 The movie opened to mixed reviews when it was released on October 27, 1955, less than a month after James Dean, whose performance was praised all around by film critics, died (September 30).William Zinsser, however, wrote a scathing review of "Rebel" in his "New York Herald Tribune" column, concluding his summary of the film's plot with the words, “All this takes two hours, but it seems more like two days.The movie is written and acted so ineptly, directed so sluggishly, that all names but one will be omitted here.