Soldiers really sad about Easter coffee shortage

Fifty-eight years ago, on Easter Sunday, 1951, James Dean made his motion-picture debut.

East of Eden?

No way!

James Dean's first film role was Hill Number One, a little-known made-for-television Easter special produced by Father Patrick Peyton of the Congregation of Holy Cross.

Dean plays the Apostle John in this telling of the Easter story, as related by a military chaplain to a group of caffeine-starved American GIs during the Korean War.

The soon-to-be screen legend was just 19 at the time.

Although he doesn't get a lot of screen time in Hill Number One, Dean's not-quite-definable star quality is nonetheless evident.

His appeal is perhaps best described in the quote from Antoine de Saint Exupéry's The Little Prince enscribed on the James Dean Memorial in Cholame, California, 900 yards from where Dean died in an automobile crash on September 30, 1955:

"What is essential is invisible to the eye."

This Easter Sunday, SooToday.com offers the following hard-to-find screen rarity in its entirety.

Other substantive actors who can be seen in this one-hour presentation include Roddy McDowell, Michael Ansara, Leif Erickson and Ruth Hussey.

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