East of Eden (1955)

User Rating:

8.1/10   

Director:

Elia Kazan

Writers:

John Steinbeck (novel)
Paul Osborn (screenplay)

Release Date:

10 April 1955 (USA)

Genre:

Drama

Tagline:

Of what a girl did . . . what a boy did ... of ecstasy and revenge!

Plot:

In the Salinas Valley, in and around World War I, Cal Trask feels he must compete against overwhelming...

Plot Keywords:

Madam | Railway Station | Carnival | Presumed Dead | Driving Lesson

Awards:

Won Oscar. Another 7 wins & 9 nominations

Cast

Julie Harris	...	Abra
James Dean	...	Caleb 'Cal' Trask
Raymond Massey	...	Adam Trask
Burl Ives	...	Sam the Sheriff
Richard Davalos	...	Aron Trask
Jo Van Fleet	...	Kate
Albert Dekker	...	Will Hamilton
Lois Smith	...	Anne
Harold Gordon	...	Gustav Albrecht
Nick Dennis	...	Rantani

Also Known As:

John Steinbeck's East of Eden (USA) (complete title)

MPAA:

Rated PG for thematic elements and some violent content. (2005 re-issue)

Runtime:

115 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Colour:

Colour (Warnercolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.55 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Perspecta Sound encoding) (35 mm optical prints) | 4-Track Stereo (35 mm magnetic prints) (RCA Sound Recording)

Certification:

Peru:14 | Portugal:M/12 | Germany:16 | Iceland:L | Spain:13 | UK:AA (1976) (cut) | UK:PG (video rating) | Sweden:15 | USA:Approved (PCA #17086) | Argentina:13 | Australia:PG | Chile:14 | Finland:K-16 | South Korea:15 | Sweden:11 (re-release) | Switzerland:16 (canton of the Grisons) | USA:PG (2005 re-issue)

Filming Locations:

Cape Mendocino, California, USA

Company:

Warner Bros. Pictures

Trivia:

Timothy Carey, who had a small part as Joe the bouncer, drove director Elia Kazan to such distraction with his bizarre behavior that Kazan, a longtime avowed pacifist, physically attacked him, the only time he had ever done such a thing.

Goofs:

Anachronisms: In one scene, a band plays "Avalon". The film is set in 1917. "Avalon" was not published until 1920.

Quotes:

Abra: [telling Cal she loves him] I was even thinking I was bad. I love you even though I'm afraid of you. Maybe someday I won't be.

Movie Connections:

Featured in Elia Kazan: A Director's Journey (1995)

Soundtrack:

Oh, You Beautiful Doll

James Dean embodied the confused attitudes of a generation...

James Dean plays Cal, a son of Adam Trask (Raymond Massey) who feels unloved and unwanted by his stern father, a situation not helped by Adam's apparent acceptance of Cal's brother... Cal suspects that his mother, long believed dead, is the madame of a local brothel, and when this is confirmed, the young man is convinced that he has found the reason why he is bad...

His awkward, unhelpful attempts to find himself and come to terms with his situation led young audiences to identify with him immediately, an identification that was compounded by his role in 'Rebel Without a Cause' where again, only with more violence, he rebelled against his middle class family...

The impact he had made on the anxious, unhappy youth of that time was confirmed as much by his death as by the style and abandon of his life..

Dean was a youth who rebelled against the riches of the American Dream, though he finally denounced it all in a reckless moment... Dean therefore embodied the confused attitudes of a generation who had never suffered through the Depression and rejected the acquisitive attitudes of their parents, while at the same time they hankered after the American Dream... Dean gave physical form to the perplexing confusion of ideals, that haunted the majority of postwar American youth...