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James Dean gives the best performance of the year!!. - Chicago Tribune - Ask anybody, EAST OF EDEN is Steinbeck's masterpiece. Its sons and lovers, its saints and sinners, its losers and winners all have the look of, and the yen for, life. If these bone-saw, flesh-real people stormed almost bodily off Steinbeck's electric pages, you can imagine what happens to them in the hands of Elia Kazan, who just about invented screen realism as it is known today. EAST OF EDEN is one for the book - the one where they keep all the records of all the awards!...This is James Dean - a very special star! - New York Times March 1955 - The picture is brilliant entertainment and more than that, it announces a new star, James Dean, whose prospects look as bright as any young actor's since Marlon Brando...Dean, a young man from Indiana, is unquestionably the biggest news Hollywood had made in 1955...Dean tries so hard to find the part in himself that he often forgets to put himself into the part. But no matter what he is doing, he has the presence of a young lion and the same sende of danger about him. His eye is as empty as an animal's and he lolls and gallops with the innocence and grace of an animal. Then, occasionally, he flicks a sly little look that seems to say: "Well, all this is human, too - or had you forgotten?" - TIME March 1955- Quality film based on the steinbeck novel. Excellent production, acting and direction. Introducing James Dean who may be a hypo at the box office. - Hollywood Reporter - James Dean: I can't remember when any screen newcomer generated as much excitement in Hollywood as did James Dean in his first picture East Of Eden. - Hedda Hoppers Hollywood - EAST OF EDEN STAR PRAISED BY TEACHER. "It was beyond all we had expected," Mrs. Adeline Nall, Fairmount High School teacher, said Tuesday of the performance by her former student, James Dean, in Warner Brothers East Of Eden..."It didn't seem strange at all to watch Jim work in this fine movie,' Mrs. Nall said. 'All of us felt we were right there with him. Many of the movements of Cal Trask, were characteristic movements of James Dean.' she continued. 'His funny little laugh, which ripples with the slightest provocation; his quick, jerky, springy walks and actions; his sudden change from frivolity to gloom-all were just like Jim used to do.." - Marion Chronicle-Times April 1955 - He (Jimmy Dean) will inevitably be compared to Marlon Brando, fro Kazan has stamped him with the same hesitant manner of speech, the same blind groping for love and security that he gave Brando in On The Waterfront. But if the performances are akin, so are the roles, and to complain about the similarity would be quibbling..Everything about Dean suggests the lonely, misunderstood nineteen year old. Even from a distance you know a lot about him by the way he walks-with his hands in his pockets and his head down, slinking like a dog waiting for a bone. When he talks, he stammers and pauses, uncertain of what he is trying to say. When he listens, he is full of restless energy-he stretches, he rolls on the ground, he chins himself on the porch railing, like a small boy impatient of his elders' chatter....Occasionally, he smiles unaccountably as if at some dark joke known only to him. - William Zinsser New York Herald Tribune - Only a small part of John Steinbeck's East Of Eden has been used in the motion picture version of it that Elia Kazan has done, and it is questionable whether that part contains the best of the book...But the stubborn fact is that the people who move about in the film are not suffciently well established to give point to the anguish through which they go, and the demostrations of their torment are perceptibly stylized and grotesque. Especially is this true of James Dean in the role of Cal..He scuffs his feet, he whirls, he pouts, he sputters, he leans against walls, he rolls his eyes, he swallows his words, he ambles slack-kneed-all like Marlon Brando used to do...Whatever there might be of reasonable torment in this youngster is buried beneath the clumsy display. - Bosley Crowther - (who obviously doesn't know what a great actor is) The box office asset of a handsome and dynamic young actor named James Dean. This is the boy who is apt to captivate the typical movie fans whether or not they like tragic stories. He is that rare thing, a young actor who is a great actor, and the troubled eloquence with which he puts over the problems of misunderstood youth may lead to his being accepted by young audiences as a sort of symbol of their generation. He's the only actor I've seen who'd be completely right for Romeo...If this film is to reap the profits it deserves no time should be lost in giving him a big fan magazine build-up, not because he is trivial, but because it's the quickest way to rally people to his support. - Jack Moffit - East Of Eden is a somber mood piece that may break no box-office records. But it will be received gratefully by anyone with more than an escapist interest in screen. -Newsweek March 1955 -
