James Dean - Part Three, with the Rock and Elizabeth Taylor

Dean's third and final film was Giant, done by veteran Hollywood director, George Stevens. Stevens was an Oscar winner with A Place in the Sun, and Dean was still a relative newcomer, with only one film released (East of Eden) at this point in his career and another on the way (Rebel Without a Cause). Dean perhaps had no right to be as arrogant or as difficult to work with as he proved to be in this film.



















Stevens also worked with Elizabeth Taylor and Rock Hudson in this film. It was a difficult production from the outset, with shooting delayed due to Elizabeth Taylor's pregnancy, and Dean was late arriving on set after scheduling conflicts with Rebel...
The film is known for being a grand epic, and it's also somewhat known for the difficulties the actors presented. In particular Dean. He would often keep the entire cast waiting as he was annoyed at himself being kept waiting by Stevens for some scenes. Stevens found it enitrely 'unprofessional and bad manners'. Stevens was also a somewhat old school director who favoured thoroughness to script rather than improvisation. A direct clash to Dean's preferred style. Stevens apparently got on well with Rock Hudson, a more by the book actor, and this caused jealousy and real anger between Dean and Hudson off the set.



















Off set, the real life rivalry between the two male leads came out in a way of vying for Elizabeth Taylor's attention. In some ways this was a direct correlation to the film's script. In the film, Hudson's character is married to Taylor's, yet there is an underlying attraction that exists between Taylor's and Dean's characters.
So Stevens, like Kazan and Ray before him, channelled this brilliantly into the film's scenes.

Dean and Hudson's fight scene.

James Dean - Part Two

Alrighty, second part of the James Dean section focuses on his second film, Rebel Without a Cause, and his working relationship with Director Nicholas Ray. Ray also wrote the inital story for the film, which was then adapted into a screenplay.









Dean and Ray on the set of Rebel...












Dean and Ray had a good relationship on set. There seemed to be some sort of mutual udnerstanding between them. Ray stated that he saw a lot of himself in Dean. Ray's burgeoning problems with alcohol were somewhat reflected in Dean's tumultuous personal life. Ray was happy to let him improvise or offer ideas on the script or setup. A few sources claim that Dean almost co-directed the picture, with Ray happy to be seen as the creator whilst giving space to his young actors. Actors such as Sal Mineo and Natalie Wood. Ray actively encouraged the three to get together when off set and he saw that Mineo looked up to Dean, and this was harnessed to create a close relationship on screen.

James Dean!! Part one...

It's the Christmas break. Ought be doing research yet I feel kind of lost in the project, and don't really know where to start.

But I was thinking about James Dean and thought since I know so much about him and his firey relationships on set I thoguht why not? I'll talk about his relationships with the 3 directors he worked with, even though they were too brief, unfortunately.

Jimmy's first role was as Caleb Trask in East of Eden. This was an Elia Kazan film.



Dean and Kazan on Dean's scooter on the set of East of Eden.














Kazan disliked Dean, but he knew how to control him. Dean was an emerging method actor and although Kazan thought he was rude and ignorant, he saw his potential and allowed him to do what he liked on set. Kazan rode around town with Dean on his scooter, they also just hung around and got to know each other. Kazan said he did this for exactly that purpose, to get Dean to open up and trust him.
"There was no point in attempting to cast it nicer or bigger...I realised it wasn't a matter of could he or couldn't he(play the part)..." Elia Kazan


On the set of East of Eden, Kazan also had Raymond Massey to deal with. Massey, an old school actor of a theatre background, despised Dean and his style. Kazan would utilise this perfectly for the scenes they did together. Kazan would receive a complaint from Massey claiming that Dean was mumbling his lines or not sticking to the script, and Kazan would say that he would go and sort it out. However he would tell Dean to mumble more and go off script even more. This resulted in true anger between father and son in the film, and some great perfomances.

This is a better video, but embedding has been disabled.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2uG4PRf6ROM