Rebel Without a Cause

---

CAST OF CHARACTERS

JIM'S FAMILY

JIM'S GRANDMA:
A chic, domineering woman in her sixties who

has made her son Frank dependent upon her for every

breath he takes. She is the irritant in the

household--the silent ruler--the silent enemy of

Frank's marriage.

JIM'S FATHER:
Frank is an unfeathered man who has never been

able to have fun. He is anxious to be a real father

to Jim, but has never learned how.

JIM'S MOTHER:
Tense and immature, she has never found the

husband she married. Upset by the presence of her

mother-in-law, mated with an ineffectual and joyless

man, she takes out her disappointment on him and on

her son.

JIM:
The angry victim and the result. At seventeen he is

filled with confusion about his role in life. Because

of his "nowhere" father, he does not know how to be a

man. Because of his wounding mother, he anticipates

destruction in all women. And yet he wants to find a

girl who will be willing to receive his tenderness.

JUDY'S FAMILY

JUDY'S FATHER:
a junior partner in a law firm. Boyish,

attractive and debonair. Because he is frightened by

the adolescence of his daughter, Judy, his only

recourse is to criticize her.

JUDY'S MOTHER:
Self-centered and frightened by the coming of

middle-age. She feels that Judy's blossoming youth

is threatening her wifely position as the desirable

object of the husband's attentions.

JUDY:
The victim and the result. At sixteen, she is in a

panic of frustration regarding her father--needing his

love and suffering when it is denied. This forces her

to invite the attention of other men in order to

punish him.

BEAU:
Judy's brother. Because he is very young he is a

danger to nobody and thus will grow up happily--

certain of the love of his father who feels comfortable

in giving it.

PLATO:
Son of a divided family--an absent father and a

traveling mother--he feels himself the target of

desertion. At fifteen he wants to find a substitute

family for himself so that he need no longer feel

cold, and especially a friend who will supply the fatherly

protection and warmth he needs and cannot find.

BUZZ:
A sado-masochistic boy of seventeen, who acts out

aggressively his idea of what a man should be in order

to hide his real sensitivities and needs. He was

probably rejected by both parents and must constantly

court danger and must constantly court danger in order

to achieve any sense of prestige or personal worth.

THE KIDS:

HELEN, CRUNCH, MOOSE, GOON, CHICK, COOKIE, MIL: All

searching for recognition in the only way available

to them; all suffering from unfulfilled hungers at

home; all creating an outside world of chaos in order

to bear the chaos they feel inside. They are

soldiers in search of an enemy.

FADE IN.

A deep night sky. Matte shot. Camera searches slowly

upward through the heavens and the silver tone of a bell is

heard sounding the strokes of midnight.

On the final note of the bell, camera is full on the Milky

Way and there it rests, just long enough for a burst of

Easter singing to arise. The hymn is sung by the crude,

unmatched voices of children. Camera pans down to include:

Spire of a church. Camera continues its downward pan as the

singing continues and we pass a window beyond which is the

source of the singing. Camera pans off window to show--

Long shot. City. Night. Suddenly revealed--crisp and

sparkling with lights. Camera pans down and over:

A lonely street full of parked cars. The singing diminishes

but a thread of it remains. A car has just parked. The

headlights snap off. A MAN emerges whistling the same

melody and pulls some gifts from the front seat. He slams

the door and starts down the street in the direction of a

house with bright windows. He must pass an empty lot full

of rusty grass and litter which lies in darkness between two

street lights.

As the MAN walks by the lot, still whistling, a GROUP OF

FIGURES rises silently from the grass, figures who have been

lying in concealment until now. They step noiselessly onto

the pavement and follow the MAN. At the sound of their

boots the whistling stops.

The MAN glances behind him and sees the figures walking

after him, filling the pavement. A street light shows them

to be boys and girls and all quite young. The MAN moves on

more swiftly and the sound of their pursuit increases. He

begins to run toward the lighted house and the following

steps run too. Suddenly he stops under the next street

light and turns to face the figures. They are upon him and

around him quickly. Nobody speaks for a moment, then one of

the boys grins. His name is BUZZ. He is big and filled

with an awareness of his own masculinity.

BUZZ:

(friendly, cool)

That was pretty what you were

whistling. Whistle some more.

The MAN whistles a nervous phrase, trying to make a joke of

the situation which he doesn't understand.

BUZZ:

(continuing; suddenly)

You got a cigarette?

MAN:

Oh, I think so--

The MAN fumbles in his pocket, finds a pack and drops it in

his nervousness. The FIGURES wait until he picks it up. He

offers one to BUZZ.

MAN:

(continuing)

Filter tips.

BUZZ:

(smiling, encouraging)

You smoke it. Smoke it, Dad.

Smiling uncertainly, the MAN puts the cigarette in his mouth.

BUZZ, still smiling, takes out a packet of wooden matches.

BUZZ:

(continuing)

I'll light it for you, Dad.

BUZZ ignites a match and holds it near the Man's face for a

second, searching it. Then he ignites the whole box under

his nose. The MAN shrieks, and his packages fall. BUZZ

slaps him sharply, his smile gone.

The camera pans away as the figures enclose him, and holds

on a small mechanical monkey which has dropped from its

wrappings. It begins to dance madly on the pavement, then

runs down.

The feet of the figures scatter past the unmoving monkey.

Then camera rises to show that the man has disappeared.

There is a moment of awful stillness, then we see a boy

coming down the street alone. He is quite drunk, and he

slips once. This is JIM, a good-looking kid of seventeen

with a crew-cut and wearing a good suit. The spilled

packages on the pavement stop him. He bends down to see

what they are and picks up the mechanical monkey from the

wreckage. He smiles and winds it up. He sets it on the

sidewalk and sits down. He watches it dance for a moment,

happily. A siren is heard distantly, growing louder. JIM

pays no attention to it as he winds the monkey again and

releases it for its dance.

Rate this script:5.0 / 1 vote