Powerfully somber dramatics from the pages of John Steinbeck's East Of Eden have been captured and put on film by Elia Kazan in this class screen treatment. It is a tour de force for the director's penchant for hard-hitting forays with life, and as such undoubtedly will be counted among his best screen efforts. Much pro and con probably will develop about James Dean, unknown to whom Kazan gives fullscale introduction. It is no credit to Kazan that Dean plays his lead character as though he were straight out of a Marlon Brando mold. Just how flexible his talent his will have to be judged on future screen roles, although he has a basic appeal that manages to get through to the viewers despite the carboning another's acting style. Miss Harris gives her particular style to an effective protrayal of the girl torn between the love offered by the good brother and the sex attraction to the neurotic. Davalos wins sympathy with an excellent performance for his film debut. Massey is fine as the religious father who finds it difficult to understand the need his neurotic son has for affection. -Daily Variety, February 1955 - East of Eden (1955) is director Elia Kazan's updated re-telling of the Biblical story of rival brothers, Cain and Abel and a paradise lost. Writer Paul Osborn's screenplay adapted John Steinbeck's 1952 novel with the same title for this dramatic Warner Bros. film. [The film tells only a small portion of Steinbeck's work, leaving out the childhood of the parents and the Chinese character of Lee.] One of the film's posters exclaimed: East of Eden is a story of explosive passions and Elia Kazan has made it into a picture of staggering power. James Dean represents the unappreciated son Cal (representing Cain) who vies against his dull, stuffy brother Aron (representing Abel) for the affections of their father. The maligned Cain character, representing the unlikeable and outcast Kazan himself (for naming names before the HUAC Committee in 1952), becomes the hero of this film. As the poster stated, "Sometimes you can't tell who's good and who's bad!..." The film, set in 1917 at a time just before the US entry into World War I, portrays the relationship between insecure, tortured, neurotic loner Caleb "Cal" Trask (James Dean, his first major role and film) and his dutiful, favored brother Aron (Richard Davalos) - twin sons. Their father is a stern, hardened, devoutly religious, self-righteous man, Adam (Raymond Massey), a lettuce farmer living with his family in Salinas, California. Bible-reading father Adam loses his temper at Cal for "the iniquities of his sins," and shouts: "You have no repentance. You're bad, through and through, bad." Cal replies: You're right. I am bad. I knew that for a long time...It's true. Aron's the good one. I guess there's just a certain amount of good and bad you get from your parents and I just got the bad. He knows his father lied to the children that their mother had died and tells him he believes his mother Kate (Jo Van Fleet) is alive. He asks if she is bad, knowing she is a brothel madam in nearby Monterey. He justifies to himself why his father loves Aron more than him: ...she ain't no good and I ain't no good. I knew there was a reason why I wasn't (good)...I hate her and I hate him too. Cal also worships Abra (Julie Harris), his brother Aron's sweetheart. Next to a lettuce field, when a Mexican field worker who is interested in Cal interrupts a talk he is having with Abra, she advises him to tell the jealous woman that she is his brother's girl, but Cal counters with: "I don't have to explain anything to anybody." In a dramatic scene, he speaks to his mother in Monterey, telling her he is more like her. He asks her why she abandoned Adam and the family. She responds: He wanted to tie me down. He wanted to keep me on a stinking little ranch away from everybody. Keep me all to himself. Well, nobody holds me...He wanted to own me. He wanted to bring me up like a snot-nosed kid and tell me what to do...Always so right himself, knowing everything. Reading the Bible at me! She praises her own successful brothel business and the town's hypocrites: "I've got the toughest house on the coast - and the finest clientele. Yeah! Half the stinking city hall go there." Cal requests and receives $5,000 from her to finance an investment in profitable beans, to aid his father who has failed in a costly scheme to refrigerate lettuce (and to "buy" his father's love). In the memorable "Ferris wheel" scene, Abra confides and confesses to Cal that she thinks she isn't good enough for Aron. Their intimate conversation leads to a kiss, but then she pulls back immediately: "I love Aron, I do, really I do," hurting Cal tremendously. In the film's most memorable scene, the birthday