-

ONE EYED JACKS

-

1961/Director: Marlon Brando/Screenplay: Charles Neider (novel) Guy Trosper (screenplay)

-

Cast:Marlon Brando, Karl Malden, Katy Jurado, Pina Pellicer, Ben Johnson, Slim Pickens, Elisha Cook Jr, Tim Carrey, Larry Duran, Sam Gilman

-

-

This 1961 Western is really a pretty good movie I never get tired of watching while at the same time not a perfectly flawless work. It deserves some of the criticism it gets yet is in no way deserving of the harsh abuse sometimes thrown at it. It is Brando’s only work as a director and the movie has so much historic behind the scenes drama that it rivals the epic adventure on the screen. Stanley Kubrick was slated to direct the film originally and Sam Peckinpah was to write the script. Kubrick fired Peckinpah who used his idea for the film as the inspiration for his later Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid. There were a couple more script writers before the script got to a workable state by Guy Trosper. However Kubrick and Brando simply could not work together and Kubrick bitterly left and Brando took over chores as director under the guidance of his own film company. His first big decision was to replace Spencer Tracy as Dad Longworth and replace him with movie pal Karl Malden. They worked on several films together including A Streetcr Named Desire and On the Waterfront.

-

-

Critics claim Brando was not secure with his job as first time director and the movie is famous for having set records at that time for the amount of film used by Brando for all his retakes. It was said to be six times the amount usually used and his finished product was a five hour psychological Western that the studio felt was too long and rambling. They trimmed it down to its current running time of almost 2 ½ hours much to Brando’s chagrin and he was so devastated he never directed again. To be fair I am not sure if this move would have worked at five hours long and feel the studio had some rights in making the movie presentable to the general public. But that said, I would like to see some of the missing footage and see the alternate ending were Pina Pellicer’s fragile character Louisa is shot in the back by Dad Longworth and dies. This was Brando’s vision of the ending and the studio gave it the definitely more up beat ending it has now.

-

-

Maybe Brando was inexperienced as a director but he seems to have gotten the feel for it quick enough and the movie ultimatley is very entertaining and well made and I have always held this movie in high regard. In fact it is stunning in some ways both visually and narratively. Peckinpah's script originally based the Johnny Rio character on Billy the Kid and Brando did not want to play such an obvious outlaw and instead crafted the morally ambivalent Rio into one of the most genuinely interesting film characters in history. The cinematography is beautiful and it is the only Western I can think of that takes place on a beautiful ocean coast. It looks like the beaches around Monterey or Carmel. The color is lush and the acting is perfect and the dialog and delivery is priceless.

-

-

The basic plot is one of deep revenge after Johnny Rio is deserted by friend and fellow bank robber Dad Longworth in Sonora Mexico. Longworth high tails it north with all the horses and gold and no boots rather than risk his life returning with fresh horses to pinned down Johnny Rio. After five long years in a stinking hell hole of a Mexican prison he escapes with compadre Chico Modesto played by Larry Duran. He wastes no time in turning all his attention to tracking down and getting his revenge on the man who betrayed him. Along the way he hooks up with saddle tramp bandits Ben Johnson and Sam Gilman. Johnson is excellent as the shifty, cowardly, and ruthless Bob Amory. Together they plan a bank job in the city where Dad Longworth is now the "redeemed" sheriff. He rules the town with a high hand and lots of hair trigger back up shot-gun led by brutish deputy Lon played by Slim Pickens.

-

-

Rio works his way back to the edge of Dad’s life enough to charm and shame his innocent step-daughter played convincingly by demure Pina Pellicer. Her mother is played by Katy Jurado and she is protective of her little girl and was suspicious of the overly charming Rio from the first time they all had dinner together. Things go askew when Dad crushes Rio’s trigger hand after Rio guns down the always freaky Tim Carrey in a great barroom scene. Carrey is drunk and manhandling a bargirl, at one point shoving her face in a bowl of chili extolling "thats 's how you gotta treat 'em". Rio is guilt ridden over his own misdeeds the night before with Louisa and confronts the less subtle mysogonist. He throws some good looking punches (he was once a boxer) at bigger Carrey and orders him as he lays on the floor to “Get up you tub of guts!” After his hand is shattered he convalesces at a tiny fishing village run by some Chinese fishermen and some good and tense interaction occurs between the stir crazy cowboys as they wait for Rio’s hand to heal. In one scene (included in clip form here) Rio becomes enraged at Bob Amory simply for referring to Louisa as a “little jumpin’ bean” and in the best line of the movie commands him to “Get up! You scum sucking pig. Get up!”

-

-

It may not be a stretch of a movie watchers imagination to guess Rio has a change of heart and decides to forego his once consuming revenge after learning Louisa is pregnant. He cancels the bank job and decides to ride north and lay low but this does not sit well with Amory and Harvey. Loyal Chico Modesto is murdered and Amory and Harvey clumsily try to pull off the bank job alone and a little girl is killed. Elisha Cook Jr. nails Amory before he eats some hot lead himself and Rio is captured on the outskirts of town and sentenced to be hanged without a trial. The great scenes go and on and despite some implausibility’s here and there one can go with it and enjoy it thoroughly. The break out scene is great and Rio whoops the bigger and pot bellied Lon to pieces in the cell. Of course it ends in a shoot around a water fountain and Dad Longworth is killed and Rio high tails it to the wilderness with the promise of returning one spring night.

-

Though the movie is long at 141 minutes the time does not drag by at all. The little synopsis I laid out above hardly does the scenes justice. It is truly an epic western and an underrated movie but it definitely has gained a reputation as a true cult classic with a devoted following.

-

-

On a sad closing note lovely Pina Pellicer committed suicide not long after the movie was released. She and Brando had an affair during the filming and to what degree this played a part I am not sure. I have read strange stories of how Brando gave her amphetamines to increase her nervous appearance for the camera but I do not know if these stories are true. He is a much maligned man in many ways and I tend to like his work but I am not sure about all the stories I hear about his personal life. Some seem unbelievable. I could not find that much information on Pellicer on the net nor could I find a decent still of her from the movie and the picture posted below is from another film. I was surprised really and will do some research and see if I can at least find some good pictures. Her performance here was so sweet and delicate. It is a tragic footnote to an otherwise immortal film.

-

-

-

-

A - Z LIST OF URANIUM CAFE POSTS

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 24th, 2008 at 12:29 pm and is filed under Cowboys and Desperados, Cult Films and Oddities . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.