Rebel Without a Cause

Nicholas Ray’s film takes its title from Robert M. Lindner’s 1944 book. Warner Bros. bought the rights for the phrase alone; nothing else comes from it. Shooting began in black and white, as a B picture. Once Jack Warner saw that James Dean was becoming a star he stopped it within days; the film was rebuilt in colour and CinemaScope, with finished material shot again. The red jacket in that wide frame is a mid shoot studio decision, not a plan. Ray and writer Stewart Stern first crossed the country for months, interviewing hundreds of police officers, judges and youth workers; Ray wanted the kids next door, not slum delinquents. Griffith Observatory turns up in 2 places, a class trip and the close, where Jim trades his jacket for Plato’s gun and quietly hands it back empty. The police fire anyway. The 28th Academy Awards brought 3 nominations and no win: Sal Mineo, Natalie Wood and Ray for motion picture story. Wood took new star of the year at the 1957 Golden Globes, an award shared with 2 others. A good fit if you want the generation gap built out of 3 separate fathers rather than announced as a social problem. Not for anyone expecting realism from the knife fight and the cliff race; tone and playing are melodrama.