If ever a film was haunted, it's "Rebel Without a Cause," which burns as a bright memorial for stars James Dean, Natalie Wood and Sal Mineo.
All three died young. Dean perished in a car wreck at 24. Mineo was murdered at 37, and Wood drowned on a yacht trip at 43.
Dennis Hopper, who appears in a small role, was left by fate to carry the generational torch.
Dean's ghost has hovered over the film ever since it was released in October 1955, less than a month after he died. He already had his final movie, "Giant," in the can at that point. Dean's death magnified his otherworldly performance as Jim Stark, a disaffected teen who floats through life like a specter, blank and aloof.
The film, which presents itself as frank 1950s melodrama but hints at dark, subversive undertones, begins with a drunken Jim playing with a toy he's found in the ground. The cops take him in, and his parents hastily swoop in to take him home. Conversations reveal that the family has moved from town to town in efforts to give Jim a fresh start.
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Jim's parents are looking for the magic button that will transform their child into a socially compliant do-gooder who will be a productive member of society with a wife, car and 2.5 kids. If only they could realize that Jim despises the Americana from which he sprung. He despises his domineering mother and is disgusted with his henpecked dad — played by Jim Backus, recognizable as the millionaire in "Gilligan's Island" and the voice of Mr. Magoo — who wears an apron in one lengthy scene and operates out of fear and complacency.
If Jim stands for anything, it's to do what his father does not and act like a man, or at least his twisted idea of manliness. When peers call him out as a "chicken," Jim engages in knife fights or ill-advised car stunts.
Having abandoned his own family for a life of recklessness and petty crime, Jim finds a surrogate clan in Judy (Wood), the girl next door whom he connects with as a soulmate, and "Plato" (Mineo), a squeaky runt whom he befriends. The three spend much of the film's second half on the run from the cops and a gang of thugs who are out to harass Jim.
Much of the romantic tension exists between Jim and Plato, who is probably cinema's first example of a gay teen. Although Plato's attraction to Jim is subtle and underplayed, the evidence is there. To the nervous, blushing Plato, Jim is the ideal companion, and he shrugs it off when Jim rebuffs his sexual hints to pursue Judy. Plato figures if he can't be Jim's lover, he's willing to settle for the role as son.
Judy also has daddy issues of her own. After she gives her father an adoring peck, he pushes her away in an act of discomforting sexual repression and, when she presses him, explodes in hurtful rage. Plato's father has either died or abandoned him — his story changes throughout. Stripped of their role models, the kids turn to one another for guidance, forming a complex, fragile web of support.
If the vague "Rebel Without a Cause" makes anything clear, it's that the juveniles aren't the only delinquents.
Rebel Without a Cause (1955). Rated PG-13. Starring James Dean. Directed by Nicholas Ray. 111 minutes. Available on DVD. For links to other reviews in the series, go to www.azstarnet.com/sn/ review.
