Classic Movie Tuesday: Rebel Without A Cause

As you’ve probably already guessed (just like Cate in the ‘Cate & Kian’ series) I’m a huge fan of the actress, NATALIE WOOD (1938-81).

Since I’m going to L.A. in a few weeks (#cantwait) and Griffith Observatory is one of my must-sees, it seems only right that today’s Classic Movie Tuesday should be Rebel Without a Cause (1955) which not only was a breakthrough movie for Natalie (her performance garnered her an Academy Award nomination) but Griffith Observatory was also the filming location for several pivotal scenes in ‘Rebel.’

The title for the movie (although it doesn’t actually make any reference to it) comes from the case study, Rebel Without a Cause: The Hypnoanalysis of a Criminal Psychopath (1944) by psychiatrist, ROBERT M. LINDNER (1914-56).

The movie is based on a story by NICHOLAS RAY (1911-79), the screenplay was written by STEWART STERN (1922-2015) and adapted by IRVING SCHULMAN (1913-95).

PLOT *Spoiler Alert*

Jim (JAMES DEAN) gets arrested for public intoxication and taken to the juvenile division of a police station, where he meets Judy (NATALIE WOOD) and Plato (SAL MINEO), who’ve also been acting out because of problems at home.

On Jim’s first day at his new high school, he offers Judy a ride but she chooses to hang with Buzz (COREY ALLEN) and his gang instead although Jim and Plato do become friends.

After a field trip to Griffith Observatory, Buzz challenges Jim to a knife fight, which Jim wins so Buzz suggests they have a ‘Chickie Run’ instead. During the Chickie Run, Buzz can’t escape his car in time and plunges to his death off a seaside cliff. When the police arrive, Judy gets left behind by the gang so leaves with Jim and Plato instead.

Jim unsuccessfully tries to confess his involvement in the Chickie Run to the police. When he returns home, Judy is waiting for him. They decide not to go home and camp out in a deserted mansion Plato told Jim about instead.

Photo Credit: Trailer Screenshot, Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

Plato is accosted by members of Buzz’s gang who believe Jim betrayed them to the police and they steal his address book. Before setting off to warn Jim and Judy, Plato steals his mother’s gun.

When Buzz’s gang arrive at the mansion, Plato is asleep. Startled, he wakes up, shoots and wounds one of them. He flees the mansion, barricading himself inside Griffith Observatory. Jim and Judy join Plato in the Observatory. Jim temporarily trades Plato the gun for his red jacket, removing the bullets before returning it.

Jim persuades Plato to leave the Observatory but when the police see he’s still got the gun, they shoot and kill Plato. Jim reconciles with his parents and introduces them to Judy.

CAST

JAMES DEAN (1931-55) is a “cultural icon of teenage disillusionment and social estrangement.”

Photo Credit: Studio Publicity Still, Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

In addition to ‘Rebel’, the other two films that James is famous for are East of Eden (1955) and Giant (1956).

James received two posthumous Academy Award nominations. The first was in 1956 (Best Actor in a Leading Role) – the first posthumous acting nomination in Academy Awards history – as Cal Trask in ‘East of Eden’. He lost out to ERNEST BORGNINE (1917-2012) as Marty Piletti in Marty (1955). The second was in 1957 (again for Best Actor in a Leading Role) as Jett Rink in ‘Giant’. James lost out to YUL BRYNNER (1920-85) as King Mongkut of Siam in The King and I (1956).

In 1954, James became interested in a career in motorsport and on 30 September 1955, he was driving from L.A. to Salinas in his new Porsche 550 Spyder (he’d only purchased it 9 days earlier) to prepare for the Salinas Road Race (1-2 October 1955). He was accompanied by ROLF WUTHERICH (1927-81), who’d been sent to the U.S. by Porsche as field engineer for JOHNNY VON NEUMANN’S (1921-2003) Competition Motors in L.A. When Competition Motors received 5 x new Porsche 550 Spyders, Johnny only agreed to sell one of them to James on the condition that Rolf would accompany him as his mechanic.

James had intended to trailer the Spyder to Salinas behind his 1955 Ford County Squire however because the Spyder was newly-assembled and not yet fully-optimised, Rolf recommended that James drive the Spyder to Salinas instead.

As James & Rolf were driving west on U.S. Route 466 near Cholame, CA, a 1950 Ford Tudor driven by DONALD TURNUPSEED (1932-95) was driving east. Donald made a left turn onto Highway 41. James was unable to stop in time (he’d earlier been ticketed for speeding), the Spyder hit the passenger side of the Ford before cartwheeling two or three times and landing in a gully. While James was trapped inside and sustained a number of fatal injuries including a broken neck, Rolf was thrown from the Spyder and survived with a broken jaw and serious hip and femur injuries. Donald exited his Ford with facial bruises and a bloodied nose.

