East of Eden

Notable mainly for the electrically emotional scenes between Massey as the stiff, stern patriarch, and Dean as the rejected 'bad' son, Kazan's adaptation of Steinbeck's novel, about the rivalry between two teenage boys for the love of their father, is as long-winded and bloated with biblical allegory as the original. That said, it's a film of great performances, atmospheric photography, and a sure sense of period and place (the California farmlands at the time of World War I). A pity, however, about Leonard Rosenman's dreary score, which goes way over the top in attempting to underline the intensity of the various familial conflicts.