The new kid in school trying to fit in, and the adage you can't please everybody certainly applies.
The film was based on a 1944 book written by psychiatrist Robert Lindners, titled...Rebel Without A Cause: The Hypnoanalysis of A Criminal Psychopath. Put that on a business card and smoke it. The rights were purchased in the mid to late 40's and a partial script was handed to a young actor during his screen test. That actor was Marlon Brando who was not reading for the part in Rebel, but eventually got the lead role in "The Wild One" based on true events in Hollister, California regarding outlaw bikers. The funny thing is that Dean always emulated Brando as did Elvis, both admitting Brando was the prototype for the "true rebel" in reel life and in real life.
The film was directed by Nicholas Ray and when shooting started the black and white camera's began to roll. At one point during the rushes, Jack Warner recognized that Dean who had just completed filming "East of Eden" prior to "Rebel" was a rising star. So, an executive decision was made as only someone of Jack Warners stature could make. "Stop Filming and switch to color!" It's hard today imagine the film in B&W without Jim Starks red jacket! A lot of the scenes were shot at the Griffith Observatory, and the high school scenes were shot at Santa Monica High School.
The opening scene has an inhebriated Jim Stark (Dean) walking the streets at night stumbles upon a clock work wind-up toy monkey playing cymbals as though leading an invisible parade through the dark alleys of Toyland. How it got there and was wound up in time for Jim to find it has always puzzled me. Perhaps a pre-cursor to the Twilight Zone. Jim is arrested and while in the police station waiting for his parents to come get him we are introduced to the Stark soon-to-be inner circle of Judy, (Natalie Wood) and Plato (Sal Mineo), who were also picked up for various delinquent behavior. Together they are social misfits in a jigsaw puzzle of peer acceptance, but the pieces don't fit.
Jim Stark and his family were always moving, new home, new school, all because Jim didn't get along and play well with others. You get the impression he would knife you if you took his Slinky or stole a Lincoln Log, and if he had a Facebook page he would never "like" or "share" anything no matter how inane as is most of Facebook.
Jim Starks father is a pathetic henpecked emasculated excuse for manhood and his basic submission to an overbearing crone of a wife who better resembles a suburban version of the Queen of the Damned makes young Jim disgusted and ashamed that he was spawn of that limp wristed seed. He has issues with anyone caling him "chicken" as that reminds him of his father whom he fears he will morph into when older.
Judy was tormented by the thought that her father felt she was too big to be sitting on his lap and therefore was rejecting her, obviously she had dreams of becoming a lap dancer in some seedy men's club by an airport in Pittsburg in the future to tease and taunt all the "father figures" by causing erections thereby giving her social acceptance in a carnal carnival of stale beer and cigarette smoke.
Now we come to Plato, the pliable Play-doh of the trio. He was the guy most likely to get stuffed in a locker during recess. We first see him in the school halls at this locker that is adorned with a photo of a popular male movie star with rippling buff bod and Hollywood good looks. If that isn't a peek into Plato's latent homosexuality, then Liberace was a lumberjack.Plato attaches himself to Jim and Judy as a barnacle to the hull of boat (insert Natalie Wood bad taste joke here) The gravitational pull of the Galaxy Outcast draws them into an uneasy orbit around each other. Jim is more of less the father figure for Judy, but one she wants to fuck, and Plato looks to Jim also as father figure and potential bed partner in a wet dream kind of Plato-Mineo way. Believe me Dorothy Gale had nothing on this group. They are on the Black Leather Jacket Yellow Brick Road in the blackboard jungle of OZ hoping the Wizard would give them social acceptance with the in-crowd, the equivilent of flying monkey's with hot-rods.
The film has many classic scenes but it was a sexy '49 Merc that stole the show and not surprisinlg for any automotive lover of pure design as art. The Merc scene is a challenge to the Dean character, Jim Stark, by his antagonist, Buzz, played by Corey Allen. It's a go for broke chickie run scene where Jim and Buzz rev their engines as they get ready to race towards the oceanside cliffs and Pacific oblivion. Buzz gets his jacket caught on the door handle and can't make his escape. He goes over the edge and only Jim Stark remains. The "kids" as they are called all take off in a panic and somehow get the idea that Jim, Judy and Plato plan on squealing to the cops about the chickie run and death of Buzz, and they make plans to administer a beating to silence them. Plato goes off his rocker, grabs a pistol from his parents house and heads for the one place he knows of solace, his own Fortress of Solitude..the Mansion on the Hill where pistol packin' Plato becomes a Hollywood Hills Billy the Kid ready for Pat Garret in motorcycle boots to come after him in his own private Fort Sumner Hell on the Hill.
Jim and Judy hear about the gang after them, and know Plato will panic and find out that he also has a gun. Jim, being the astute father figure that he has become, and also having read the script heads with Judy to the Mansion to intercept Plato and anything that may cause him to fire off a few rounds at others or to put the gun to his own head and pull a Hunter Thompson.
The gang members know of Plato's hideout and make their way there. Fights ensue, shots are fired and one of Buzz's gang is wounded. He takes off for the nearby Griffith Observatory and hides out inside while Jim goes in after him. Meanwhile, cue the police...they arrive on the scene, guns pulled, lights blazing and ready to brng down the Cowardly Lion his co-horts.
