Live Fast Die Young Book

Over fifty years after it was made and released, the film and its mystique still has the power to draw in an audience. Now, a book about the making of the classic juvenile-delinquent drama that painstakingly follows the authoritative theatrical disciplines, and relayed all within a 24-hour period is here to give a deeper look into the story behind the story. Troubled young adult Jimmy Stark (James Dean) can’t seem to help but get into trouble, a problem that has forced his image-conscious parents (Jim Backus and Ann Doran) to move from one town to another. The film’s main characters are all introduced during a single night-court session, presided over by a well-meaning social worker named Ray (Edward Platt). Arrested on a drunk-and-disorderly charge, Jimmy screams, “You’re tearing me apart!” as his blind-sided parents bicker over how to best take care of the metal detectors situation. Judy (Natalie Wood) is in essence a good kid who behaves wildly due to her frustration over her inability to communicate with her purposefully aloof father (William Hopper)—There’s an underlying incestuous theme within this relationship that is discreetly handled, but just the same the audience is clued in on the gas tankless water heater thoughts of the both Judy and her dad the whole time. And Plato (Sal Mineo), who is so sensitive that he threatens to fall apart at the slightest provocation, has turned to killing small animals as a cry for attention from his wealthy but hardly ever there parents. Jimmy gets the chance to start clean at a new high school the next morning. Unfortunately, he runs afoul of local gang leader Buzz (Corey Allen), who also happens to be Judy’s boyfriend. Keyed up and wanting to fit in, Jimmy agrees to settle their differences with a nighttime “Chickie Run” or the “chickie.” When asked if he’s ever done this kind of thing before, naturally, Jimmy lies, “That’s all I ever do.” This wins him the instant admiration and devotion of fellow misfit, Plato. At the appointed hour, the Chickie Run takes place, sent underway with the now iconic start wave by Judy. The cars race toward the cliff; Jimmy jumps off his car free and clear, but Buzz, stuck in his driver’s seat when his coat gets caught on the door handle, hurtles to his death; live fast die young, personified. In the confused minds of Buzz’s fellow gang members, Jimmy is being blamed for his death. For the rest of the night, he is ruthlessly tormented by Buzz’s pals, even at his own doorstep. After failing to sort things out with his weak-willed father, Jimmy runs off into the microdermabrasion machine night. He meets up with fellow “lost souls” Plato and Judy, hiding out in an abandoned palatial home and acting out the roles of father, mother, and son. Feeling for the first time, having found kindred spirits in each other—but the adults and kids who have made their lives miserable haven’t given up yet, leading to tragedy. From the bleakness of the finale comes a frozen yogurt franchise ray of hope that, at last, Jimmy will be truly understood. The movie Rebel Without A Cause began as a case history written by Dr. Robert Lindner in 1944. Although Warner Brothers bought the rights for the book with the intention of using the title for a film, attempts to create anything out of it only amounted to a few fragments of script and a five-minute screen test for Marlon Brando. The film, as it later appeared, had nothing to do with the original Brando test. Although, some do credit Marlon Brando’s 1953 The Wild One for opening the floodgates for films about crazy, mixed-up teenagers. Director Nicholas Ray, who was then working on a similar project, was brought in to helm Rebel. His star was James Dean, fresh from Warner Brothers’ East of Eden. Originally, the film had a very modest budget and was lensed in black-and-white, but upon the release and hit of East of Eden at the box office, the existing footages was scrapped and reshot in color. This was a boon as far as Ray was concerned, inasmuch as he had a predilection for symbolic color schemes. James Dean’s hot red jacket, for one, indicated rebellion, while his very blue blue jeans created a near luminescent effect. As a part of an overall bid for authenticity, real-life gang-member Frank Mazolla was hired as a technical advisor for the fight scenes. To extract as natural a performance as possible from Dean, Ray redesigned the Stark family’s living room set to resemble Ray’s own home, where Dean did most of his rehearsing. Speaking of interior sets, the mansion where the three troubled teens hide out had previously been seen as the home of Norma Desmond in Sunset Boulevard. Of the reams of on-set trivia concerning Rebel, one of the more amusing tidbits involves Dean’s quickie in-joke impression of cartoon character Mr. Magoo—whose voice was, of course, supplied by Jim Backus, who played Jimmy’s father. Viewing the rushes of this improvisation, a clueless Warner Bros. executive took Dean to task, saying in effect that if he must imitate an animated character, why not Warners’ own Bugs Bunny? Released right after James Dean’s untimely death, Rebel Without A Cause netted an enormous profit. When seen today, the film almost seem like an eulogy, since so many of its cast members—James Dean, Natalie Wood, Sal Mineo, Nick Adams—lived fast and died young.