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Part
Two: Dean's posthumous TV broadcast
From You Tube - the opening to I'm A Fool with James Dean:
The script for 'I'm A Fool' was a pearl necklace of cold-war clichés, but with a cast like this it hardly mattered. In the half-hour drama, Dean played an awkward small-town rube who ventures out into the world alone, landing a menial job at a racetrack.
Although playing against type, this was a role clearly meant to capitalize on Dean's reputation as a heart throb for teen girls. He displayed a firm command of the medium without exerting a great deal of obvious effort. 'East of Eden' was released shortly before Dean's death in 1955; by then he had filmed two follow-ups, 'Rebel Without A Cause' and 'Giant' that were released posthumously. Both are revered classics of the cinema.
UPDATE: On March 17, 2010, General Electric presented Reagan's widow Nancy Reagan with video copies of all 208 episodes of General Electric Theater, to be donated to the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library. |
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The
production (written by Sherwood Anderson) was a stylish one,
with imaginative, high-tech scene changes and an effective dramatic
performance by Eddie Albert as the narrator. Also
featured prominently, actor Roy Glenn (seen right);
it was unusual at this time for an African-American to have a major
part in a TV production.
He
falls in love trying to impress a tourist
gal (Natalie Wood) by pretending he's someone important. Heartache
sets in when she leaves and he knows that, because of his deceptions,
they will never see each other again.
Ironically,
the last thing James Dean filmed for television before his deadly
car crash was a public service message on auto safety - reminding
his fans that, "speed kills."
