A rare screen test of Marlon Brando has been unearthed and is about to be released on DVD, it features a young Brando auditioning for Rebel Without a Cause, apparently in a previous attempt to make the film.

The BBC carry the story:

Brando did a screen test for the role of teenager Jim Stark in 1947 for an unmade version of the film, eight years before Dean's version was released...

The test is included in a new DVD of A Streetcar Named Desire, due out in May. Warner Brothers, which is releasing the DVD, says the audition came from an earlier attempt to make Rebel Without a Cause.

After several versions failed to get Rebel Without a Cause off the ground, director Nicholas Ray's version was released in 1955, with Dean in the lead role.

It won't be long after the release of that DVD that we'll see the audition footage on the Internet I'm sure. The BBC carry some pictures of the screen test in which he looks really young. I'm so fond of black and white films and those huge movie stars that I think I might just pick this one up. What happened to such stars and genuine talent?