Marlon Brando’s One-Eyed Jacks (1961) is a picture that really seems to divide classic Western fans. To some, it’s a great film; to others, a self-indulgent disaster.
Whichever side you’re on, masterpiece or mess, you probably know something of its troubled production — at least a year behind schedule, a few million dollars over budget, Stanley Kubrick and Sam Peckinpah hired and fired, and so on. It’s been written about quite a bit over the years, and I’ve covered it before on this blog.
As a side project to 50 Westerns From The 50s, I’m at work on A Million Feet Of Film: The Making Of One-Eyed Jacks. It has a tentative release date of March 30, 2012 — the 51st anniversary of its premiere at the Paramount in New York.
Particulars will come as they’re sorted out. In the meantime, there’s a Tumblr page to share some photos and other material I’ve amassed over the years. (That color image up top is from the original trailer.)
Sweet! Please feel free to add the pic of Tim Carey and Margarita Cordova from my blog to your Tumblr page! Nice work!
Looks like another great project, Toby.
You really do owe it to yourself to track down a copy of the anamorphic French “La vengeance aux deux visages” DVD from Wild Side. It’s much better than the Blu-ray release (which starts off looking promising and quickly falls away. There’s a good discussion of its merits here:
http://www.avmaniacs.com/forums/showthread.php?t=47832&page=1
Finally sat down and watched the Entertainment One domestic/German Blu-ray last night.
While I’m certainly not happy with it, it wasn’t as bad as I suspected. I’m between televisions, so I ran it on my standard Sony Trinitron — and I think that might’ve made things better by masking some of the flaws. (In this case, there can be TOO MUCH resolution.)
The color is WAY off — what should be gorgeous Technicolor looked like Trucolor — and the lighting/contrast seems to change from shot to shot. But it was on the better side of watchable, I felt.
Sadly, this is the best I’ve seen this film look in years. Keep in mind, I haven’t seen the French discs beyond screen grabs. So if you don’t want to spring for the French titles, this will do just fine.
In the end, however, we’re talking about what should be one of the best-looking Blu-rays ever — Charles Lang, VistaVision, Technicolor. None of these discs come close to doing this picture justice. Okay, I’ve changed my mind. This stinks. But it stinks a lot less that the half-dozen pieces of crap I bought before this one came along.
Andrew;does your Wild Side DVD have “forced” French subtitles
on the English langtuage version?
My Wild Side version of “Wind Across The Everglades” does although
its a stunning transfer.Also it comes with an 84p.p hardbound book.
These Wild Side cats do some great re-issues but the subtitle thing
bothers me. I am even more concerned because they are going to give
“Run Of The Arrow” the 5 star treatment next year.
The French Wild Side video does indeed have forced English subtitles if you’re watching it with the English language soundtrack.
The picture is quite good which makes the presence of the forced subtitles really frustrating. Why DO they do that?
For anyone interested to see how the French DVD looks, there are more than 1300 screencaps from it on my Ben Johnson website, at http://benjohnsonscreencaps.shutterfly.com/movies. I screencapped all of Ben’s scenes.
Don’t worry, there’s plenty of Marlon Brando in them thar screencaps too! (I screencapped with the French language track running, so no subtitles.)
Oops, forgot this… congrats, Toby, on your Million Feet of Film webpage and the upcoming book. I’m really looking forward to it.
Thanks a bunch. And thanks for the resource stuff you’ve provided!
Very exciting – I love the Tumblr page! Looking forward to this very much — along with seeing the movie for the 1st time!
Best wishes,
Laura
C’mon lady, watch that DVD!
Hey, man. We’re going to hold you to that street date! Maybe now that some decent copies are floating around, I’LL see ONE-EYED JACKS for the first time!
You need to watch it. I’d like to know what you think.
If nothing else, it’s got some of the finest work by some of the finest character actors of the 50s.
Well, now I’m waiting until the companion book comes out.
Excuses, excuses.
The one plus about the Wild Side DVD’s subtitles is that at least they’re not burned in. They CAN be removed with a bit of digital trickery, ie, ripping the disc and running it through something like DVDShrink. It’s not hard to do and is well worth the effort.
Its still a pain having to do this but as you say worth the effort if the film
is good enough.I would buy a lot more DVDs on the French Sidonis
imprint if they did not have “forced” subs.
“Run Of The Arrow” is going to be hard to resist though.
Ripping a DVD and running it through DVDShrink (whatever that is) is completely beyond my capabilities.
I still want to know WHY they do forced subtitles. Is there some huge expense to encode the DVD to let you remove subtitles?
Just to add insult to injury Sidonis I understand are going to release
LAST OF THE FAST GUNS in Scope next year.This is one I am
desperate to get and as far as I know the only Jock Mahoney Universal
Western to appear anywhere on DVD anywhere on the planet.
I know what will happen I will buy the darn thing get my pal to remove
the subs then Pegasus UK will release it at a fraction of the cost.
Oh the trials and tribulations of being a Fifties Western fan!
Anyone interested in French DVDs there is an excellent French fansite
http://www.westernmovies.fr that has screen grabs of all Western DVDs released
over there. Just click on to the images on the right hand side of the home
page.
WOW!!! At age 67 I’m only just getting started using a computer; mainly to surf the Internet on subjects which interest me, Western movies being amongst them. I thought I was the only fan obsessed with Rio, Modesto, Dad, Harve, Red, Bob, Louisa, Lon, and the rest of the gang in Monterey. I grew up watching Westerns on TV, but Jacks is my favorite. I eagerly await the publication of your, I hope tome, for I’ve been fascinated for years by all the mystery and unanswered questions regarding this film. I even thought I’d have to be the one to write it before all the principals died. Kudos, Kudos, Kudos. Is there any chance that the United Kingdom 5-hour uncut version has survived? I will never get over the disappointment of having been denied the pleasure of seeing One Eyed Jacks in its entirety. In fact, watching the Appaloosa, which contains some of the same actors, similar scenes, and plot elements, serves the purpose of having a sequel to view and revisit our friends from the original. Now I’m headed over to Best Buy to get the new Blu-Ray issued version.