East Of Eden

Synopsis: In the Salinas Valley, in and around World War I, Cal Trask feels he must compete against overwhelming odds with his brother Aron for the love of their father Adam. Cal is frustrated at every turn, from his reaction to the war, to how to get ahead in business and in life, to how to relate to estranged mother.
Genre: Drama
Director(s): Elia Kazan
Production: Warner Bros. Pictures
  Won 1 Oscar. Another 12 wins & 10 nominations.
 
IMDB:
8.0
Rotten Tomatoes:
86%
PG
Year:
1955
118 min
1,684 Views


Nice fat deposit.

You're sure in the right business, Sally.

Thank you.

Good morning.

Deposit.

Another nice deposit.

You and Sally are sure

in the right business.

I'm in a hurry, please.

Hi, Kate.

Have you cleaned up the house

across the way?

I haven't had time yet.

You should always do that one first.

Anne!

Come here.

Did you ever see that kid out there before?

I think maybe he was in the bar last night.

Send Joe in.

Joe.

Hello, Pretty Boy.

- Call me, Kate?

- Yeah. Take a look out the window.

There's a kid who's been following me

all the way to the bank and back.

Come here, you young squirt, come here.

- You want me?

- What's the idea of throwing that stone?

Any law against throwing stones?

You're tough? Come here!

What are you hanging around here for,

anyway?

- Would she talk to me?

- Kate?

What for? What do you want?

Just wanna talk to her.

- What do you want, you?

- Nothing.

You live around here?

- In Monterey?

- Salinas.

What's your name?

You're not talking? Now, look...

why are you following Kate around?

What's the idea, squirt?

Any law against following

around the town...

madam, whatever you call her?

I don't know if there's any law against it,

but she don't like it.

She owns that house over there, too,

don't she?

But don't you go hanging

around there, squirt. You're too young.

Now come on. Now beat it.

Is that her real name?

- Kate. Is that her real name?

- Sure, as far as I know. Why?

What's her last name?

Nobody's got any last name

around here, kid. Why?

You tell her I hate her.

I should have gone right on in there.

Should have gone right on in there

and talked to her.

Cal wasn't home all night.

Boy, is he gonna catch it from Dad.

- You know what the girls in class call him?

- No, what?

The Prowler.

- I'll tell him that.

- You better not, Aron.

- Promise me you won't.

- Why not?

Please don't. I don't want you...

- Hi, Cal.

- Hi.

Hello, Cal.

Excuse me for talking.

We're going down to see the icehouse

that Dad's gonna buy.

- Do you want to come?

- What icehouse?

The one he's buying

to freeze the vegetables with.

He's been talking about it every night

for the last week.

Is Dad gonna be there?

Why sure, he's gonna buy it.

I'll skip it.

You're gonna have

to see him sometime, Cal.

- Come on.

- Hey, Aron.

Yeah?

- Why don't you ask me where I've been?

- Would you tell me?

- No.

- Then what's the use of my asking?

- Is Dad mad at me?

- Well, you were out all night.

He was worried.

Yeah, I bet.

You gonna come or not?

Okay. I'll see you at supper.

He's coming.

He's coming.

You see, Will, I got the idea

from an article I read.

They dug up a mastodon

somewhere in Siberia.

Been in the ice for thousands of years

and the meat was still good.

Mastodon?

What have you got to say for yourself?

This is my son, Cal.

When you were his age,

I imagine you thought it only right...

to let your father know

before you stayed out all night.

Or at least to offer some kind

of apology when you did come home.

Well, times change.

As I was saying,

a mastodon is a kind of elephant.

Hasn't lived on the Earth for a long while.

- And the meat was still fresh?

- Sweet as a pork chop.

You're more excited about this

than you've been for a long time.

Now, I seem to be, don't I?

See, Will, I've been sort of

in a rut out there in the ranch.

- Sixteen, 17 years, I've kept out of things.

- I know.

But now I feel that

if I could only do something...

some little thing for, before I die,

some little thing for progress...

for people, maybe.

Call it anything you want.

I might make up for all the years

I've been lying fallow.

So, lately I've been reading up all I can

about refrigeration.

And I can't get it out of my head

that you can keep anything good...

as long as you can get it cold enough.

Like that mastodon there.

- Good afternoon, Abra.

- Good afternoon, Mr. Trask.

- Hello, Mr. Hamilton.

- Hello.

- Hello, Son.

- Hi, Dad.