gift scene at his father's surprise birthday, Adam joyfully accepts the announcement of the engagement of Aron and Abra as a birthday present - and blesses their news. Then, he rejects Cal's gift of earnings (an investment on bean futures "at five cents, and the war came along and the price went sky high") to help restore the family's lost resources - for all the money his father lost in the lettuce business. His father declines for lofty moral reasons: Do you think I could take a profit from that?...I don't want the money, Cal. I couldn't take it...I'll never take it. Son - I'd be happy if you'd give me something like, well, like your brother's given me, something honest and human and good...If you want to give me a present, give me a good life. That's something I could value. Filmed with a slanted camera angle, Cal (with aching and self-pity) completely breaks down with the money splayed out in his hand as he attempts to hug his father. When empathetic Abra comforts him in his grief outside the house under a weeping willow tree, Aron threatens him: Don't you ever touch her again! I don't trust you. You're no good. You're mean and vicious and wild. And you always have been. You know it too, don't you? Father and I have put up with every mean and vicious thing you could think of ever since you were a child, and we've always forgiven you. But now, I don't want you to go near Abra. I don't want you to talk with her. Just stay away from her. Cal retaliates by revealing "the truth," taking Aron to their mother and revealing the secret lies about their mother and her sinful profession. Mother, this is your other son Aron. Aron is everything that's good, Mother. Aron, say hello to your Mother. The good Aron falls apart, and Adam suffers a stroke. Abra tries to explain to bed-ridden Adam why Cal behaved like he did: It's awful not to be loved...makes you mean and violent and cruel. Her words bring about a reconciliation between Cal and his father, and Cal sits at his father's bedside to care for him. - Tim Dirks - Plot of this film, based on the novel by John Steinbeck, is set in California during World War One. Adam Trask (played by Raymond Massey) is a ranch owner in Salinas Valley, righteous and noble man whose respect in the community is undiminished even after disastrous business venture. Everyone around Adam seems to be happy except his son Cal (played by James Dean), troubled young man who was always jealous of the love and attention his brother Aron (played by Richard Davalos) receives from his father. His jealousy was recently inflamed with his feelings towards Aron's girlfriend Abra (played by Julie Harris), as well as with frustrating discovery of estranged mother Kathie (played by Jo Van Fleet), owner of the brothel in nearby town. In Cal's mind, the only way to earn love and respect of his father lies in a business venture that would compensate father's recent losses. His scheme, that includes borrowing money from mother and investing in beans, business made lucrative by war, is successful but it actually causes a chain of events with tragic consequences. I never read Steinbeck's novel, but long time ago I've been watching 1981 four-hour mini-series based on it. That series, naturally, covered much larger territory than Kazan's cinema version, and, consequently, all who watch the latter one can't help noticing lack of many interesting subplots, situations and characters. Compared with television version, 1954 script by Paul Osborn looks barren and simplistic, and the story sometimes have biblical elements that are too obvious. On the other hand, despite that, EAST OF EDEN still has strong dramatic potentials, and director Kazan uses that by assembling terrific cast which gave memorable performances. The only one awarded by "Oscar" for this film was Raymond Massey as virtuous Adam, and his role is really engaging, since it requires whole set of different emotional states - from patriarchal stoicism, across despair towards final and inner serenity. But, the real star of this film is, naturally, James Dean. He was simply perfect to play this part, because troubled, neurotic Cal in many ways resembles misfit, rebellious 1950s youth in America - generation whose icon Dean later became. Dean used method acting to the full extent (with Kazan making deliberately him drunk during the shooting of one scene), and although, especially in the beginning, his mannerism could slide into overacting, in the end it rewards our patience with strong emotional impact. Jo Van Fleet, who played his mother, received a "Oscar" nomination, but her performance, although good, didn't deserve it, at least not compared with underrated role by Julie Harris. Harris, who would later be remembered most by her role in 1963 version of HAUNTING, was perfect for the role of Abra; she portrays her as plain looking yet attractive all-American girl, the only person that can find understanding