CREDITS REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE, 1955 dir: Nicholas Ray James Dean Natalie Wood Sal Mineo Jim Backus Dennis Hopper

“ If I had one day when I didn't have to be all confused and I didn't have to feel that I was ashamed of everything. If I felt that I belonged someplace. You know? ”

The angst-ridden teen has become such a familiar archetype that it's hard to imagine the impact of the original. Rebel began as a black-and-white, academy-radio picture, but the revolution in cinema brought about by the threat of television meant the original footage was scrapped and production started over in magnificent widescreen and colour.

It was shot around Los Angeles, and you can still see the film's ëpolice stationí on the Warners' Burbank lot, if you take the Warner Bros VIP Studio Tour.

Rebel Without a Cause location: Jim Stark's high school: Santa Monica High School, Pico Boulevard, Santa Monica

‘Dawson High’, the new school of the original angst-ridden teen Jim Stark (James Dean), at ‘University and 10th’ is actually Santa Monica High School, 601 Pico Boulevard at 4th Street, Santa Monica, though some interiors were shot at John Marshall High School, 3939 Tracy Street, Los Feliz.

Marshall High, apart from being the old school of Leonardo DiCaprio, has featured in lots of movies, including Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Like Father Like Son and fifties teen drama The Young Stranger.

The mansion, in which Jim, Plato (Sal Mineo) and Judy (Natalie Wood) play house, was also featured in Sunset Boulevard, and it stood at 641 Irving Boulevard at Wilshire Boulevard, midtown LA.

Two years after Rebel was filmed, it was demolished.

The planetarium visited by the schoolkids, and the site of the final shootout, is the Griffith Observatory, 2800 East Observatory Road, in Griffith Park (tel: 323.664.1181).

Rebel Without a Cause location: The school trip and the climactic shoot-out: Griffith Observatory, Griffith Park, Los Angeles

The film put the observatory firmly on the map, and there’s now a bust of Dean in the grounds. Other films featuring the Observatory include the Steve Martin Hollywood satire Bowfinger, Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle, the spoofy 1987 film of Dragnet – with Tom Hanks and Dan Aykroyd, The Rocketeer and, of course, The Terminator.

It even became an LA nightclub in Julien Temple's Earth Girls Are Easy.

Coincidentally, James Dean’s first professional acting job was a Coca Cola commercial filmed in Griffith Park.