Rebel Without A Cause: Curse, Trivia, And More

 Released on October 27, 1955, nearly a month after Dean's fatal car accident on September 30, Rebel Without a Cause was a groundbreaking film that portrayed the disillusionment of a post-war American teen, while at least An attempt was made to shed light. The stellar parenting of the era. At the time of release, the film received mixed reviews, but was a huge hit with the audience. In the decades since Rebel Without a Cause hit theaters, it has become one of the most important American films of the 20th century. In addition to garnering praise, the film has eschewed tragedy and inspired a series of outlandish fraudsters, all attempting to recapture its magic.

Warner Bros tried to make a movie for years

Rebel Without a Cause began with nothing more than a title, albeit a long one. In 1946, Warner Bros. purchased Robert M. Lindner's book, Rebel Without a Cause: The Hypnoanalysis of a Criminal Psychopath, but it took them nearly a decade to crack the story's code. He didn't know what to do with it until director Nicholas Ray brought him his idea for a black-and-white teen film in the style of Blackboard Jungle. He asked her to combine his idea with his killer title, which led Ray to focus more on the disillusionment of American teens and less on their insane antics.

Natalie Wood got the part only after proving she was a juvenile delinquent

It's hard to imagine anyone but Natalie Wood playing Judy, the love interest of Dean's Jim Stark. Director Nicholas Ray didn't think the little girl from Miracle on 34th Street had the ability to face the trouble needed, but he made sure to prove her wrong.

After going out with her friends one night, she ends up in a car accident, leaving her in a pool of blood. When Ray went to the hospital to examine Woods, he overheard a doctor referring to him as a "gee-damn juvenile delinquent," which she'd been trying to prove for months. He yelled at Ray "Did you hear what he told me, Nick?! He called me a gee-damn juvenile delinquent! Now, do I get the part?!"

James Dean is the only reason the movie is in color

There's a good chance that if James Dean hadn't starred in Rebel Without a Cause this movie would have been a black-and-white B-movie similar to Teenage Crimewave or Faster, Pussycat! Strike! Kill!, but thanks to the success of East of Eden, Dean was one of Hollywood's hottest stars. The film went into production on March 28, 1955, and a few weeks later, Warner Bros. decided that the film needed to be colored. Ray had to go back and reshoot some scenes in the new widescreen CinemaScope format, which brought out its gorgeous visuals, turning it from a great teen film into a landmark achievement of filmmaking. Still, it would be nice to see the film in black and white.

Rebel's curse for no reason

While Rebel Without a Cause was a historical film, it also has a history of being "cursed". Each of the film's leads died before the age of 45, all under tragic or mysterious circumstances. James Dean, Natalie Wood, Sal Minnow, and Nick Adams each went their separate ways after the film, following Dean's head-on collision while driving his Porsche Spyder, "Little Bastard", on September 30, 1955. happened.

More than a decade later, Nick Adams, who played Chick in the film, died of an apparent drug overdose on February 7, 1968. That night, his lawyer found that he had slipped into his bedroom fully clothed. While there were no needle marks on his body, doctors ruled his death a suicide.

On February 12, 1976, Sal Minnow, who co-starred with Dean in Rebel Without a Cause and Giant, was returning home from a play rehearsal in Westwood when he was stabbed in the heart outside his apartment. Years later, his alleged killer was arrested in Michigan after writing a bad check, although he looked completely different from the man the witnesses claimed they had seen.

The final victim of the film's "curse" was actress Natalie Wood, who died under mysterious circumstances on November 29, 1981. She drowned at the age of 43 during a boat trip to Catalina with her husband Robert Wagner and their friend. , Christopher Walken. Wagner admits that he and his wife had an argument that night, but maintains that he had nothing to do with her death, and to this day, no one really knows what happened on the boat that night. was.

The lore of Rebel Without a Cause is as charming as the movie

While Nicholas Ray eventually landed the story of Rebel Without a Cause, he was not the first to write a draft of the film. One of the first dice was written by Theodor Geisel, otherwise known as Dr. Seuss. In another world, James Dean could say he wouldn't burst on a train or in the rain.

Another celebrity who could have been a part of the film was Marlon Brando, another actor known for making painful faces. He gave a five-minute screen test in 1947 in which he read from a script that existed at the time but was not the script Dean had worked on in 1955. It seems that Brando's trial was just wishful thinking on the part of Warner Bros. ,

One of the stranger stories about the filming of Rebel Without a Cause comes from Steffi Sidney, who played Mill. He claims that as production wrapped on the "Chick Run" scene, he saw a flash from a nuclear explosion. As strange as it sounds, the scene was filmed on May 15, 1955, the same night a 28 kiloton weapon was tested in Nevada.