Jim treis to talk Plato out so he doesn't do anything rash and Plato finally agrees to go out and meet the police and his fate. He's cold so Jim gives him his red windbreaker to where..they exit the building...Plato see's cops and panics, he is waving his gun which is empty as Jim removed the clip earlier in the observatory. But ...cop see's gun, cop shoots gunman and the walls of Plato came tumbling down. Jims dad thinks it is Jim at first because of the red jacket and everyone rushes to the steps...Plato lies as dormant as a pile of roadkill and his nanny, starts crying. In an unusual sequence...Jim starts laughing and crying at the same time at Plato's wearing of two different colored socks which is typical of Plato the outcast. In the final scenes, Jim zips up the red jacket on the corpse and his father steps over and puts his arms around his son. "Stand up son, and I'll stand up with you. I'll be as strong as you want me to be" so it took Plato' death for dad to grow some balls and drop a pyscological house on his own Wicked Witch of a Wife...Jim is now feeling a sense of pride and while holding Judy he says, "Mom, Dad, this is my friend Judy" or something like that..and they all start making new lives, gain acceptance on the familial battlefield and Jim and Judy find solace in each other. Plato is no longer alive but is dwelling in Platos' Republic of the Deceased.
In the film our hero avoids an untimely death, but it wouldn't be long and in reality in real life, it seemed the curse of the Mummy descended on the three main stars. Dean would Porsche out on a lonely stretch of California asphalt at the age of 24. An icon for the ages. Mineo would be stabbed to death in 1976 at the age of 37, and Natalie Wood drowned under mysterious circumstances in 1981 at the age of 43. That case has since been reopened recently. Her mysterious death involved a yacht and guests questioned include Christopher Walken who was on board and of course her husband, Robert Wagner. The death also led to a series of bad taste jokes such as Why didn't Natalie Wood take showers? Answer: She preferred to wash up on shore. Bad I know but welcome to American pop culture.
Nick Adams was the Dean wannabe and even set about after Dean's death to position himself in that role. He would go to Fairmont, Indiana, Deans hometown and pose for shots around Deans grave with a bevy of busty breasted groupies for teen and screen mags. He eventually made friends with Elvis and would hang out in Memphis with him, basically attaching himself like a dung beetle to a pile of rock and roll wealth and image. Later in an interview, Presley's mom said of Adams, "He was an irritating little pest!"
Dennis Hopper of course crossed the Fifties generational line of demarcation and became the symbol of Sixties Freedom and counter culture by his role in Easy Rider, which he also co-wrote the script with Terry Southern. He eventually ended up as an icon and artist in Santa Fe, New Mexico, the state where I was told, you don't have to search for peyote, it will find you. He eventually died and the last link to Rebel had been officially removed.In effect they have all gone to that Juvenile Delinquent Mansion in the Sky. But..where is that 49 Merc today? It's part of the permanent collection at the National Automobile Museum in Reno, Nevada.
As for Dean, his legend lives on in his hometown of Fairmont, Indiana where they pay homage to their favorite son and over 30,000 other rebels without a cause descend on the town "Where Cool Was Born" for a very good reason..The Annual James Dean Festival!
Fairmont sits on Highway 26, just west of I-69, and on the final full weekend in September every year the small burg turns into the rockabilly, rock n' roll, car culture capital of the known world, and Deaners everywhere agree...this is the ultimate Dean Party. As to be expected there is entertainment that turns the town into a blue suede cruise with '50s music perfomred by some of the legendary groups of that era, as well as a raucous backbeat supplied by some of the finest new rockabilly bands in the country.
Parades and events abound, and yes, there is a James Dean look alike contest and would be Deans get to strut and swagger with just the right amounts of juvenile deliquent bravado and midwestern machismo. Dean souvenirs of every type imaginable are available, and the town explodes with a detonation of chrome as over 2,500 classic cars from little duece coupes to '49 Merc's arrive for the annual James Dean Run Car Show. The town turns into a blast from the past for the weekend and in addition to the festival and the showing of Deans movies, you can also visit the Fairmont Historical Museum on Washington Street for the most comprehensive collection of Dean memorabilia around, including Jimmy's clothing, his high school sports uniforms and some motorcycles he owned.
No visit to Fairmont is complete however, without a visit to the James Dean Memorial Gallery, located in a restored Victorian home on N. Main. The years of Dean collecting has been a labor of love for proprietor David Lohr and is unique to say the least. Take the stairway to the basement and you'll find a rockabilly shop full of vintage clothing and other accessories reminiscent of "the good old days".
James Dean lookalikes? Forgettaboutit! If you visit Park Cemetary in town you'll be in the company of the real deal. Go in, follow the signs and you'll end up at Jimmy's gravesite. It's a granite tribute with gifts from admirers placed anonymously on the grounds, along with bouquets of flowers and private notes of adoration. The tombstone itself has to be cleaned on occassion to remove the lipstick marks left by loving fans, most of them born well after James Dean etched himself into the pop culture psyche of America and the world. Not only is Fairmont the town "where cool was born", but also the town where it is buried too! Dean will always be "the Rebel" and the myth surrounding grows. He is celebrated with festivals, and his image adorns T-shirts and other memorabilia assuring his position as having attained pop culture sainthood.
"Rebel" was a triumph on the drive-in screen, however only a handful of drivein movie's remain. Most stand lonely, forlorn and forgotten. Weeds taking the place of cars and speakers, the sounds of radio's no longer audible and you don't even have to pay anymore when you pass the empty gate to visit the empty screen...quiet and silent. Sometimes, though, if you listen carefully you can hear the faint sound of a car approaching in the distant, coming closer. It's a little hazy, almost like witnessing a dream as you peer through the fog of the Fifites. You stand quietly as the car gets closer, and as it races by you in a ghost fog, you'll swear that you saw James Dean in a red jacket, smiling, as he drives by in the most beautiful car you had ever seen...a drop dead gorgeous '49 Merc!!!