for troubled Cal, since deep under her righteous surface she shares his frustrations. Since he had such a good cast, Kazan probably thought that he shouldn't much bother with the visual details. EAST OF EDEN looks plain in all scenes that don't feature actors, and even some that do aren't best directed. Idea to symbolise conflict and the twisted states of mind through unusual camera angles was already used by other directors and here it gives impression of artificiality that was quite unnecessary for this film. On the other hand, Kazan in this film used opportunity to comment on some darker sides of American society. EAST OF EDEN is one of the rare films that deal with anti-German chauvinist hysteria that erupted in USA immediately after American entry into WW1. Although apocryphal in the context of this film, this subplot would be quite interesting for some who are still troubled with the way USA treated its Japanese citizens in the next world war, as well for those who are still undecided about Kazan's own role during McCarthy hearings. But, I doubt that many would watch EAST OF EDEN with such heavy thoughts on their mind. James Dean is still the main reason why should we enjoy this very good example of 1950s cinema. - Dragan Antulov - Overwrought, often splendid Kazan version of the Steinbeck novel. The movie's chief distinction is the amazing debut of rebellious, romantic James Dean, who in this and his next film, REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE, would enshrine the misunderstood teen, and become a tragic icon in his own right. Dean plays the neurotic son of Massey, a devoutly religious lettuce farmer whose vast acreage stretches through the rich Salinas Valley of California. Dean's twin brother (Davalos, also making a powerful film debut) is well adjusted and upstanding, involved in a stable relationship with girlfriend Harris and diligently pursuing the development of his father's lands. Dean is his brother's opposite: troubled and troublesome, he challenges all authority, including his father's, and mistakenly believes that Davalos is the favored son. It's the Cain and Abel story, circa 1917, and the rush from stability to destruction and tragedy is swift, as Dean seeks to undo his brother and himself. A powerful film whose influence can be seen in HUD and most other antihero films, EAST OF EDEN is masterfully directed by Kazan. All the principals give riveting performances, but it was Dean who emerged as an overnight sensation. EDEN also features a quintessentially hardbitten performance from Van Fleet, who won an Oscar for her pains. - TV GUIDE -
On March 6th, James officially announced for the role of Cal Trask in East of Eden. He then boarded his first flight back to Hollywood with Elia Kazan where he signed a contract with Warner Brothers. He was advanced $700, for which he used to purchase his first sportscar, a used MG TA. May 27th, East Of Eden begins shooting in Mendocino, CA, before moving to Salinas for a week and then back to Warner Brothers for indoor scenes. "East Of Eden is a study in dualities-that it is necessary to arrive at goodness through a sense of the Satanic rather than the puritanic...I considered it a great challenge to reveal honestly the things in my part that were of myself as well as the character" Dean continues"No, I didn't read the novel. The way I work I'd much rather justify myself with the adaption rather than the source. I felt I wouldn't have any trouble-too much, anyway-with this characterisation once we started because I think I understood the part. I knew too , that if I had any problems over the boy's background I could straighten it out with Kazan.." "I cast Jimmy because he was Cal. There was no point in attempting to cast it better. Jimmy was it. He had a grudge against all fathers. He was vengeful, he had a sense of aloofness and of being persecuted;and he was suspicious." Elia Kazan said of casting James in his first leading role in a motion picture. "We spent all afternoon and he couldn't do a scene right. So I got him loaded on red wine that night. He couldn't drink a lot because he was sort of unstable and liqour would affect him, but I gave him two drinks of wine and he did the scene great". The scene Kazan is referring too is the one where Cal shows up outside Abra's window in the middle of the night. "We began to suspect something outstanding was going to happen with him about three quarters of the way through the picture. You could see that he was just so good. I've never seen anything like it in the movies in my whole life including Marlon Brando - Elia Kazan-" It was during the making of East OF Eden that James met a young starlet by the name of Pier Angeli. The two soon began dating, and it has been said that she was the love of his life, of course only James himself knows the truth about that."Nothing complicated, just a nice girl for a change. I mean, you know, I