Line #11 Trivia/RebelWithoutACause


1	* CastTheExpert: One of the gang members is Frank Mazzola, a real life teen gang member. Creator/NicholasRay hired him as a research consultant. As a result of his exposure in the film industry, Mazzola became interested in film-making and later found fame as a film editor. He's especially famous for his work on ''Film/{{Performance}}''.
2	* CastTheRunnerUp: Creator/DennisHopper was considered for Plato. He made his film debut as Goon.
3	* CompletelyDifferentTitle:
4	** The French title is ''La fureur de vivre'' (''The Furor of Living'').
5	** The Danish title of the film is ''Wild Blood'', if directly translated.
6	* TheDanza: Creator/JamesDean plays James "Jim" Stark.
7	* DawsonCasting: Creator/SalMineo and Creator/NatalieWood were the right age; Creator/JamesDean was 24 and looks it, enough that his romances with the other two feel a bit {{squick}}y.
8	* EnforcedMethodActing: Those were real switchblades used in the knife-fight. The actors wore protective chain-mail under their shirts.
9	* GayPanic: The film was originally going to contain a kiss between Creator/JamesDean and Creator/SalMineo.
10	* FriendshipOnTheSet: Creator/JamesDean, Creator/NatalieWood, Sal Mineo and Nick Adams were an inseparable foursome. Dean even encouraged Mineo to play his character as gay.
11	* MethodActing: Creator/JamesDean got angry when Creator/NicholasRay stopped the knife fight scene after noticing that Dean had been cut on the ear and was bleeding. Dean said, "Don't you ever cut a scene while I'm having a real moment."
12	* OnSetInjury:
13	** Real switchblades were used in the knife fight. Creator/JamesDean and Corey Allen wore chainmail under their clothes. Even so, Dean was injured several times while shooting the scene.
14	** Dean badly bruised his hand during the scene where he punches the desk. He had to wear an elastic bandage for a week.
15	* TheProductionCurse: All three lead actors died prematurely under tragic circumstances; Creator/JamesDean died in an automobile accident in September 30, 1955 at 24, Sal Mineo was stabbed to death on February 12, 1976 at 37, and Creator/NatalieWood drowned on November 29, 1981 at 43. In addition, Nick Adams died of an overdose on February 7, 1968 at 36, and Creator/EdwardPlatt committed suicide on March 19, 1974 at 58.
16	* RealitySubtext: Creator/NicholasRay's interest in generation gap came out of a spectacular personal trauma. He had been married twice before, had a son from his first marriage and had a terrible second marriage with actress Creator/GloriaGrahame. Then, one day, he arrived home and found out that Creator/GloriaGrahame ''[[UsefulNotes/OedipusComplex was engaged in an affair with his 13-year-old son]] from his first marriage''. Ray [[BrainBleach understandably flipped out]], and after the inevitable divorce, Ray felt guilty about the entire situation, and a lot of the themes of the film (the ParentalIncest, sexual confusion, generation gap) came from his attempt to come to terms with his own failure as a father.[[note]]His son Anthony Ray became a character actor, and appeared most notably in Creator/JohnCassavetes' ''Film/{{Shadows}}''. Despite his father's attempts to rehabilitate their relationship, Anthony Ray ''married'' Gloria Grahame in 1958, and had two children with her. Grahame also had a child with Nick Ray. RealityIsUnrealistic folks.[[/note]]
17	* RecycledSet: The empty pool in which the characters sit and discuss their lives first appeared in ''Film/SunsetBoulevard''. The pool had been built specially for the earlier film, as a condition of renting the site from its owner, Mrs J. Paul Getty.
18	* TheRedStapler:
19	** T-shirt sales soared after Creator/JamesDean wore one in this film. At the time, they were mostly considered underwear, to keep sweat stains off a collared dress shirt; this gave Dean's outfit an offensive quality [[GetTheeToANunnery totally lost on later audiences]] precisely because Dean wore it ''so very well''.
20	** The movie pushed the 1949-50 Mercury from just another used car into one of the most popular customizing platforms of the mid/late '50s.
21	* RomanceOnTheSet: The set was kind of legendary for all kinds of wild stories. Creator/DennisHopper and Creator/NatalieWood were engaged in a relationship, yet Wood also hooked up with Creator/NicholasRay, who also engaged in a relationship with Creator/SalMineo.
22	* SparedByTheCut: In 2010, a ''New York Times'' article about Creator/NicholasRay's widow Susan said she had in her archives an original, unused treatment for "Rebel" in which the ending was very different: Plato was going to shoot Jim and then blow himself up with a grenade. But another ''Times'' report in 2011 says the archive contains a Ray storyboard which shows it's Plato himself who is shot from the top of the planetarium. (A treatment is a preliminary synopsis of the story for a proposed movie that either gets written before the script is started [as in this case] or afterward so that executives at a potential producer's or investor's company won't have to read the whole script.) Further back, a 1999 interview with screenwriter Stewart Stern also mentioned the "Plato shot from the top of the planetarium" ending, as well as yet another alternate ending where the police shot first Plato, then Jim as he ran to Plato's side. This was Stern's preferred ending, but Nicholas Ray insisted on less of a DownerEnding and more of a [[BittersweetEnding bittersweet]] one.
23	* ThrowItIn:
24	** The part where Jim and Judy find Plato wearing one blue sock and one red sock was not scripted. Sal Mineo actually put them on that way by mistake.
25	** The opening scene in the movie with Jim Stark and the toy monkey was improvised by Creator/JamesDean after the production had been shooting for nearly 24 hours straight. He asked Creator/NicholasRay to roll the camera, that he wanted to do something. Ray obliged and the improvisation went on to become the famous opening scene.
26	** While the trio are pretending to be a family considering buying the mansion, Dean puts on a weird voice for exactly one line. He's doing an impression of WesternAnimation/MrMagoo, whose voice actor, Creator/JimBackus, also played Jim's father in ''Rebel''.
27	* WhatCouldHaveBeen:
28	** The film was originally supposed to be in black-and-white. The decision to shoot the film in color meant less pay for extras, which is why there were few of them in the knife fight scene.
29	** Creator/MarlonBrando did a screen test for the part of Jim in 1947, when Warner Bros. first considered making a film based on the nonfiction book. Nothing came of it, however, and when production finally got underway with a re-written script a few years later, Brando (who by that point was likely seen as too old and too much a "name" star for the role) was never considered.[[note]] Brando got his chance to play a different "rebel without a cause" in 1953's ''Film/TheWildOne''.[[/note]]
30	** 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.
31	** Some of the earlier drafts for the movie had the three main kids named Jim, Eve, and Demo. Demo was later changed to a 13-year-old boy named The Professor.
32	** Creator/PaulNewman, Creator/RobertWagner, and Creator/JohnKerr were considered for Jim.
33	** Creator/LeeRemick and Creator/DebbieReynolds was considered for Judy.
34	** Creator/AnthonyPerkins and Creator/RussTamblyn were considered for Plato.
35	** Creator/WalterMatthau was considered for Jim's father.
36	* WordOfGay: Plato is supposed to be gay (his actor Sal Mineo was bisexual), but the censors at the time wouldn't let them say it, so it's only implied. Creator/NicholasRay (himself bisexual) confirmed that Plato was gay in later interviews. He and Creator/JamesDean told Creator/SalMineo to "look at Jim like Natalie does".

Context Trivia / RebelWithoutACause