Now my son, Aron, that is,

thinks I may have a good idea here.

Dad wrapped a head of lettuce

in wax paper...

and kept it in our icebox

for over three weeks...

and it still came out fresh and good.

Right?

Quite right, Son.

- Dad, is it all right if we look around?

- 'Course, Aron. Belongs to us now.

Do you know where the biggest market

for vegetables is in the winter?

- Where?

- New York City.

And they can't raise them there.

But the railroad had promised me

those fruit cars.

Don't you have anything to say to me, Cal?

- Yeah.

- It's about time. Well?

I read in the Monterey newspaper...

that if we get into this war...

there are gonna be some fortunes made.

But you're gonna make them

in beans and corn, and stuff like that.

- You don't need all this ice.

- You're perfectly right.

Beans are up to 3 cents.

You wanna make a profit, you plant beans.

And they keep, too, don't they?

But I'm not particularly interested

in making a profit, Cal.

Look here, Will.

I'm not an inventor nor a scientist...

but I know I have an idea here.

I come from a whole family of inventors.

People full of ideas like this one.

I'm the only one that didn't have an idea...

and the only one that ever made a dime.

You wanna make a profit, you plant beans.

Put out that cigarette!

That place is full of sawdust!

- Come on, Adam, he's just thoughtless.

- Thoughtless? He's inconsiderate.

Rate this script:5.0 / 1 vote

John Steinbeck

John Ernst Steinbeck Jr. (; February 27, 1902 – December 20, 1968) was an American author. He won the 1962 Nobel Prize in Literature "for his realistic and imaginative writings, combining as they do sympathetic humour and keen social perception." He has been called "a giant of American letters," and many of his works are considered classics of Western literature.During his writing career, he authored 27 books, including 16 novels, six non-fiction books, and two collections of short stories. He is widely known for the comic novels Tortilla Flat (1935) and Cannery Row (1945), the multi-generation epic East of Eden (1952), and the novellas Of Mice and Men (1937) and The Red Pony (1937). The Pulitzer Prize-winning The Grapes of Wrath (1939) is considered Steinbeck's masterpiece and part of the American literary canon. In the first 75 years after it was published, it sold 14 million copies.Most of Steinbeck's work is set in central California, particularly in the Salinas Valley and the California Coast Ranges region. His works frequently explored the themes of fate and injustice, especially as applied to downtrodden or everyman protagonists. more…

All John Steinbeck scripts | John Steinbeck Scripts

0 fans

Submitted on August 05, 2018

Discuss this script with the community:

0 Comments

    Translation

    Translate and read this script in other languages:

    Select another language:

    • - Select -
    • 简体中文 (Chinese - Simplified)
    • 繁體中文 (Chinese - Traditional)
    • Español (Spanish)
    • Esperanto (Esperanto)
    • 日本語 (Japanese)
    • Português (Portuguese)
    • Deutsch (German)
    • العربية (Arabic)
    • Français (French)
    • Русский (Russian)
    • ಕನ್ನಡ (Kannada)
    • 한국어 (Korean)
    • עברית (Hebrew)
    • Gaeilge (Irish)
    • Українська (Ukrainian)
    • اردو (Urdu)
    • Magyar (Hungarian)
    • मानक हिन्दी (Hindi)
    • Indonesia (Indonesian)
    • Italiano (Italian)
    • தமிழ் (Tamil)
    • Türkçe (Turkish)
    • తెలుగు (Telugu)
    • ภาษาไทย (Thai)
    • Tiếng Việt (Vietnamese)
    • Čeština (Czech)
    • Polski (Polish)
    • Bahasa Indonesia (Indonesian)
    • Românește (Romanian)
    • Nederlands (Dutch)
    • Ελληνικά (Greek)
    • Latinum (Latin)
    • Svenska (Swedish)
    • Dansk (Danish)
    • Suomi (Finnish)
    • فارسی (Persian)
    • ייִדיש (Yiddish)
    • հայերեն (Armenian)
    • Norsk (Norwegian)
    • English (English)

    Citation

    Use the citation below to add this screenplay to your bibliography:

    Style:MLAChicagoAPA

    "East Of Eden" Scripts.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 29 Mar. 2024. <https://www.scripts.com/script/east_of_eden_7412>.

    We need you!

    Help us build the largest writers community and scripts collection on the web!

    Browse Scripts.com

    The Studio:

    ScreenWriting Tool

    Write your screenplay and focus on the story with many helpful features.