Photo Credit: Piotr Flatau, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

The coroner’s verdict was “accidental death with no criminal intent” clearing Donald of any contributory wrongdoing in James’s death.

Side Note: On 22 July 1981, Rolf was killed when he lost control of his Honda Civic while intoxicated and crashed into a wall in Kupferzell, Hohenlohe, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany.

So iconic was his role in ‘Rebel’ and the scenes filmed at Griffith Observatory that there’s a bust of James on the west side of the lawn. It was commissioned by James before he passed away. He’d seen a sculpture, the artist, KENNETH KENDALL had done of James’s hero, MARLON BRANDO (1924-2004) and asked Kenneth to do one for him. Kenneth began working on the sculpture on the same night that James was killed.

In 1955, after filming had wrapped on ‘Rebel’, James Dean said in a press release that he considered co-stars: Natalie Wood, Sal Mineo and Nick Adams to be “the only friends I have in this town.” Sadly, all four of them would die tragically young.

NATALIE WOOD (1938-81) After a successful career as a child actress, ‘Rebel’ was Natalie’s breakthrough adult performance. She was nominated for the 1956 Academy Award (Best Actress in a Supporting Role) but lost out to JO VAN FLEET (1915-96) as Kate in ‘East of Eden’ (which coincidentally co-starred James Dean).

Photo Credit: Elmer Holloway for NBC Television, Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

Natalie would also be nominated for the 1962 Academy Award (Best Actress in a Leading Role) as Wilma Dean Loomis in Splendor in the Grass (1961) losing out to SOPHIA LOREN as Cesira in Two Women (1960) and the 1964 Academy Award for (Best Actress in a Leading Role) as Angie Rossini in Love with the Proper Stranger (1963) losing out to PATRICIA NEAL (1926-2010) as Alma Brown in Hud (1963).

On 28 November 1981, Natalie was on a weekend boat trip to Santa Catalina Island on board the yacht, Splendour with her husband, ROBERT WAGNER, her co-star in Brainstorm (1983), CHRISTOPHER WALKEN and the yacht’s captain, DENNIS DAVERN. At 8am on 29 November, Natalie’s body was recovered a mile away from the Splendour with a small dinghy beached nearby. The cause of death was initially given as accidental drowning and hypothermia. There’s been plenty of speculation as to how Natalie ended up in the water given that she had a much-publicised fear of open water. For more info, check out Natalie Wood: A Life in Books.

In 2012, the L.A. County Chief Coroner amended her death certificate, replacing accidental drowning as the cause of death to “drowning and other undetermined factors.” In February 2018, Natalie’s husband, Robert (who denies any wrongdoing) was named as a person of interest in the police investigation into Natalie’s death.

SAL MINEO (1939-76) Like Natalie, Sal was nominated for the 1956 Academy Award (Best Actor in a Supporting Role) as Plato in ‘Rebel’ but lost out to JACK LEMMON (1925-01) as Ensign Pulver in Mister Roberts (1955).

Photo Credit: Allan Warren, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Sal would be nominated again for the Academy Award (Best Actor in a Supporting Role) in 1961 as Dov Landau in Exodus (1960) and although he lost out to PETER USTINOV (1921-2004) as Batiatus in Spartacus (1960), he did win the 1961 Golden Globe (Best Supporting Actor). ‘Rebel’ wasn’t the only movie which starred both James and Sal – Sal also appeared in James’s last film, ‘Giant.’

On 12 February 1976, Sal returned home from rehearsals for the play, ‘P.S. Your Cat is Dead’ at the Westwood Playhouse. After parking his car in the carport below his apartment at 8567 Holloway Drive, just off Sunset Boulevard, he was stabbed by pizza delivery man, LIONEL RAY WILLIAMS and died minutes later. In March 1979, Lionel was convicted of second-degree murder, nine counts of first-degree robbery and one count of second-degree robbery and sentenced to 51 years in jail. Lionel was paroled in the 1990s.

NICK ADAMS (1931-68) played Chick in ‘Rebel.’

Nick had already met James before ‘Rebel’ began filming. They were both signed up to film a soft drink commercial, ironically at Griffith Park, in December 1950. After James passed away, Nick was brought in to overdub some of James’s lines in ‘Giant’.

Photo Credit: ABC Promotional Still, Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

In the mid-1950s, Natalie’s first studio-arranged dates were with Nick and photos of the two of them were wildly-publicised in fan magazines. Fake dates like this were often used by Hollywood stars who wanted to cover up their bi- or homosexuality although it’s also possible that Nick recognised Natalie’s career was about to skyrocket and was keen on being photographed with her as much as possible in order to boost his profile.

