East of Eden (1955)

Tagline: Of what a girl did… what a boy did… of ecstasy and revenge!

East of Eden movie storyline. Director Elia Kazan’s updated re-telling of the Biblical story of rival brothers, Cain and Abel and a paradise lost. A brooding James Dean – as the unappreciated son (Cain), vies against his dull, but favored stuffy brother (Abel) for the affections of their father. The maligned, misunderstood Cain character, representing the unlikeable and outcast director himself (for naming names before the HUAC Committee in 1952), becomes the sensitive hero of this film. As the poster stated, “Sometimes you can’t tell who’s good and who’s bad!…”

Writer Paul Osborn’s screenplay adapted John Steinbeck’s 1952 novel with the same title for this dramatic Warner Bros. film. [The film tells only a small portion of Steinbeck’s work, leaving out the childhood of the parents and the Chinese character of Lee.] The CinemaScopic film, set in 1917 at a time just before the US entry into World War I, portrays the relationship between insecure, tortured, neurotic loner Caleb “Cal” Trask (James Dean, in his first major role and film) and his dutiful, favored brother Aron (Davalos) – twin sons.

Their father is a stern, hardened, devoutly religious, self-righteous man named Adam (Massey), a lettuce farmer living with his family in Salinas, California. The plot becomes emotionally charged when Cal expresses a liking for his brother’s girlfriend Abra (Harris), and then learns that his mother (Van Fleet) is actually alive and operating a nearby brothel.

East of Eden is a 1955 film, directed by Elia Kazan, and loosely based on the second half of the 1952 novel of the same name by John Steinbeck. It is about a wayward young man who, while seeking his own identity, vies for the affection of his deeply religious father against his favored brother, thus retelling the story of Cain and Abel.

The film stars Julie Harris, James Dean (in his first major screen role), and Raymond Massey. It also features Burl Ives, Richard Davalos, and Jo Van Fleet, and was adapted by Paul Osborn. Although set in early 20th century Monterey, California, much of the film was actually shot on location in Mendocino, California. Some scenes were filmed in the Salinas Valley. Of the three films in which James Dean played the male lead, this is the only one to have been released during his lifetime and the only one Dean personally viewed in its entirety.

The film, along with Rebel Without a Cause and Giant, has been named by the American Film Institute as one of the best 400 American films of all time. In 2016, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant”.

Directed by: Elia Kazan
Starring: James Dean, Julie Harris, Raymond Massey, Julie Harris, Burl Ives, Richard Davalos, Jo Van Fleet, Albert Dekker, Lois Smith, Harold Gordon, Nick Dennis
Screenplay by: Paul Osborn
Production Design by:
Cinematography by: Ted D. McCord
Film Editing by: Owen Marks
Costume Design by: Anna Hill Johnstone
Set Decoration by: George James Hopkins, William Wallace
Art Direction by: James Basevi, Malcolm C. Bert
Music by: Leonard Rosenman
MPAA Rating: PG for thematic elements and some violent content.
Distributed by: Warner Bros. Pictures
Release Date: April 10, 1955