FOLIO
Rejoice, lovers of film and especially classic Westerns! A prime contender for the Holy Grail of the genre has finally been restored to its pristine element and is available from Criterion Collection. It’s surely one of the most impressive film restorations of the past year.
Originally released in 1961 to dismissive reviews, One-Eyed Jacks had consequently been butchered and bleached in the public domain; washed-out copies (often hideously cropped) were the only views most folks had in the last 20 to 30 years. It’s one of the most gorgeous Western films ever made and the last to be shot in VistaVision (the widescreen process considered by many film historians as the best). It was also the first and last to be directed by Marlon Brando, the greatest film actor of his generation.
As if those credentials weren’t impressive enough, One-Eyed Jacks is also a terrific story about well-delineated characters who use six-guns and ride horses. In other words, like the best Westerns, it deals with universal human drama and dynamics despite its setting in the “Old West.”
The actual germination of the film from script to screen is almost as fascinating as the movie itself. Based on Charles Neider’s novel The Authentic Death of Hendry Jones, the first screenplay to be submitted to Brando’s production company was by none other than Sam Peckinpah (“Bloody Sam,” as the later director of The Wild Bunch and Straw Dogs came to be known). The film’s original director was to be Stanley Kubrick, hot off Paths of Glory.
After Peckinpah’s script was discarded for a new one by Calder Willingham and Kubrick was fired (or left to work on Lolita), Brando took up the director’s reins. He was always going to be the star. After exceeding the original budget by millions and printing literally thousands of feet of what would be unused film, Brando delivered an original edit of almost five hours and washed his hands of it. Paramount Pictures finally whittled the movie down to a little under two-and-a-half hours, and the result (almost unbelievably!) is a classic.
Brando plays amoral gunfighter Rio who, with Dad Longworth (Karl Malden), robs a bank in Mexico at the film’s start. The sequence and its aftermath highlight Rio’s ruthlessness and charm in equal doses. He coaxes an expensive ring from a female bank customer (as if the money weren’t enough) and later uses it to try to seduce a proper young woman while Dad consorts with the whores. Before making his escape as the authorities approach, Rio makes sure to pry the jewel off the surprised girl’s finger.
Dad and Rio end up in the desert, run to ground by the pursuing lawmen. In a last desperate move, Rio convinces Dad to take the remaining horse and find another mount while Rio holds off the encroachers. In one of the film’s most striking visual scenes (which I’ve never forgotten since I saw it on the big screen), Rio lies in the dunes, waiting in vain for Dad, as the sand swirls and the Federales close in.
Thus begins a traditional tale of betrayal and revenge, made even more engrossing than ever. Escaping from the penitentiary after five years, Rio goes after Dad who, in the meantime, has used the stolen money to gain a wife Maria (Katy Jurado), a lovely stepdaughter Louisa (newcomer Pina Pellicer who, tragically, killed herself three years later), and the position of sheriff in Monterey.
Allying himself with a small gang (including future Oscar-winner Ben Johnson), Rio goes to Monterey to rob the bank and kill Dad. In the process, though, he discovers love (Louisa, of course), which greatly complicates matters. More betrayals, shoot-outs and one ferocious beating occur before the final confrontation, all of which are filmed with an originality that’s a real credit to Brando’s vision and perception as a director.
The acting, of course, is superb all-around. In his third outing with Brando after On the Waterfront and A Streetcar Named Desire, Malden maintains his skill. Jurado, Slim Pickens and Elisha Cook Jr. are impeccable as well, but it is with the young Pina Pellicer that Brando exhibits his biggest surprise, eliciting a remarkable performance from the doomed young actress.
Brando, of course, is Brando. And One-Eyed Jacks is one of a kind, too.
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