On 7 February 1968, Nick and his lawyer and friend, ERVIN ROEDER (1921-81) were due to have dinner together. When Nick didn’t show up, Ervin drove to Nick’s house at 2126 El Roble Lane in Beverly Hills to check on him. Seeing a light on and Nick’s car in the garage, Ervin broke a window and found Nick in his bedroom, slumped against a wall deceased. The cause of death was “paraldehyde and promazine intoxication.” Whether it was an accident or suicide was left undetermined by the autopsy report and there’s been speculation that Nick was murdered because he was allegedly planning to write a tell-all book revealing well-kept secrets of the sex lives of Hollywood stars.

Side Note: Nick’s isn’t the only suspicious death that Ervin was associated with. On 10 June 1981, Ervin was found on the sidewalk outside his condo on South Holt Avenue in Beverly Grove with a gunshot wound to the stomach (which would prove fatal). In the lobby of the building was the body of his soon-to-be ex-wife, JENNY MAXWELL (1941-81). Jenny was best known for starring alongside Nick’s friend, ELVIS PRESLEY (1935-77) in Blue Hawaii (1961).

Jenny and Ervin married in 1970 but by 1978, their marriage was a disaster. Jenny was encouraged by her lawyer to wait until their tenth anniversary before filing in order to get a larger settlement. There are reports that Ervin, who’d frequently boasted of his Mafia connections had begun looking into hiring a hit-man to kill Jenny. The immediate conclusion after the killings was that Ervin and Jenny were victims of a botched robbery however nothing had been stolen from them and rounds of the rare ammunition used to kill them both were found in Ervin’s car. What Really Happened to 1960s Starlet Jenny Maxwell?

COREY ALLEN (1934-2010) played Buzz in ‘Rebel.’ Corey (his birth name was Alan Cohen) was the son of CARL COHEN (1913-86). In September 1967, when Carl was Casino Manager at the Sands Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas, NV, he famously dislodged the caps on FRANK SINATRA’s (1915-98) front teeth. Frank had attacked Carl because he was angry that his credit at the Sands had been stopped once HOWARD HUGHES (1905-76) became the owner. Frank allegedly owed the Sands $200k.

Corey retired from acting in the 1960s and went on to have a successful career as a director. He won the 1984 Primetime Emmy (Outstanding Directing in a Drama Series) for the episode, ‘Goodbye Mr Scripps’ of Hill Street Blues (1981-87).

‘Rebel’ features the last-ever movie performances of VIRGINIA BRISSAC (1883-1979) (Jim’s Grandmother) and MARIETTA CANTY (1905-86) (Crawford Family Maid), both of whom retired from acting shortly afterwards. Marietta wasn’t just a pioneer for artists from diverse backgrounds in the entertainment industry, after she retired from acting, she became a nurse and was heralded for her political and social activism (Marietta Canty House).

OFF-SCREEN AFFAIRS

It’s a wonder that the cast and crew had any time left over for filming ‘Rebel’ given all the secret affairs that were going on behind-the-scenes. Firstly, although there was a 27 year age gap, between Natalie’s first meeting with ‘Rebel’s’ director, NICHOLAS RAY (1911-79) and her screen test 10 days later, she and Nicholas began an affair which would continue on for several months after filming wrapped until a pregnancy scare prompted Natalie to break it off with Nicholas.

Not satisfied with romancing just one cast member in Bungalow 2 at the Chateau Marmont, Nicholas is also said to have had an affair with Sal (another 27+ age gap).

Meanwhile, embracing her newfound sexuality, Natalie became involved with DENNIS HOPPER (1936-2010) who was roommates with NICK ADAMS and making his film debut as Goon in ‘Rebel.’ Sadly this affair backfired for Dennis after Natalie’s mother found out and complained to the studio about him (although unsurprisingly she didn’t mention Natalie’s affair with Nicholas). The studio and Nicholas weren’t happy and Dennis’s scenes in the movie were reduced.

For more info on Nicholas Ray and the filming of ‘Rebel’; check out Dangerous Talents @ Vanity Fair.

OK so we’ve talked about the mysteries and scandals surrounding the cast and crew of ‘Rebel Without a Cause,’ I think it’s time we find out more about the equally controversial benefactor behind Griffith Park, the Greek Theater & Observatory, the imaginatively named GRIFFITH JENKINS GRIFFITH (1850-1919).

Reference: The Complex Life of Griffith J. Griffith @ KCET.

Born in Bettws, Glamorganshire, Wales, Griffith was brought to the U.S. by his uncle in 1865. He moved to San Francisco, CA in 1873 and in 1878, he became the mining correspondent for Alta California. With the knowledge he’d built up on the mining industry, he was employed as a consultant by various mining syndicates and amassed his personal fortune.

Photo Credit: Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

Griffith moved to L.A. in 1882 and purchased 4k acres of the Rancho Los Feliz land grant, intending to turn it into a prosperous ranching operation. He wasn’t always popular with his new community and was described by critics as a “roly-poly pompous little fellow” with an “exaggerated strut like a turkey gobbler” (KCET).

