nicholas ray Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Many people best remember Nicholas Ray, born on this day in 1911, as the director of Rebel Without a Cause. Some might recall the cult classic Johnny Guitar. But earlier this year, I saw his 1950 film In a Lonely Place, and was surprised that the movie hasn't received more attention. I had read some glowing essays about the movie when it was released on DVD, but I was skeptical -- I don't always like Humphrey Bogart in dramatic roles, especially when he's trying to break out of the tough-guy persona. (I confess I couldn't stand him in Treasure of the Sierra Madre ... it was so disappointing.)

Bogart is perfect in In a Lonely Place as Dixon Steele, the aggressively nasty, occasionally even violent writer who is accused of murder. His neighbor, Laurel Gray (Gloria Grahame), provides him with an alibi ... and the two fall for each other almost immediately afterwards. Everything is rosy until Steele's violent side surfaces at unexpected times. The above image is from a scene that takes place during one of those times. However, we're still able to sympathize with Steele much of the time, which is one reason why this is such a good movie. Ray directed less than 30 films, and a number of them are nearly forgotten today, but In a Lonely Place is one of his very best.

Over at the Guardian yesterday, they reported that "lost" footage of iconic actor Marlon Brando screen testing for Rebel Without a Cause way back in 1947 has been found, and it's got lots of folks excited to imagine what Brando would have brough to the lead role of the classic film. The five-minute screen test, included as an extra on the DVD release of Brando's A Streetcar Named Desire, shows a young Brando "railing against his parents" and "finding a gun and lighting out for a new life with his girl. Today The Guardian's Xan Brooks speculated on what Rebel Without a Cause might have been like with Brando in the role that made James Dean famous eight years later. Davis opines that a Rebel with Brando in the role of Jim Stark would have been inferior to the film made by Nicholas Ray with Dean in the lead role - an assertion I happen to agree with.

What neither Guardian piece addresses, though, is that the screen test Brando made in 1947 had practically nothing to do with the Rebel Without A Cause we're all familiar with. After I read the article in the Guardian, I emailed Stewart Stern (pictured), who wrote the screenplay for Rebel Without a Cause.  I interviewed Stern extensively last year, and we talked a lot about Dean, Rebel, and what Brando thought of Dean. I knew Stern didn't write his screenplay in 1947, so I asked him if he knew anything about this Brando screen test. As he recalls it after all these years, Stern believes it went this way:

 

Well before Dick Clark took over the mantle, Nicholas Ray was America's Oldest Teenager. The director, who made such classics as Rebel Without a Cause, Johnny Guitar, and In a Lonely Place, is well known (in a mostly affectionate way, at least early-on) to have spent most of his life steadfastly refusing to mature. Right up until his death, Ray battled drug and alcohol addictions, gambled heavily, and slept with lots and lots of people of both genders (his fourth wife, married as he headed into old age, was a woman he met when she was a teen) - much of which he recounted in his memoir, I Was Interrupted.

Said memoir is now being adapted for the big screen by Oren Moverman, and will be directed by Philip Kaufman, a director who, though he did make The Right Stuff and The Unbearable Lightness of Being, has seen his star decline rather significantly lately. (Unless, that is, you were a big fan of Twisted, in which case you probably think he's doing great.) What's most interesting about the news of this project is the fact that someone is actually going to get to play Ray - it's a potentially fantastic role, but the risk of turning the man into a caricature is a major one. (I can picture, for example, Anthony Hopkins getting way, way into the role.) Keeping in mind the fact that the movie is expected to focus on the last decade of Ray's life, who do you think should get the job?