what if ?-James Dean in SOMEBODY UP THERE LIKES ME (1956)

[Caractacus]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HJkjVfOcIxs

[Caractacus]

Here James Dean gives yet another interesting interputation of a "Dead-Ender"
This also aired Live (as most TV dramas were back then)
on CBS Sunday,December.12.1954
https://www.youtube.com/watch/v=vsAE3Tg1azA

[Kalan]

Here James Dean gives yet another interesting interputation of a "Dead-Ender"
This also aired Live (as most TV dramas were back then)
on CBS Sunday,December.12.1954
https://www.youtube.com/watch/v=vsAE3Tg1azA

It's a little silly to see a 40-something Ronald Reagan man handling a young James Dean. Reagan had puny little hands and physique. But Dean was a little like Robert De Niro. He could play a tough guy or a chicken-shiitting little punk with equal aplomb. Reagan always played the honest and courageous sap -- accept in "The Killers" where he played true to form -- a criminal who was shot to death by Lee Marvin.

This is where RR gets plugged ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VbPfXoxsFTU ... Marvin, "I told you you couldn't run."

[Caractacus]

I dunno,did you see the look in his eyes when he introduced the show ?
I (barely) remember when he was still Govenor of California.
I do remember him talking about the Hippies that
"They look like Jane,but smell like Cheeta".
Speaking of James Dean's peformance in that (live) episode.
I think he had just finished filming East of Eden.
man,talk about a charector running the gamut of emotions.
and talk about a charector being BI-Polar.
"Im a Big man,with a Big Gun !"
and then a minute later he says "Hit Me,why dont you hit me ?"

[Caractacus]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=trDsXlDJIbM

[Kalan]

I dunno,did you see the look in his eyes when he introduced the show ?
I (barely) remember when he was still Govenor of California.
I do remember him talking about the Hippies that
"They look like Jane,but smell like Cheeta".
Speaking of James Dean's peformance in that (live) episode.
I think he had just finished filming East of Eden.
man,talk about a charector running the gamut of emotions.
and talk about a charector being BI-Polar.
"Im a Big man,with a Big Gun !"
and then a minute later he says "Hit Me,why dont you hit me ?"

An actor has to speak his lines and the dialogue the way the writers write them -- or the way they sometimes rewrite them for a movie or play. Sometimes they sound pretty stupid, because it's not something you believe the character would say. It's an actor's job to make it believable. "I coulda been a contender" Of all the laments in the world, that was the least ambitious -- but it's one of the most repeated lines because Brando made it live.

[Kalan]

I remember vividly when Jerry Brown was running for Governor of California against Huston Flournoy and Reagan was governor. Reagan frequently blasted Brown... Brown's greatest line was "If you want to recycle Reaganism elect Huston Flournoy"... Everybody would boo and hoot and hiss like crazy. By that time everybody hated stuffed shirt Reagan. He ran his various limousines all over the place to pick up his friends, and threw an unprecedented number of State House dinners and entertaining for his friends and associates and their friends – and ran up the tab like crazy.

Brown refused to even live in the State House, calling it a “Taj Mahal” and rented a cheap apartment a few blocks away and walked to work as Governor of California. Brown promised he would concentrate on issues important to Californians instead of running up 15 million a year in entertainment and dining expenses... Reagan did the same thing as president... Reagan raised taxes on working people and took a 25 billion a year annual taxpayer deficit he inherited and ran it up to 300 billion a year... Dubya Bush took a 275 billion dollar annual budget surplus inherited from Clinton and turned it in into an annual 1.6 Trillion dollar yearly deficit in 8 years -- as the bottom blew out and the economy collapsed.

Nixon, Agnew, and Reagan always exemplified the abuse of power to me.. Duyba just took it a few steps further.. Now we got a fuhknuts president there’s no telling WTF he’s gonna do.. How we elect these filthy bastards I'll never know.

