East of Eden is based on the second half of John Steinbeck's allegorical novel of the story of Adam and Eve after they were expelled from the Garden of Eden. In this movie, Eden is a ranch they use to live on, and instead of Cain and Able, their sons are Cal and Aron.

The plot is essentially two brothers competing for the love of their father. Aron is the "good" son. He has a girlfriend, Abra, whom Cal, the "bad" son, secretly yearns for. Their mother is long gone and believed to be dead. That is until Cal finds that she is running a whore house in a nearby town.

After their father loses a bunch of money on a business venture, Cal gets the idea that he will gain favor with his father if he can raise the money he lost, and present it to him as a birthday gift. First he needs some investment capital to start his plan rolling. He gets it from his mother whom he discovers has a few things in common with him.

Meanwhile, World War I starts and their dad becomes in charge of the draft board. The war also means that Cal's bean crops will go up in price. The sensitive Aron becomes bothered by the war and how a German neighbor gets picked on. He also starts to notice that Cal and Abra are growing closer.

The movie climaxes in an emotional scene of Cal trying to give his earnings to his father only to be trumped by Aron's news of his engagement to Abra. This is Deans big crying scene. He plays it as if he is one big opened, emotional wound, gushing blood from his soul. This movie has plenty of good things going for it but it is James Deans performance that keeps this film in circulation.

As in the bible, Cal betrays Aron. Here he does it in the form of taking his "good" brother to see his "bad" mother, whom Aron has put on a pedestal. Davalos has some intense scenes at the end of the movie, but he is no James Dean, and as such he is severely over shadowed. Harris fairs better. She and Dean share a couple of good scenes. The best being when he is on her roof talking to her through the window.

East of Eden was released in the spring of 1955, it was the only movie James Dean would ever see premiered. He died that fall before the release of Rebel Without a Cause. He left this earth not knowing the amazing impact his films would have on a generation, or just how famous he would become.

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