East of Eden (film) Although set in early 20th century Monterey, California, much of the film was actually shot on location in Mendocino, California. Some scenes were filmed in the Salinas Valley. Of the three films in which James Dean played the male lead, this is the only one to have been released during his lifetime and the only one Dean personally viewed in its entirety. The film, along with "Rebel Without a Cause" and "Giant", has been named by the American Film Institute as one of the best 400 American films of all time. In 2016, the film was selected for preservation in
KTVU primarily consisted of those released during the 1950s, most being presented in color, which aired at 7:00 p.m. on Sundays. Channel 2 was the first television station in the Bay Area to air such films as "A Star Is Born", "East of Eden" and "Rebel Without a Cause". KTVU exercised discretion and limited the amount of commercial break interruptions during the movie telecasts, often airing the films uncensored and with commentary, either by a studio host or via slides. The station even televised the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer film "Hollywood Revue of 1929" with some of the original two-strip Technicolor sequences. During the