The Nicholas Ray Film Festival at Webster University Continues Saturday With REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE

By Tom Stockman | January 2, 2020

“Why did you shoot those puppies, John?”

Webster University presents “The Other St. Nick”, a six-film Nicholas Ray Film Festival that runs December 27th-January 5th at the University’s Moore Auditorium(470 E Lockwood Ave). The films screen Friday, Saturdays, and Sundays at 7:00pm the weekends of Dec 27-29th and Jan 3-5th. The series continues Saturday, January 4th at 7pm with REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE (1955)

Admission is:

$7 for the general public
$6 for seniors, Webster alumni and students from other schools
$5 for Webster University staff and faculty

Free for Webster students with proper I.D.

The theme of teen-age alienation received brilliant treatment in 1955 at the hands of director Nicholas Ray and stars James Dean, Natalie Wood and Sal Mineo. REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE was a poignant melodrama that made James Dean a household word. Back in the late ‘70s and early ‘80s I saw REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE several times on 35mm at The Tivoli (usually double-feature with EAST OF EDEN) back when it was a true repertory cinema, showing different classic double-bills every night.

The trio of stars do standout jobs in REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE – sensitive and compelling with Sal Mineo especially appealing as the most disturbed one of the three, Plato, whose final scenes in the Griffith Observatory bring the movie to a chilling climax. His obvious hero worship of Dean’s character is played with skill, as is his loneliness and despair. Natalie Wood is warm and appealing as Judy, lovingly photographed and at her sensitive best in a demanding juvenile role. But the picture belongs to James Dean in his second (and second to last!) screen role, lending a believability and immediacy to the role of Jim Stark, who wanted to find a niche for himself in a new neighborhood until he has to confront the local thugs and the police. As his overprotective mother Ann Doran lends a sympathetic note to the role. Jim Backus as an ineffectual father who utterly fails to understand his alienated son is excellent. The Observatory scenes are given added dimension by Leonard Rosenman’s starkly effective score underscoring the torments of its teen-age protagonists. Although some complain of the film’s datedness, it explores the theme of alienation without ever insulting the intelligence of today’s audiences. Well worth watching if only for the fantastic central performance of James Dean.

Here’s the rest of the series:

BIGGER THAN LIFE (1956)  Sunday, January 5, 2020 at 7:00pmParagraph

A film critical of the patriarchy and the nuclear family, Nick Ray’s Bigger Than Life has James Mason playing Ed Avery, a well-liked father and teacher in a quaint suburban neighborhood. When Avery falls ill and is prescribed the experimental drug cortisone, he becomes addicted and his life spirals out of control. One of the most exceptional samples of CinemaScope framing in Ray’s oeuvre, Bigger Than Life feels at once of its time and timely.