From crises including two World Wars and the Great Depression, the United States emerged in the 1950s as an unprecedented global power, intent on peace, and energized by remarkable prosperity. But new threats to domestic tranquility quickly arose in the immediate postwar period. Racial tensions ran high, Communist plots against the government were being routed out, and perhaps most shockingly the youth turned against society, violently so. Headlines abounded declaring that the youth were now a dangerous social problem. Nicholas Ray's "Rebel Without A Cause" took an unconventional look at juvenile delinquency, one that located the problem in what had once been the peaceful suburbs. This project examines the immediate reception of this enduring depiction of teenage alienation, using sources that situate the film in its historical context.

Noriega, Chon. "Something's Missing Here!": Homosexuality and Film Reviews during the Production Code Era, 1934-1962. Cinema Journal, Vol. 30, No. 1. (Autumn, 1990), pp. 20-41 

            Chon Noriega’s piece chronicles the depiction and reception of homosexuality in Hollywood using film reviews from major periodicals as source material. As the Production Code demanded that "Sex perversion or any inference of it is forbidden," the period of the 1930s and 1940s was characterized by films that had few if any allusions to the existence of homosexuality. Instead, as films were adapted from materials that featured homosexuality as a part of the narrative, the issue was substituted for other social problems. Noriega looks at the three such films in which homosexuality is recast, as the evils of gossip, alcoholism, and anti-semitism, respectively. Reviews at the time rarely mentioned the exchange, or if they did, praised the substitution as making the film better. From this “conspiracy of silence” came acknowledgment of homosexual themes and characters in the 1950s. As long as homosexual characters faced a character arc that was sufficiently tragic, and thus didactic, films were acceptable and homosexuality was no longer explicitly criticized in the reviews. Beginning in the mid-1950s and continuing to the 1960s the dominant perception of homosexuality was no longer that it was criminal, but that it was a psychiatric disease that individuals could be pitied for being afflicted with, but could be cured of.

            Rebel Without a Cause (1955) is often cited as one of the first films to depict a homosexual teenager, Plato, played by Sal Mineo. However, the film initially had more daring content. Upon submission to Joseph Breen’s office, the film was found to have latent homosexual themes that had to be re-edited. The article illuminates the attitudes towards homosexuality at the time of Rebel’s release and the perceived necessity of the changes.

 Cohen, Ronald. “The Delinquents: Censorship and Youth Culture in Recent U. S.                        History.” History of Education Quarterly, Vol. 37, No. 3. (1997)

 

            Ronald Cohen examines the particular causes of heightened censorship during the post-World War II period, focusing especially on the fifties. Society became hyper-aware of the problem of juvenile delinquency in the fifties as newspapers and magazines frequently featured descriptions of this rising and troubling trend. Censorship was a means of social control, to quell the passions of a younger generation that had already proven itself unruly. The particularly strong desire to control the youth of the fifties can be attributed in part to the development of youth culture distinct from that of adults during the period. Cohen examines the Comic sCode, which banned or limited depictions of violence, alleged sexual perversion (homosexuality), sexism, and other affronts to traditional, family values. Similarly problematic but less effectively censored was rock’n’roll music, which was considered to be dangerous because of its sexually suggestive lyrics, ability to incite racial mixing, and overly exciting rhythms. Movies and television did not escape this treatment, although the Production Code became outdated, activists and advocates insisted that the medium remain moral and not serve as a subversive example to the youth. Films, most notably Blackboard Jungle (1955) combined a rock’n’roll soundtrack with violent imagery, earning box office popularity among the teen set and the ire of proponents of family values.    

            Cohen’s article illuminates the audience for films like Rebel Without a Cause (1955) and of the supposedly dangerous mass culture of the 1950s: white, suburban, middle class teenagers with an increasing amount of disposable income in a prosperous time. The film mirrors its audience in setting, casting, and in content.