Tag Archives: Rebel Without a Cause

An Acting Lesson: John Wayne and the “Reality of the Doing”

An old piece, re-posted for John Wayne’s birthday: In one lengthy scene in Hondo, filmed in one almost unbroken take, Wayne makes horseshoes in the little outdoor smith in the yard. Geraldine Page hovers nearby. He talks to her about … Continue reading

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For James Dean’s Birthday

Some links: For Library of America: I wrote about East of Eden … an essay I had been waiting to write for almost my whole entire life. For my Substack, a re-post of the piece I wrote in 2013 on … Continue reading

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“It’s a situation I’ve never been able to fathom. One minute, it seemed I had more movie offers than I could handle, the next — no one wanted me.” — Sal Mineo

It’s his birthday today. I cannot imagine what it must have been like to be a gay kid in the 1950s and see Rebel Without a Cause, particularly Sal Mineo’s performance as “Plato,” the lonely teenage boy, with a picture … Continue reading

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Substack: “You can wake up now, the universe has ended.”

For James Dean’s birthday: posted to my Substack the piece I wrote in 2013 about Rebel Without a Cause. No paywall.     Thank you so much for stopping by. If you like what I do, and if you feel … Continue reading

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Year in Review: Shooting My Mouth Off in 2013

Some of the things I’ve written in 2013, for my own site, and also other outlets. Thoughts on Memphis. “Memphis is wounded, and Memphis is obviously depressed. There are a lot of sad ghosts here. But Memphis does not forget. … Continue reading

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Jennifer McCabe on Acting: “Bring Yourself.”

Jennifer McCabe I met Jennifer McCabe in 1995 when we both were grad students at the Actors’ Studio MFA Program in Manhattan. We became friends, of a sort, during our 9 a.m. dance classes at the Alvin Ailey Dance Studio … Continue reading

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The Books: “James Dean: The Mutant King” (David Dalton)

Daily Book Excerpt: Entertainment Biography/Memoir: James Dean: The Mutant King: A Biography, by David Dalton I described my obsessive-compulsive response to seeing East of Eden here in this post about Carroll Baker. James Dean was the first. He was the … Continue reading

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Daily Dean Stockwell fix

Ah, the happy innocent 1950s. When good girls didn’t and bad boys stayed on their side of the tracks where they belonged. Yeah, uhm, not so much, not so much. Shots from The Careless Years, 1957 – a movie I … Continue reading

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Today in 1955, James Dean Died At the Age of 24

He had made 7 movies, but only 3 where he was “credited”. East of Eden (which basically changed my life when I first saw it) was the only one of his 3 major films (East of Eden, Rebel without a … Continue reading

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