Product Description

HILL NUMBER ONE Dean plays John the Baptist in this episode of the TV religious anthology Family Theatre.

I AM A FOOL
Co-stars Natalie Wood and tells the tale of a poor boy who falls in love with a rich girl.

Includes an introduction by Tony Curtis and the trailer for Dean’s "East Of Eden".

Menus: English • Spanish • Chinese
Subtitles: Spanish • Chinese

B&W
Running Time: 82 min.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #121013 in DVD
• Brand: Dean
• Released on: 1998-12-15
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Black & White, DVD, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: Spanish, Japanese, Chinese
• Number of discs: 1

Amazon.com
Before James Dean conquered Hollywood, he toiled in New York television. Hill Number One was an hour-long Easter special sponsored by the Family Rosary Crusade--the story of Jesus after the crucifixion, when he was buried in the tomb and then was risen. It's talky, stiffly staged, and very earnest. Dean has a small role, about four lines of dialogue, and he's wildly miscast as the serene and pious John the Baptist.

I Am a Fool comes off much better. This half-hour episode of General Electric Theater is an adaptation of the Sherwood Anderson play about a young man who leaves the farm for the big city and falls in love with a rich girl. Dean is perfectly cast as the sweet, vain, naive farm boy--the scene in which he mimics a rich dandy is solid gold. Natalie Wood is perfectly charming and Eddie Albert--mostly known for his amiable schtick on Green Acres--shows what he can do, given the chance. The kinescope of this live performance is fuzzy, but the performances, the sets, and the staging are all razor sharp. --Geof Miller

Customer Reviews

Birth of a Legend
Hill Number One was James Dean's first appearance on TV. Dean got his start in early television productions like this one. In Hill Number One, a religious production for Father Payton's Television Playhouse, Dean plays the Apostle John the Beloved. It's a small part, and yet one can see in this early performance the earnestness and charisma that were James Dean. Dean was still a student at UCLA when this production was filmed.
I'm a Fool is one of my favorite early Dean performances. It was filmed in Hollywood shortly after Dean completed East of Eden. It pairs him for the first time with Natalie Wood with whom Dean would again star in Rebel Without A Cause. Dean is wonderful in this stylized little drama especially because it gave him a chance to display his remarkable physicality as an actor--the mime scene is a gem--and he is believable as the naive misguided farm boy. One can see glimpses of future and evolving performances in Dean's work. In one scene he hangs his bowler hat on his foot, a piece of schtick he used again in Giant a year later. This is a rare opportunity to see one of the most unique actors of all time in an early TV production. Go for it!

Hill Number One is one of the best Catholic movies I have seen
Nobody should have a Catholic movie collection without "Hill Number One" in it. Quite simply, it is beautiful.

A review
This DVD consists of 'Hill number one' and 'I am a fool', none of which are unenjoyable. Since they were made for TV they are not that clear, but you can still get a hold of Dean's peformances. James Dean become famous after his death after which his three only films were released. Hill number one was his first televised performance. It has an impressive cast consisting of Roddy McDowell, Michael Ansara, Leif Erickson and Ruth Hussey. Natalie Wood co-stars with James Dean in I am a fool which was aired in 1953. There is an introduction by Ronald Reagan. This interesting, well staged film marks one of Dean's first starring roles but yet exhibits the star power that made him an American legend.