Our video this week comes to us once again via the good people at Movieclips.com. It’s the famous scene from Elia Kazan‘s East of Eden (1955) in which Cal Trask (James Dean) confronts his long-lost mother Kate (Jo Van Fleet, who won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for this, her first film role), the owner of a house of ill repute.

In his Movie Stars Parade article “The Highways of Heaven,” Timothy related the tale of shooting this scene with Dean:

“Then I lifted my fist to hit him again, missed, hit a pipe and broke my knuckles. Some blood began to trickle, but I wanted to continue with the scene. Only Jimmy wouldn’t let me. He didn’t care when his own blood was oozing, but at the sight of my blood he became compassionate.

‘It’s all right, Jimmy,’ I insisted. ‘Let’s go.’

‘No,’ Jimmy was firm. ‘Let’s get the  nurse.’

This guy was a human being. He really cared about my knuckles bleeding. I could drop dead on the set, and most people would say, ‘Lower the crumb right down.’ Not Jimmy. He valued me.”