[Caractacus]

how about Marlon Brando as Jim Stark in REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE ?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j2lRdkNGDcY

[Kalan]

Funny how some still shots look like another actor... At first glance I thought Brando was a young Arnold Schwarzenegger... The forehead and the jaw from that angle resemble a young Arnold... The nose is obscured by the start button so I didn't pick that out... So weird, because they look totally different facially.

"Rebel" uses the familiar theme from that era of pulling a robbery and going on the lam. Getting lost in another town or country. That sounds so idiotic nowadays.. The 1950's was the last decade you could pull a robbery, grab a few hundred dollars, hightail it out of town, and drop off the face of the Earth. Rent might be 50 bucks a month and you could feed yourself for a few dollars a week..

Guys who worked as bar tenders, delivery men, factory workers, or janitors bought 3 story houses with big back yards. Many kids dropped out of high school and got jobs making more money than their fathers. You could get a driver's license at 15 and buy a junkie car for 10 dollars. People hitch hiked all over the place and had no trouble getting rides. When I was growing up we never locked our door. People who did lock up put a spare key under the doormat in case they lost their key. People often left their keys in their car -- in the ignition of course... It was a different world.

[Caractacus]

My first thought seeing that screentest was that Marlon Brando looked like a varying combination of young versions of
Buster Crabbe-Charlton Heston-Burt Reynolds and Senator John McCain.
BTW I also thought he looked too much of a grownman to play a High School student convincly,
turns out IMDB listed his year of birth as 1924,which would have made him 30-31 years old for that screen test.
James Dean was 23 going on 24 when he began filming it

[Caractacus]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XVDzlZcQe1w

[Caractacus]

As near as I can tell about their athletic backgrounds.
Paul Newman's father owned a sporting goods store when he was growing up in Shaker Heights Ohio.
He was on the football team at Kenyon College Ohio,but was thrown off for getting drunk and getting into a brawl.

james Dean growing up enjoyed swimming and ice-skating.
He played on the baseball and varsity Basketball team (guard) at the High School in Fairmount Indiana.
he was also on the track & Field team and held the county record in the Pole Vault.(1949)
His Basketball coach said he was "A heady player and a good competiter".
( btw his pole that he used in HS can be seen at the museum in Fairmount Indiana,it measures approx. 9 ft 2 " in length with some tape near the top,also on exhibit at the museum are some ribbons he had won for winning the 120 yd HH,180 yard LH,pole vault,relays and the shot-put.)

[Caractacus]

-Tale-of-the-Tape-
Paul Newman-height 5 ft. 10 "
James Dean- height 5 ft 8"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lxAcy21_HKA

[Caractacus]

as far as which actor would be " authentically ethnic" enough to officially portray Rocky Graziano (of Italian extraction) in a film.

Paul Newman was a Ashkenazi Jew of Polish,Hungarian and Slovakian extraction.

James Dean was of Quaker extraction of English,German,Scots,Irish,Welsh,Dutch and a strain of Native American on his mother's side.

[Caractacus]

check this clip out at about 1:50 and particularly when James Dean throws a light right hand and then a straight left.
Who does he remind you of as far as his physique and body language ? hint-it reminds me of another future Movie legend !

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GPxFytSmh4E

[gilgamesh]

I think they made the right casting choice. I love Paul Newman in that role.

[Caractacus]

dean could never play a fighter, and newman, wasn't any good either.

BS

check out the "James Dean Combo" here.
Defineatly some "Fists of Fury" goin on there dude.

[Caractacus]

and watch James Dean (about 5 ft 7" in his socks) knock-out 6 ft 4" tall Rock Hudson
with another great "James Dean Combo" !
or later to be known as "Willie-Bag" numbers
Number One (=left hook to the jaw), number 5 (=left hook to the liver) and number 6.(= a right hand to the spleen) !

[Caractacus]

check out James Dean from this screen test from 1954 at about 3:50 of this clip.
Man, Those re-flexes, the jab, he looked to be as the same built type of Bruce lee was at age 24 yrs.