Review of James Dean: The Rare Movies

Introduction

James Dean is known to everyone but ne only actually made three "real" movies before being sadly killed in a car crash at the age of only 24.

This disc presents three rare movies featuring James Dean plus some other bits and pieces including commercials and out-takes.

The three main movies on the disc were filmed between 1953 and 1955, two were shown in cinema theatres and one, The Unlighted Road, was Dean`s final TV role.

The disc is region 0 so it`ll play anywhere.....

Video

In a word, terrible!

However that`s not what this disc is necessarily about (unlike modern features filled with CGI and other acronyms :)

Lots of the films and videos presented here are seriously dirty and faded and quite often the screen is somewhat blurred and muddy.

However, the digital process has been performed pretty well and there is no sign of digital artefacting.

Audio

Digital Stereo throughout although some of the features are themselves only in mono. Most of the sound has suffered in the same way as the video, and is muddy and clouded although dialogue is always understandable.

Features

There`s a lot on here for the James Dean fans out there.

As well as the three main features, we get his famous Campbells Soup ad. and various others. Most of these are of poor quality, but they are an excellent look back on the times and reflect the fledling commercials market of the 1950`s very well.

We also get a photo gallery with a voice over about the actor himself, and some outtakes from his movies. These aren`t the "whoops" blooper-type you`d expect however.

Then there are colour trailers for his three "real" movies and a closely typed inner sleeve of further info.

Conclusion

This is a disc that will appeal only to the real James Dean fans out there. For those of you who are, this is a must-have.

There is a lot of unique archive material here however a lot of it is of low quality.