Search - East of Eden on DVD

MPAA Rating: PG Content Advisory: Suitable for Children Movie Release: 1955 DVD Release: 05/31/2005 Format: DVD - Enhanced Wide Screen Letterbox for 16x9 TV - Closed Captioned Edition: Dual Layered,Restored/Remastered Audio Tracks: English, French Subtitles: English, French, Spanish SwapaDVD Credits: 2 Number of Discs: 2 Run Time: 1 hrs 58 mins Studio: Warner Home Video Members Wishing: 1 Genres: Drama, Americana, Family Drama, Rural Drama

This truncated screen version of John Steinbeck's best-seller was the first starring vehicle for explosive 1950s screen personality James Dean, who plays Cal Trask, the "bad" son of taciturn Salinas valley lettuce farmer Adam Trask (Raymond Massey). Although he means well, Cal can't stay out of trouble, nor is he able to match the esteem in which his father holds his "good" brother Aron (Richard Davalos). Only Aron's girlfriend Abra (Julie Harris) and kindly old sheriff Sam Burl Ives) can see the essential goodness in the troublesome Cal.
When Adam invests in a chancy and wholly unsuccessful method of shipping his crops east, his wealth plummets. In an effort to save the business, Cal obtains money from his estranged mother (the proprietor of a whorehouse) and invests it in a risky new bean crop. The gamble pays off (thanks in no small part to the war), but Adam refuses to take the money from Cal, and the resultant quarrel causes Adam to have a stroke. Released the same year as Rebel Without a Cause, East of Eden provided Dean with his first Oscar nomination, for Best Actor. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Julie Harris - Abra
James Dean - Cal Trask
Raymond Massey - Adam Trask
Burl Ives - Sam, the Sheriff
Dick Davalos - Aron Trask
Jo Van Fleet - Kate