can talk to her. She understands. Nothing messy, just an easy kind of friendly thing. I respect her. She's untouchable. We're members of totally different castes. You know, she's the kind of girl you put on a shelf and look at. Anyway, her old lady doesn't like me. Can't say I blame her." "Mother, this is your other son Aron. Aron is everything that's good, Mother. Aron, say hello to your Mother." There is something wonderfully basic about the James Dean legacy. He really only made three films. All of them were arguably excellent and his performances in each are without a doubt brilliant and fiery. He died young so he never ages except in the closing moments of Giant. Every character he played had solid American one syllable names like Cal Trask, Jim Stark, and Jett Rink. He was usually garbed in the eternally cool combination of blue jeans and a plain white shirt so he never seems dated or out of touch. The camera loved him and despite the brevity of his career there seems to be as many still photos of him around as there are of Madonna. I've met people who idolized the guy enough to litter their apartments with his likeness who had never even seen one of his films. Even his death at the wheel of a Porsche Spider is suitably romantic and edgy. "East of Eden" was the only film that came out while Dean was alive and it remains his best film and most electric performance. In Rebel Without a Cause, he was a little confused and his Dad was sympathetically ineffectual, here he is convinced that he was born a bad seed and his Dad is a bible thumping taskmaster unable to show his desperate to please son any sort of sympathy or love. Based on the John Steinbeck novel, East of Eden recasts the Cain and Abel story in Salinas, California. Richard Davalos is the high minded good egg Aron. Both Aron and Dean have been led to believe that their Mother is dead, and Aron especially is convinced that she was some kind of saintly presence in her time on Earth. Meanwhile, ultra religious Dad (Raymond Massey) is desperately wasting all of his money trying to refrigerate lettuce for long train rides. Dean isn't just a little confused here he is downright tormented and you can see it in his twisted gnarled and tightly conflicted body language. He leans, slouches, and alternates his speech between resigned mumbles of annoyance and rifle shot explosions of occasional anger. Dean's Cal is desperate for his father's love and approval and the fact that he doesn't have it makes him angry as a bear. In essence, he perfectly reflected the discomforting truth of the modern American teenager. They've been trying to interpret the modern teen ever since and no one has ever come close to his accuracy or his cool, and God knows ever self respecting, self reflecting want to be hip person has spent every second of their lives trying. There was a reason that Elvis Presley memorized every one of his lines in every one of his movies. It helps that he acts his ass off here, but the fact that he is achingly beautiful doesn't hurt either. Never in the history of movies was a film so absolutely enraptured by its subject than East of Eden is with Dean. The camera desperately records his every twist and turn of emotion as if preserving it were of the utmost importance. As much as Dean's Cal wants his fathers love, Elia Kazan seems to be equally fascinated and in love with every one of Dean's movements. Just about every scene Dean has with Raymond Massey here is unbelievable. The fact that Massey disliked Dean in real life apparently helped things along. Early in the movie Massey sits across a long table from Dean. The close ups are always slanted to show Dean on the bottom and Massey at the top. Massey tells Dean to read a list from the bible. Dean reads it back hostilely. Massey instructs him to leave out the numbers, but Dean growing angrier by the second would rather be struck dead on the spot than give in. All of Dean's characters are pretty easy to tick off. In Rebel, he would have played Russian Roulette with six bullets if you ever dared to call him chicken to try it. Dean's Cal has discovered that his mother is still alive, and that his father has covered up the fact that she left him all of his life. When he discovers that she is a well heeled hard bitten madame up in Monterey, he becomes convinced that Aron inherited the good biblical nature from his father and that he got all the bad from his mother. Again Dean is left twisted and tormented in agony. The fact that Aron has his father's love makes him want to hate his brother, but years and years of being told that Aron was the second coming have convinced him that it is true. Ice Cube's relationship with Morris Chestnut in Boyz 'N' the Hood is exactly parallel. Both have been conditioned to believe that the other brother's life was so much more important than their own. Julie Harris' Abra is the perfect portrait of the modern American young