The James Dean Story

The film opens with a drawing of James Dean lying on the ground in a pose reminiscent of an opening scene from his second film, Rebel Without a Cause. While in that film Dean seemed to be playing with a toy monkey, in the drawing in the documentary he seems to be playing with a toy car. The scene becomes an animated sequence in which the car, a simple drawing, drives off onto a dark grey screen, accompanied by the sound of a car motor and leaving in its wake a white line that looks like a scribble or "doodle" in motion. The car circles and moves out of the screen, as the camera seems to follow. When it drives horizontally across the screen, the line changes to read, "George W. George and Robert Altman present." The car continues driving and when it drives vertically across the screen, the line widens to reveal the title, "The James Dean Story." The car moves in a spiral motion downward, and inside the spiral left by the white lines the words "a different kind of motion picture," appear. The car drives off and appears to drive onto film footage of a real road. The James Dean Story marked the first credited title sequence of noted designer Maurice Binder (1925-1991), known for his many unusual title designs, among them, many of the James Bond films.
       The audience's perspective is then from the driver's seat of a car looking forward onto the road. The date, "September 30, 1955," is superimposed over the film. The car is traveling fast, when, just ahead, a car from the opposite direction turns left and motion pauses just as it seems the two cars will collide. After the sound of the squeal of tires, voice-over narration by Martin Gabel begins and is then heard throughout the rest of the film. The narrator begins by saying, "James Dean died today. He lived with a great hunger." The score by Leith Stevens commences and the following superimposed statement scrolls over a picture of Dean: "The presence of the leading character of this film has been made possible by the use of existing motion picture material, tape recordings of his voice and by means of a new technique-dynamic exploration of the still photograph. There are no actors in this film-all characters are portrayed by the people themselves."
       In general, the narration is poetic and filled with symbolism, including many quotes attributed to Dean. Occasionally, the narrator asks a question directly to a person being interviewed in the film. Many of the pieces of artwork created by Dean are shown in the film, among them, a small, faceless sculpture of himself that the filmmakers refer to often as a symbol of Dean's inner torment, and a painting of an orchid that Dean made for his drama teacher.
       As noted in the Motion Picture Herald review, after the second reenactment of the car crash near the end of the film, brief shots of the faces of Dean's relatives are shown, implying that they had a sense of the disaster happening thousands of miles away. At the end of the film, the song, "Let Me Be Love," sung by Tommy Sands, is heard. Two written statements then appear. The first expresses gratitude to the James Dean Memorial Foundation and people of Fairmount, and the second states that the James Dean Memorial Foundation awards scholarships to talented young people preparing for "creative careers." The ending crew credits follow. There are no cast credits.
       The Film Daily Year Book lists the release date for the film as July 27, 1957; the Motion Picture Herald lists it as August 17, 1957. As explained in the opening sequence of the film, The James Dean Story is told through filmed interviews with people who knew Dean, still photographs of Dean and other subjects; brief scenes from films in which Dean appeared; footage of the Giant premiere, Dean's traffic safety ad, and the East of Eden screen test; filming of the making of Rebel Without a Cause and footage of the three areas in which Dean lived-Fairmount, IN, Los Angeles and New York City.
       As mentioned in the film, James Byron Dean was born in 1931 and lived in Los Angeles, until his mother died when he was nine years old. He then accompanied his mother's casket on a train to Fairmount, IN, his family's home for many generations. After being reared by an aunt and uncle for almost ten years, he returned to Los Angeles. According to a September 1956 Redbook article by Joe Hyams, which is unrelated to the film, Dean went to Santa Monica Junior College for a year, before attending University of California at Los Angeles. As depicted in the film, he moved to New York City and studied at The Actors Studio, eventually returning for a brief but bright film career. He made a total of six films, in three of which he played only bit parts. The last three films, in which he was a principal actor, were East of Eden, Rebel Without a Cause and Giant ( and below).
       As stated in the film, Dean's enigmatic reputation coupled with the troubled characters he played created a legend that was beloved by the teenagers of the 1950s. His death at the age of twenty-four accentuated his mystique. In September 1956, as reported in New York Times, Abner J. Greshler acquired the film rights to the Hyams article on Dean's life published in Redbook. Although Greshler planned to make a film version of the story, it was never produced. According to a modern source, director Robert Altman was intrigued by the actor's posthumous reputation and the fact that some people refused to believe that he had died. In a modern source, he admits that he began the project for the money, but in time came to identify with the actor. After interesting Louis Lombardo, who is credited onscreen as assistant to the producer, and his former writing partner, George W. George, who through his East Coast connections raised $20,000, Altman conducted interviews and shot footage with Lombardo. According to a modern source, many of the interviews were rehearsed.
       Later, screenwriter Stewart Stern, a friend of Dean's who wrote Rebel Without a Cause, was recruited to assemble the pieces into a script. Then Louis Clyde Stoumen, who worked with stills and montages, joined the group and assisted Altman and Lombardo with the re-enactment of the car crash and some pick-up shooting. According to the Hollywood Reporter review, Stoumen, whose onscreen credit is for production design, devised the "moving still picture" system used throughout the film, which he called "photo motion."
       A January 1957 Hollywood Reporter news item reported George and Altman had acquired "new material" with which to expand their project. According to a modern source, Warner Bros., which George interested in distributing the film, provided them with the studio's film clips of the Giant premiere and the previously unseen screen test for East of Eden. Additionally, Warner Bros. provided the song "Let Me Be Loved," its singer Sands, and Gabel, the prominent theatrical producer-director and classically trained actor who served as narrator of the film.
       As noted in the Motion Picture Herald review, the film does not mention Dean's father, who was alive at the time of the film. Also not mentioned in the film was the Winslows' daughter Joan, who was a few years older than Dean. Pier Angeli, the actress with whom Dean fell in love, is not named in the film, but her name is partially seen, written on the back of a portable chair. The "writer friend" mentioned in the film, who discussed his theory that Dean built a "second wall" around himself, was Stern.
       Reviews of the film were mixed. The Motion Picture Herald review remarked that "technically, it's an excellent job of film-making" and the Daily Variety review conceded that the film has "an honest note in displaying the restlessness and uncertainty that marked Dean." However, not all reviewers at the time were convinced of Dean's greatness. The Daily Variety review stated that Dean died "before he had a chance to prove himself more than a one-character actor" and goes on to state that "[Stern] assumes virtually a genius status for [Dean], listing him as having received unanimous critical and public acclaim for his work in three pictures. Actually, there were some dissenters who, while admitting his personality impact, preferred to wait to see if he could do more than play a troubled young man-a virtual echo of his real life personality." The Motion Picture Herald review reported that the narration "almost seems like parody of Biblical prose...spoken in pious, pear-shaped tones" and that some audience members "may be amused, bewildered, irritated and/or frightened by the way the film so reverently raises to near sainthood a symbol of inarticulate rebellion." The New York Times review quipped that "intimations of immortality run all though [the film]." Perhaps inspired by the unfounded rumor that Dean did not die, a Minneapolis theater chain advertised midnight showings of the film as a "Materialization of Jimmy Dean," according to an August 1957 Daily Variety article.
       Other films about James Dean or his mystique include: the 1976 NBC television movie James Dean, which was written by Dean's former roommate James Bast, directed by Robert Butler and starred Stephen McHattie; the 1978 Universal production September 30, 1955, written and directed by James Bridges and starring Richard Thomas; the 2001 James Dean: An Invented Life, which was directed by Mark Rydell and starred James Franco; and director Robert Altman's 1982 Come Back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean, starring Cher and Sandy Dennis.