Here’s something cool: very rare footage from a “General Electric Theater” play that pits Ronald Reagan (playing an upright doctor) against James Dean (playing a crazed delinquent). This was just after Reagan left the movies for television and just before James Dean took Hollywood by storm. Dean’s mesmerizing performance here reminds you why he remains a legend to this day. Though personally, I was more wowed by the awesome image of the future President showing a nihilistic punk exactly why and how he sucks as human being.
How many Presidents have footage of themselves staring down a gun barrel, coolly assessing the weapon’s stopping power, and warning the other guy that he’d better hope it kills him? Damn, the fifties were awesome!