woman. She is Aron's girlfriend, and Dean scares her to death. Of course this just makes her want him all the more. Her brain tells her to be with Aron, but every other part of her is fascinated by Dean's walk on the wild side. This movie came out around the same time Leo Durocher said "Nice Guys Finish Last" and East of Eden is documented proof. Dean's Cal has his strong sides. He works like a mule to help his fathers lettuce nonsense succeed and when it fails concocts a bean investing scheme to make back the money the previous episode burned up. His hopes of providing his father with this birthday present get trumped by Aron's engagement announcement, and then to top it off his father finds a way to disapprove of how he made the money. When Massey refuses the money from Dean, Dean breaks down and tries to hug his father. Massey recoils from him and Dean's subsequent devastation is probably the most painfully electric acting I've ever seen. It's just seconds later that he comes out from under the darkness of a willow tree to embrace the bad side and share some pain with his brother. Something like this is probably why Anakin joined the dark side. East of Eden has all this, Burl Ives(!), an ecstatic Dean dance in a bean field, Richard Davalos putting his head through a train window, and an ending that makes me cry every time. What could be a better way to spend two hours. - Brad Laidman - Why East of Eden? I've seen the Sight and Sound polls that come out every ten years, and this film barely caused a ripple in the great pond of world film criticism. I'll allow that Citizen Kane really is the greatest film ever made (although, curiously, it didn't get a single vote from the French in the latest poll). However, East of Eden is the film that has meant the most to me over the years. This retelling of the oldest story in Western Civilization worked when it was released in 1955 and it works now. In the following words, I will try to tell something about the film and how it has impacted my life for some 40 years. The 1960s "Everybody lives their favorite movie," said my friend Bob Steele as we were driving to school at Arizona State University. His point was that people who were swingers went around humming the theme song to La Dolce Vita, and romantics started growing facial hair in imitation of Dr. Zhivago. That statement made sense to me at the time, and I've had many chances to see it in action for the following decades. At the time my favorite movie was Lawrence of Arabia, the story of an oddball intellectual who went into a very different culture and became very important. By 1967, I had only progressed to the point of being an oddball intellectual. In just a few years, Lawrence would be deposed by a film that I had seen in the mid 1960’s. I first saw East of Eden out of curiosity – James Dean was not a cultural icon then but rather an almost forgotten actor who met a tragic end when my crop of teenagers were in grade school. By 1970, I had seen the movie several times and read the original novel by John Steinbeck. Synopsis The opening credits are played to an establishing shot of the Pacific coast city of Monterey, California in the time just before the beginning of World War One. At the bank, an old woman is making a large deposit. Because of the giggly reaction of the bank clerks and the outraged looks on the face of town women, you know that this woman is making money from illicit trade (This was 1955 – they can't use the word "prostitution"). As she begins to walk home, she is followed by a young man with a tortured demeanor. At her house, he gets the attention of her bouncer by throwing a rock. "You just tell her that I hate her." The young man is Cal (played by James Dean), and the old woman is Kate (played by Jo Van Fleet, who won an Oscar for best supporting actress for this role), the mother who mysteriously left him and his father and brother while he was a child. Cal strongly suspects who she is, based on a story some low-life had told him. In the next scene, Cal joins his brother Aron (played by Richard Davalos) and Aron's girlfriend Abra (Julie Harris) at the icehouse that their father, Adam, is about to buy in nearby Salinas. Adam, played with stiff propriety by Raymond Massey, has a plan to preserve California lettuce with ice and send it to the East coast. His demeanor in dealing with his two sons tells the whole story – the beaming Aron can do no wrong, but Adam just can't understand Cal, who has his own ideas about making money. "Maybe I'm not trying to make money," says Adam, coldly. Cal goes to the top of the ice house, where his rage overcomes him and he begins to throw the ice out the door and down a ramp into oblivion. That night, the father and two sons are sitting at the dinner table for a Bible reading. Adam asks Cal to read, but his surly attitude causes Adam to blow up at the boy. Cal replies, "You're right father. Everybody