On 27 January 1887, Griffith married MARY AGNES CHRISTINA (Tina) MESMER (1864-1948). Tina was the daughter of wealthy pioneer, LOUIS MESMER (1829-1900) and Tina and her sister, Lucy were joint-heiresses to a $0.25m fortune left to them by family friend, ANDRE BRISWALTER (Frenchtown Confidential).

When Griffith first began courting Tina, he believed that she was the sole heir to Andre Briswalter’s fortune and when he discovered she was only the joint heir (with her sister), he broke off the engagement (HUGE RED FLAG!). Tina’s Catholic family begged Griffith to reconsider which he did on condition that Tina inherit the entire $0.25m and that it be transferred to his name. Unbelievably, the Mesmers were so desperate to get Tina married off that they actually agreed to those ridiculous terms.

Griffith was so determined to get his greedy hands on the money that he left the wedding breakfast early, claiming that he had to go and say goodbye to his friends before he and Tina embarked on their honeymoon when actually he went straight to the courthouse to make sure that the $0.25m was transferred into his name. Definitely worthy of the 14-foot bronze statue which guards the entrance to Griffith Park… not!

On 16 December 1896, Griffith and Tina donated 3,015 acres to the city of L.A. for use as a public park (Griffith Park). This gesture seems out of character for the notoriously money-hungry Griffith and his enemies claim that he only donated the land for tax purposes after his ranching operation failed.

In September 1903, Griffith, Tina and their son, VANDELL MORGAN GRIFFITH (1888-1974) were vacationing in the Presidential Suite of the Arcadia Hotel in Santa Monica, CA. Griffith had become increasingly paranoid and accused Tina of a) poisoning Andre Briswalter and b) conspiring with the Pope to poison him. He demanded Tina kneel before him and asked her to swear on a prayer book while answering several questions before he shot her in the face. Escaping through the window, Tina survived but she was left severely disfigured and lost her right eye. After the shooting, she would live as a virtual recluse with her sister, Lucy’s family.

During the subsequent trial, it was revealed that despite publicly claiming to be a teetotaller, Griffith was actually an alcoholic with paranoid delusions. He was convicted of assault with a deadly weapon, fined $5k and sentenced to 2 x years at San Quentin State Prison. While Griffith was in jail, in one of the fastest divorce proceedings on record at that time (4.5 minutes), Tina was granted a divorce on the grounds of cruelty and awarded custody of their son.

Side Note: This wasn’t the first time in Griffith’s life that there was a shooting, the victim was hit in the head and the shooter believed the victim was trying to ruin them. In October 1891, while Griffith was travelling by carriage with Tina and her sister to the Catholic Cemetery to decorate his mother-in-law’s grave, Griffith was shot by FRANK BURKETT. Frank had leased land from Griffith in order to open an ostrich farm. The farm failed and he was struggling to pay the rent. He was paranoid that Griffith was trying to ruin him. Frank was also suspected of setting fire to his own house. This case never went to trial though because after firing the last shot at Griffith, Frank rode his horse a few feet away and used his pistol to take his own life.

After Griffith was released from San Quentin, he set about restoring his name. After visiting Mount Wilson Observatory in 1908, he offered the city of L.A. money to build an observatory and an outdoor theatre but they decided that it probably wasn’t great from a PR standpoint to accept any more gifts from an attempted murderer (duh!). They changed their minds though after Griffith passed away from liver disease on 6 July 1919, bequeathing the city the bulk of his $1.5m estate, which was used to build the observatory (Griffith Observatory) and outdoor theatre (Greek Theater) he’d wanted.

Photo Credit (Griffith Observatory): Matthew Field, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Another famous filming location (the deserted mansion where Jim and Judy go to after Jim unsuccessfully tries to turn himself into the police and also where Plato shoots one of Buzz’s gang) was the WILLIAM O. JENKINS HOUSE (641 South Irving Boulevard). It was built for WILLIAM O. JENKINS (1878-1963), an American expatriate living in Mexico (Americas Quarterly) but he only lived there for a year (1925-6). It was then left vacant for 10 years (locals dubbed it The Phantom House) until William sold the mansion to oil magnate, JOHN PAUL GETTY (1892-1976) in 1936. In 1950, one of John’s 5 x wives was living in the mansion when the producers of Sunset Boulevard (1950) requested to film there. Mrs Getty agreed on the condition that they build her a swimming pool. The swimming pool features in this scene from ‘Sunset Boulevard’.

‘Rebel Without a Cause’ filmed there for 4 days (16, 18, 20 & 21) in April 1955. In 1957, it was sold to developers who demolished it and built the Tidewater Oil Building on the site.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this behind-the-scenes look at ‘Rebel Without a Cause.’ Check back soon for another Classic Movie Tuesday.

All the best, Louise x