One of my earliest recollections of Old Western film art is of a lesser known film called One-Eyed Jacks, made in 1961. The film stars Marlon Brando as Rio, somewhat past the height of his career 10 years earlier in classics such as Street Car Named Desire and On The Waterfront, and co-starring one of his best friends, Karl Malden who plays Dad Longworth. The film is a bit of a departure for both actors, probably one of the reasons they gravitated toward making the movie; Marlon plays a fellow bank robber/hustler friend of Karl’s who during one of their capers, gives Karl the sack of gold they’ve stolen in order to go ahead to garner horses and ammo so that they can both escape from the Mexican desert standoff they were trapped in. Karl takes the gold but never returns to help Marlon fend off the local authorities; Karl escapes and ultimately violating the guy code of the day: he leaves his boy behind to rot in a Mexican prison.
Marlon ends up doing his bid and Karl’s and 5 years later, remains angry and vengeful over Karl’s betrayal. The movie effectively focuses on Marlon’s singular goal: to find and kill Karl. The twist is that Karl has become the sheriff of the town of Monterrey, has married and adopted his wife’ beautiful daughter. By redefining himself, Karl exquisitely plays a man haunted by his own betrayal of his best friend who he now fears, and a man living a lie in the sense that he is still very much the callous, conniving hustler he always was, but now with a badge. Quite a departure from the actor who so convincingly played the likeable oaf in Streetcar, and the honorable, tenacious and fearless priest in On the Waterfront.
Other notable and hilarious performances include Slim Pickens as Karl’s sidekick Lon Kendrick, and Ben Johnson as Bob Emory. The film also features the debut of the actress Pina Pellicer who plays Dad Longworth’s adopted daughter, Louisa. She showed great promise, despite the fact that she essentially learned to speak English on the set of this film. She came to a tragic end in real life, after falling in love with her co-star Marlon who she had an affair with, and eventually committing suicide. Imagine that happening today to a young ingénue, like say Jennifer Lawrence (from Winter’s Bone) if she had fallen for and killed herself over her co-star John Hawkes! Only a star as monumental as Marlon Brando could move past the tabloid effect of that event fairly unscathed. If say a young Juliette Binoche had even attempted suicide after co-starring with Daniel Day Lewis (some might say, our generation’s Brando) in The Unbearable Lightness of Being, the tabloid ripple effect would most likely still plague both actors.
Back to One Eyed Jacks, this was Marlon’s directorial debut, and the movie was originally to be directed by Stanley Kubrick; Sam Peckinpah wrote the screenplay, and went on to great critical acclaim for writing the Wild Bunch just 8 years later in 1969. Brando had actually fired Peckinpah over creative disagreements, and eventually Kubrick was also fired. Brando decided to direct the film himself, and did an excellent job as you’ll see, focusing on human emotion and capturing with great effect the subtleties and tensions between the characters. In fact, the dialogue is loaded with tension and there is a great economy to the characters’ communications. This film is jam-packed with awesome one-liners like Lon’s “You ain’t getting’ no older than tomorrow…” as he teases Rio, sentenced to hang.
Although not meant to be a comedy, there are many funny moments in this film. Keep an eye on when Dad publicly whips Rio, who not only spits in his face, but then whips his hair back in one of the coolest Brando-esque moves you don’t want to miss. Both of these men were one of a kind. The movie did not do very well at the box office, but still remains an underappreciated classic.
Set against the gorgeous backdrop of Monterrey California in the early ‘60s, check out One Eyed Jacks. You won’t be disappointed.
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