September 30, 1955 from a store. They evade the police and have a party near the Arkansas River, where Jimmy J. grows upset that his friends do not understand the depth of his grief. When Frank asks how Jimmy J. can care so much about someone he has never met, Jimmy J. explains that he has seen "East of Eden" four times, and Billie Jean claims to have seen it 22 times; they were anticipating the release of James Dean's two other films, "Rebel Without a Cause" later that month and "Giant" the following year. Jimmy J. and Billie Jean met seeing "East
East of Eden (film) Kazan and the "down-to-earth" performances of James Dean and Richard Davalos. Bosley Crowther, writing for "The New York Times", described the film as having "energy and intensity but little clarity and emotion"; he notes: Bosley Crowther called Dean's performance a "mass of histrionic gingerbread" which clearly emulated the style of Marlon Brando. Fifty years later, film critic Kenneth Turan of the "Los Angeles Times", was much more positive, saying "East of Eden" is "not only one of Kazan's richest films and Dean's first significant role, it is also arguably the actor's best performance." The film's depiction of the interaction between