has got a certain amount of good and bad in them, and I just got all the bad." As they sit on opposite sides of the table with heads bowed, Cal begins asking pointed questions about their mother, who had supposedly died at childbirth. "My mother, she's not dead and gone, is she?" Adam confesses that he lied to save his sons from pain. Back in Monterey, Cal sneaks into his mother's bar, and slips in to Kate's office, crouching at her feet so quietly that she doesn't notice him. When she sees the boy looking up at her in a worshipful pose, she shrieks and summons the bouncer who promptly drags the boy out as he keeps yelling, "I just want to talk to you." At the jailhouse, the gruff but good-hearted sheriff, played by Burl Ives, fills in the details of how Cal's family broke up. Kate had been a beautiful woman, and the naive Adam fell for her hard. When she left Adam and the babies, the father gave up on life. "He's a good man, Cal. Don't sell him short." Cal goes home with a new resolve to help in the lettuce operation. As Cal is hard at work supervising the lettuce workers, he encounters Abra, who invites him to talk while he eats his lunch in the field. She has figured out what is on Cal's mind, and tells him that she knows what it feels like to be unloved by her father. With great fanfare, the train leaves Salinas, but it almost immediately runs into trouble and the lettuce is ruined, along with the financial fortunes of Adam. In an effort to prove that he is the true worthy son, Cal dreams up a scheme to speculate in bean futures and win back the money that Adam lost. He enlists the help of a town businessman, and borrows $5000 from an unlikely source – his mother. Kate is now charmed by Cal because she sees him as the son who is more like her. The war comes to America, and Cal is pleased because it is making his bean venture a potential gold mine. Adam volunteers to work on the local draft board, and must dislodge unwilling sons from local farms to fight in an increasingly frustrating war. One night, a carnival comes to Salinas, and Cal happens to meet Abra. He volunteers to stay with her until Aron arrives. When they go on the ferris wheel Abra confesses that she thinks Aron sees her as the mother he never had, and feels that she is bad in comparison with this ideal. The two kiss, but quickly come to their senses. In a rapid-fire series of events, Cal jumps off the ferris wheel and gets into a fist fight in support of Aron, who is then enraged at Cal for resorting to violence. Cal gets drunk, and when Abra comforts him, Aron starts to catch on and warns Cal to stay away from Abra. Cal decides to cash in his share of the bean enterprise and give Adam the money for his birthday. On the day of the party, Cal and Abra are acting like a couple as they decorate the house. Adam and Aron arrive. Adam approves of Aron's gift. Adam looks at Cal's gift of money with confusion and then disdain. "It's all the money you lost in the lettuce business," said Cal. Adam rebuffs Cal again. "You'll have to give it back. I can't profit from the misfortunes of others." Cal starts moaning, and moves to Adam in slow motion, hugging him and throwing the money at his back. He then runs out and hides in the yard. When Aron goes out to confront him, Cal invites him to Monterey. "I've got something to show you," says Cal. He leads the stunned brother into Kate's office and walks away. Before the night is out, Aron will get drunk and enlist in the Army. Adam, Cal and Abra go to see him as the troop train pulls out, and a laughing Aron pushes out the train window by butting it with his head. Adam collapses with a stroke and is taken home to be cared for by an insufferable nurse. Cal and Abra realize that they must make their peace with Adam. Abra goes in to plead Cal's case. "You're never given Cal your love or asked for his." She told him that he must give Cal some sign of acceptance. When Cal goes in, he tries to talk with Adam but gets choked up again. Adam calls him closer and tells him to get rid of the nurse. "You take care of me," says Adam. Cal pulls up a chair and waits at his father's side. James Dean When Kazan was casting East of Eden, he took great care in choosing Cal. While the Steinbeck novel was a multigenerational epic, the movie adaptation only covered the last third of the book and Cal is on screen for all but a couple of minutes. Kazan could have chosen Marlon Brando, who had a track record in playing surly, rebellious youths. After considerable testing, he kept coming back to a virtual unknown Broadway actor named James Dean. Kazan did not like Dean (he later commented that Dean walked like a crab), but sensed that he would make a better Cal than Brando because Dean had emotional issues that were a perfect match. The casting decision was seconded by Steinbeck, who also didn't like the actor. Kazan accompanied the young actor from New York to California. On