Natalie Wood

In Rebel Without a Cause (1955), Judy’s hurt comes out as impatience, and Natalie Wood lets that impatience be unattractive. We were moved by how urgently she, James Dean and Sal Mineo make their characters need company, even when they cannot explain themselves. Wood gives Judy enough feeling of her own that we keep noticing how little the screenplay asks about her compared with Dean’s Jim Stark. Nicholas Ray takes these confused young people seriously and lets their distress look awkward rather than asking the actors to make it presentable. Attraction and sexual uncertainty remain in the looks between the three, without each look being given a simple explanation.

Her move from child roles to adult work is clearer if we look at the parts rather than treat the transition as an achievement in itself. Susan Walker in Miracle on 34th Street (1947) established her as a child star; Judy marked the turn towards the young women in family conflict who became central to her work. The early 1960s brought Deanie Loomis in Splendor in the Grass (1961), a role suited to her ability to make emotional crisis convincing. Maria in West Side Story (1961) was a musical lead, while Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice (1969) gave her lighter ensemble work. Those parts are a useful corrective to treating her only as an actress who could break down convincingly.

Rebel Without a Cause also shows the limits of what a performance can repair. Stewart Stern’s screenplay makes the parents responsible for too much, and its relative lack of curiosity about Judy leaves Wood supplying feelings the writing has not sufficiently explored. She keeps the character from becoming merely available for the hero, but we would have liked the film to spend more time asking what she wants on her own. Ray’s patience gives her room to suggest it, and her work alongside Dean and Mineo is reason enough for our warm recommendation despite the simplified adults. Start with Judy, and pay attention when the story would rather we were watching Jim.