Just like our OUT OF THIS WORLD! look back at Buddy Holly goofing off with his friends on Super 8 mm, this is another rare intimate moment with another world-class rebel star.

Actually, before Buddy Holly, and even James Dean himself, Marlon was making a name for himself as a bad boy of the stage and screen. Originating the role of Stanley Kowalski in Tennesse Williams’ “A Streetcar Named Desire” at just 23, he paved the way for method acting as the preferred style of acting in Hollywood throughout the 1950s with one electrifying performance after another. His appearance in the screen version would also see sales in men’s undershirts rise extraordinarily, making way for the modern T-shirt we are so used to in our everyday. We are looking forward to looking at more of Marlon Brando’s unique stamp on style, but in the meantime wanted to bring to you this lost moment and memory of what might have been. The actual screen test Marlon Brando performed to audition in the role that would change society forever, as the lead in “Rebel Without a Cause” (which, of course, was passed on to new rising star James Dean).

Marlon seems to engross himself in the role, and plays on his good looks and charm with ease. Perhaps, he was too handsome for the part in the end, and director Nicholas Ray needed someone fresher and new to the scene. James Dean definitely had that mumbly, vulnerable, dorkish quality about him, that Marlon would just never possess. And like they say, some things are just meant to be.

He would go on to make plenty more memorable parts in his life time, as well as one of the lucky actors to have won two Academy Awards for Best Actor. Thanks to the graces of modern technology we can glimpse at this long lost memory today, and submit to the land of might have been.

The guy’s got some chops, you have to admit!

Until next time,

{theEye}

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