their way in from the airport, Dean asked that he be allowed a detour to visit his father. Kazan noticed that the father and son could barely stand each other, and that confirmed that Dean had issues that could be used in the film. In a biography at the end of his career, Raymond Massey confirmed that the discomfort between Adam and Cal went beyond acting. Massey, who was raised in the old school of thespian behavior thought that Dean's mood swings and prima donna behavior was unprofessional. Kazan upped the ante with occasional tricks. In the scene where Dean is reading the Bible, he is actually spouting a stream of profanity, so Massey's blow-up is genuine. Similarly, the birthday party scene where a crying Cal embraces his father was improvised by Dean on the spot and the shocked look on Massey's face is genuine. For a man who grew up as an only child, Dean was particularly good at playing the sibling rivalry with Richard Davalos. On the other hand, Dean lost his mother at an early age, and the evidence that he is mining his own emotions is most evident in the scene where he is being dragged from Kate's office. When he yells "Talk to me, mother," the effect is absolutely haunting. Dean knew that this film was his big chance, and he gave a 100% effort here throughout. By the time he had done two more films, his performances were more polished but less genuine. Had he lived, he may have never given this kind of performance again, but given his knack for occasional brilliance he might have. On September 30, 1955, Dean was killed in a car accident, ironically on his way to Salinas for a car race. The next morning, Kazan was given the news by his neighbor, John Steinbeck. Neither man was surprised. Convergences Since the time I started college and began reading Steinbeck, his work and East of Eden in particular have weaved into my life – sometimes deliberately and sometimes not. In 1965, I was in English class with a part-time actor who was prominent in the school plays at Phoenix College. He was Nick Nolte, who later went on to star in the film adaptation of "Cannery Row". Years later, I was working at the library on a project of adding book pockets to hardbound books that had been donated to the library. I noticed that someone had written in a copy of East of Eden – it turned out that this was one of the special set of first editions autographed by Steinbeck. Instead of being treated like a junk paperback, this book ended up in the library's rare books room. In the 1980's I did some research and found out that the filming of the Monterey sequences of the film had actually been done in Mendocino – a coastal town well north of San Francisco. We traveled there in 1985 and were delighted to see that the streets had changed little since the film was made. It was more than a bit eerie walking through those dusty streets. After I got my master's degree in library science and began working in universities, I pursued part-time writing, and did some work for the Dictionary of American Biography and later Scribner's encyclopedia of American lives. I managed to get assignments to write the retrospective biographies of Raymond Massey and Burl Ives. From the 1960's to the 1990's I must have seen the film at least a dozen times. Even in art house showings, the film was always in the pan and scan rather than the wide-screen release that I kept reading about. Finally in the late 1990's the American Movie Classics channel showed it in the original wide-screen, and it made quite a difference. I was disappointed that East of Eden had not yet been released in DVD in America by 2000, so I managed to get a Hong Kong release from Ebay, and felt that I was truly seeing it for the first time. A long sequence where the lettuce train is heading into the mountains can only be truly appreciated in wide screen. Conclusion My criterion for a personal favorite film is one that says something about my life, has some tragic and some comic elements, and contains images that stay with you forever. East of Eden scores on all of these points. It must be said that I found it easy to identify with the basic story because I grew up in a family with only one brother, and sometimes felt like the odd son out. Kazan wrote that this was the first film where he allowed himself to lighten up and include some humorous moments – a scene where Adam is learning how to start a car, and the mirror sequence at the fair are fun to watch. I know the film so well that the synopsis in this article was written entirely from memory, but I have always cried at the ending. When Steinbeck started writing the novel, he envisioned it as a fancy box which would contain everything that was inside of him at the half century mark. In spite of the abbreviation of the film, he thought it was a masterpiece. For what it is worth, that is my impression as well. - Terry Ballard -
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