Rebel Without a Cause - Trivia, Questions and Fun Facts

[discussimdb]

Fan of Rebel Without a Cause or just want to share your movie knowledge? This topic is dedicated to all trivia and questions related to Rebel Without a Cause

[linda]

Dennis Hopper and Natalie Wood had a brief relationship during filming. Wood also had an affair with Nicholas Ray, which was scandalous due to the fact that she was only 16 while he was 43 and older than her father. Even more scandalous, as revealed by informed sources to Vanity Fair magazine in 2005, Ray also had an affair with Sal Mineo.

[bernard]

Originally, the opening scene with James Dean lying on the ground next to the toy monkey was longer. Also included, was footage of a group of people driving away after enjoying their evening, failing to notice Dean.

[amber]

Before the camera rolled, Nicholas Ray went to concerted efforts to get to know James Dean. Ray visited Dean's New York stomping grounds to get a feel for his life. Ray said, "I wanted to find out all about this guy. I ran around with him, and met his friends, got drunk a couple of times and we were pretty close by the time we were ready to go to work. Whatever else Jimmy was, he was a searcher, ever on the lookout for some trick or other he could store up and use. I could see him soaking them up and I knew he had to play that part, because he could do it like no one else I knew."

[frances]

T-shirt sales soared after James Dean wore one in this film.

[elmer]

Jim Stark was actually first intended to be more of a nerd, wearing a brown jacket and glasses. However, when Warner Bros. told director Nicholas Ray to re-shoot in color, Ray, as well as costumer Moss Mabry, wanted him to wear red.

[terry]

Ann Doran said, "Jimmy [James Dean] did most of the directing. He gave us our lines; he dominated the entire thing." Dean's and Nicholas Ray's working relationship was equally bizarre. Ray often rehearsed with Dean at his Chateau Marmont bungalow, and felt the energy between them there was so powerful that he actually recreated his own living room on the set to inspire Dean. Doran also recalled, "Jimmy was a strange boy. On the first day, Jim Backus couldn't believe it. We were watching Jimmy doing his scene and someone had said, 'Quiet, we're going to shoot now.' And they got up speed and were ready for action. Jimmy went down on the floor in the fetal position for the longest time. It seemed like half a can of film . . . and Nick said, 'Action.' Jimmy stood up and went into the scene . . . [Jim and I] had never seen this "Method" of doing things. Nick seemed to be mesmerized by Jimmy".

[francisco]

Jeff Silver, Billy Gray and Dennis Hopper were considered for the role of Plato.

[javier]

Hume Cronyn, John Dehner, Rod Cameron, Walter Matthau and Raymond Burr were considered for Jim's father.

[harry]

The writing credits for the film are as follows: Stewart Stern (screenplay), Nicholas Ray (story) and Irving Shulman (adaptation). In an interview published in "Michigan Quarterly Review" in 1999, Stern claims that he had never even seen "The Blind Run", the treatment for "Rebel" supposedly written by Ray. He said he was shocked when he learned that the director wanted to take sole story credit, as there had not been an actual story before he started writing the script. Stern admits that both Ray and Shulman had contributed to the story, and he believes that the credit should have been divided between the three of them. Later, the film received an Oscar nomination for the story alone, with only Ray being nominated for writing.

[ivan]

Originally in the beginning of the movie, there was a gang beating up a father, who drops a toy on the sidewalk. The studio thought it was too violent, so it was cut. Jim Stark can be seen playing with the toy after he finds it on the ground during the opening credits.

[steve]

In 2007 the movie's line "You're tearing me apart" was voted as the #97 of "The 100 Greatest Movie Lines" by Premiere magazine.

[nina]

When the scenes were shot for the chickie run aftermath when the teenagers ran to the edge of the cliff to look down; they witnessed what looked like the sun rising and exploding. Steffi Sidney, who played Mil, would later comment that it looked like an atomic bomb went off, and it was. What they witnessed was "Zucchini", the 14th and final fission bomb (weighing 28 kilotons) launched for Operation Teapot.

[dustin]

In the final scene where the camera pulls away from the observatory, director Nicholas Ray is the person walking toward the building. (possible director's trademark for it is rumored he appeared in all of his movies)

[ethel]

The empty pool in which the characters sit and discuss their lives first appeared in Sunset Blvd. (1950). The pool had been built specially for the earlier film, as a condition of renting the site from its owner, Mrs J. Paul Getty.

[michele]

Just before filming began on one of the screen tests, a fistfight nearly resulted between two of the cast (also known as real street gang members) off-camera. As a result, the screen test shows the different actors all shaking hands with each other, reducing the tension.

[wesley]

The arguments Hopper and Ray had over their affairs with Natalie Wood resulted in most of Hopper's lines being cut. Ray wanted him fired but his contract with Warner Bros wouldn't allow it.

[ray]

According to a biography of Natalie Wood, she almost did not get the role of Judy because director Nicholas Ray thought that she did not fit the role of the wild teen character. While on a night out with friends, she got into a car accident. Upon hearing this, Ray rushed to the hospital. While in delirium, Wood overheard the doctor murmuring and calling her a "goddamn juvenile delinquent"; she soon yelled to Ray, "Did you hear what he called me, Nick?! He called me a goddamn juvenile delinquent! NOW do I get the part?!"