Trivia
James Dean was signed to play 'Rocky Graziano' but the part was given to Paul Newman after Dean was killed in an automobile accident on 30 September 1955.
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There had been some opposition to the casting of Paul Newman, since at 31 he was already six years older than James Dean would have been, and his first movie The Silver Chalice had been a critical and commercial disaster.
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Originally the movie was to be filmed on location in New York in Technicolor. However, after James Dean's death it was decided the film should be in black & white and filmed on studio sets. Director Robert Wise felt the sets looked very fake and only used them for night scenes, while filming the daytime scenes on location.
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Eileen Heckart who plays Rocky Graciano's mother was only 6 years older than Paul Newman. She was born in 1919 and he, in 1925.
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