Martin Scorsese was 13 when he saw James Dean in Rebel Without a Cause in 1955, shortly after the actor died in a car crash at the age of 24. Not only was Dean the epitome of cool, but the actor also emanated vulnerability in the Nicholas Ray-directed drama exploring teen angst.
“I’ll never forgot it,” the legendary Oscar-winning director, who is pretty cool himself, told the Los Angeles Times in 2013. He felt the same when he saw Dean in his first starring role earlier that year in Elia Kazan’s East of Eden. So much so that “I kept going back to see the picture over and over again. To say that I identified with Dean in the movie, as an actor and as a character-they were the same to us: There was no separation-is way too mild. The identification was total, even violent and suddenly, he was dead.”
The actor “represented to so many of us that he really was us, and then he was gone…but then there he was in this new movie. And it was that movie, a movie that was all about life and death and about being misunderstood…Dean was suddenly a creature of cinema; that was where he lived. And it made for an overwhelming experience.”
And after all of these decades, Rebel, which also starred Oscar-nominated Natalie Wood and Sal Mineo, is still powerful because of “the visual dynamism-the color, the composition, the locations-tied to the emotional dynamisn: Every exchange is so painful, there is such a longing to connect shared by all the characters, especially when they’re at their most guarded and embarrassed. And then, suddenly, the barriers between certain characters break down, just fall away…Not many movies have caught that.”
TCM is kicking off its December TCM Spotlight of Cool in the Movies hosted by Alicia Malone with Rebel Without a Cause.
On December 5, 12 and 26, Malone will explore various aspects of cool. Rebel is part of “The Kings of Cool” which also includes Marlon Brando in 1953’s The Wild One, Jean-Luc Godard’s landmark 1960 Breathless with Jean-Paul Belmondo, Steve McQueen in 1968’s Bullitt, the 2021 Dean Martin documentary King of Cool and 1960’s Ocean’s 11, the first Rat Pack flick starring Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr., Peter Lawford and Joey Bishop.
The Rat Pack was a different kind of cool from James Dean. These were middle-aged men who never grew up and drank and partied too much. Wouldn’t get serious about love but were still catnip to women. And both male and female audiences couldn’t get enough of them. Ditto the same in the 2001 remake with George Clooney, Brad Pitt and Matt Damon. And because the Chairman of the Board and his crew knew each other so well, a lot of them film was ad-libbed.
Oscar-winning director Lewis Milestone (All Quiet on the Western Front from 1930) helmed the caper flick set in Las Vegas. In fact, the film was shot primarily at night because the Pack were appearing at the casinos. Viewers can see the Pack advertised on the sign as they walk past the Sands at the end of the movie.
According to TCM.com, Milestone had never met an actor like Sinatra who abhorred doing multiple takes. “When he wasn’t actually acting himself, he would say ‘Get him to do this’ or
‘Make sure she does that,’” the director noted in the Sinatra bio “All the Way” by Michael Freedland. “Ask me which was my least favorite film that I ever made, and it has to be ‘Ocean’s Eleven.’ For Sinatra fans, however ‘Ocean’s Eleven,’ is a good-time blast from start to finish.”
The Pack went on to make 1962’s Sergeants 3, 1963’s 4 for Texas and 1964’s Robin and the 7 Hoods.
Malone explores the “Feminine Mystique” on December 12 with five legendary stars: Marilyn Monroe in Billy Wilder’s 1955 The Seven Year Itch, Mae West in 1933’s She Done Him Wrong, Greta Garbo in 1926’s Flesh and the Devil, Veronica Lake in 1946’s The Blue Dahlia and Rita Hayworth in 1946’s Gilda.
Monroe became a star with her delightfully daffy performances in 1953’s Gentlemen Prefer Blondes and How to Marry a Millionaire, as well as her turn as a cold-blooded femme fatale in Niagara. But the romcom The Seven Year Itch launched her into the super star stratosphere. Not only was she incredibly sexy, her character, who is nameless, is sweet and vulnerable as in this monologue.
