By Ron Wilkinson Sep 26, 2005, 2:00 GMT
September 30, 2005 marks the fifty year anniversary of the death of the greatest teenage cult movie icon in American cinema, actor James Dean. Dean had lead roles in only three major films, “Giant,” “East of Eden” and the legendary “Rebel Without a Cause” (1954-1955) but in those three films he established himself as the symbol of post-war American youth. In his landmark role of a troubled high school kid in “Rebel” he single-handedly established the concept of the “teenager” that remains to this day.
Dean shot “Rebel” and the sprawling epic “Giant” between March and September, 1955. After the completion of the latter he jumped in his new Porsche Spyder and drove to his death in a bloody collision on a deserted stretch of highway in the California desert. His death, coming in the middle of the most meteoric rise to stardom ever witnessed in cinema, rocked America to its roots. Dean received more fan mail at Warner Brothers’ Studios in the year after his death than any of their living stars.
Due to the relatively unsophisticated investigative methods at the time of the tragedy questions have remained as to the exact cause of the crash. This shroud of mystery was, no doubt, encouraged by the studio. Entertainment executives know that the an adoring public can always make up better stories for themselves than were likely to come out of a police investigation. So a variety of rumors spread that he killed himself in a fit of depression and/or was the victim of some sort of skullduggery.
Lee Raskin, author of the upcoming book, “James Dean: At Speed” teams up with Mike Kennedy, auto crash investigative expert to re-open the investigation at the crash scene in this new documentary to be shown on the National Geographic Channel on September 29 at 9pm ET/PT (North America). Using modern computerized surveying and measuring equipment and high-tech computer video simulation they re-create the accident on screen and explain several of the myths and misconceptions surrounding the last living moments of the star.
The special is complete with rare footage of the Dean engaging in his lifelong love, auto racing. His newly purchased Porsche was the state of the art in 1955, costing as much as an average house and capable of the fastest speed of any production car on earth. He had competed in two races prior to his death, finishing in respectable 2nd and 3rd places. His lightweight, streamlined, low to the ground Porsche was to be his ticket to his first win in an upcoming race in Salinas California. After the featherweight Porsche collided head-on with a Ford coupe of approximately double its weight, all that was left of the German speedster was crumpled aluminum foil. Don Dooley, the only surviving eyewitness to the accident is interviewed for the first time on film. He describes the Porsche as “exploding” on impact.
Furthering the mystery of the crash is the presence of Dean’s mechanic, Rolf Weutherich, in the Spyder. Weutherich was thrown out of the car and miraculously survived. A Porsche employee, he returned to Germany and was never heard from, possibly because the German automaker was afraid of the negative publicity that might arise from the accident. With the engine behind the driver and nothing in front but tin foil, the car was, in fact, a 130 mph deathtrap. Weutherich died in a subsequent crash in 1981. In spite of it all, Porsche went on to sell fully 25% of its total future production in the state of California alone. American car enthusiasts remain unfazed.
Great footage of 1950’s style rough-and-ready car racing, rare takes of James Dean at the races and tending to his car and an inside look at high-tech crash investigation make this one hour special a must-see for Dean fans as well as auto enthusiasts.
When: Thursday, September 29, 2005, 9pm ET/PT (North America)
Note: See Monstersandcritics.com in coming weeks for the review of the special 50th anniversary edition book, “Live Fast and Die Young: The Wild Ride of Making Rebel Without a Cause,” by movie lore fanatics Lawrence Frascella and Al Weisel. The book is an exhaustive narrative of film-making and of the lives of stars James Dean, Natalie Wood, Sal Mineo and director Nicholas Ray. Ray, whose motto was “turn trauma into drama,” built “Rebel” during an intense ten month span of writing and shooting that defined “teenager” and cemented James Dean into movie history.
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