“You think every girl's a dope. You think a girl goes to a party and there's some guy, a great big lunk in a fancy striped vest, strutting around like a tiger giving you that I'm-so-handsome-you-can't-resist-me look. And for this she's supposed to fall flat on her face. Well, she doesn't fall on her face. But there's another guy in the room, way over in the corner. Maybe he's kind of nervous and shy and perspiring a little. First, you look past him. But then you sort of sense that he's gentle and kind and worried. That he'll be tender with you. Nice and sweet. That's what's really exciting.”
Based on the George Axelrod blockbuster 1952 Broadway hit, “The Seven Year Itch” starring Tom Ewell as a New York book editor who every summer sends his wife and son to the country for the summer. In fact, most married men followed the same ritual. And then they are all free to have affairs until the family returns. Now, the plot comes across incredibly sexist- so it is little wonder the play hasn’t been revived.
Ewell, who won a Tony for his performance in the play, has Walter Mitty-esque fantasies where he is irresistible to women. When Monroe moves into the upstairs for the summer, perhaps his fantasies will turn into reality. Known simply as “the Girl,” Monroe looks like the va-va-voom vamp of Ewell’s dreams, but she’s a little goofy, naïve and sweet. And in the end, Ewell realizes how much he loves his wife and young son.
Monroe not only sparkles but proves just how adept she was as a comedic actress. In fact, she received a BAFTA nomination for best foreign actress for The Seven Year Itch.
Wilder had a difficult time directing Monroe, who was habitually late and often forgot her lines. After the film was completed, he described the actress as having “breasts like granite and a brain like Swiss cheese.” Still, he wished she wouldn’t get “straightened out” because that was made her such a unique star.
Of course, one can’t talk about Monroe and The Seven Year Itch without mentioning the scene-Monroe standing above the subway grating eager to enjoy the wind from the trains which causes her iconic white dress to billow up exposing her legs. “Ooh, do you feel the breeze from the subway?” Monroe coos to Ewell.
The stunning white dress was designed by William Travilla. The ivory cocktail dress with a halter bodice that was made of pleated cellulose acetate sold for $5.6 million at a 2011 auction.
Originally, Wilder shot the scene on location on Lexington Avenue near the Trans-Lux 52nd Street Theater, but because of the noise from the looky-loos, he reshot the sequence on stage at 20th Century Fox.
Monroe’s husband at the time, former New York Yankee Joe DiMaggio was extremely jealous and hated the dress. And he hated it even more what when he watched some of the filming in New York. After the shooting that night, the two had an enormous fight which led to the end of their marriage after less than a year.
“The Trendsetters” is the theme of the final Cool in the Movies on December 26 with 1934’s It Happened One Night (Clark Gable’s undershirt), 1961’s Breakfast at Tiffany’s (Hepburn’s Little Black Dress), 1967’s Bonnie and Clyde (berets and overall costume design), 1931’s Platinum Blonde (Jean Harlow’s blonde hair) and 1940’s The Philadelphia Story (Katharine Hepburn’s wide-leg pants).
Just as Monroe’s white dress made a statement, Gable’s lack of an undershirt supposedly caused a major decline in sales for the undergarment. While sharing a motel room divided by a blanket which Gable’s newspaper reporter declares the “Wall of Jericho,” he shows runaway heiress Claudette Colbert how a man takes off his clothes before going to bed. After he takes off his Norfolk jacket, V-neck sweater, tie and shirt, he reveals to the shocked Colbert he isn’t wearing an undershirt.
TCM.com points out that director Frank Capra explained “the reason for that was there was no way Gable would take off his undershirt gracefully, but once audiences saw Gable’s naked torso, sales of men’s undershirts plummeted.” And the rest of his outfit, which also included a trench coat also became a popular ensemble. Added TCM.com: “Thereafter, Gable wore a trench coat in most of his films, considering it his lucky garment”.
Ironically, a few years later Gable wore an undershirt in Idiot’s Delight (1939).
