This is my contribution to the Paramount Centennial Blogathon, hosted by The Hollywood Revue. Be sure to check other bloggers’ pieces celebrating Paramount’s 100 years of great movies.
One-Eyed Jacks (1961), directed by and starring Marlon Brando, is a film Paramount probably wished they’d never made. It cost more than three times its original budget, took six months to shoot and over a year to edit (Brando turned in a cut over four hours long), and was nowhere near the hit they were hoping for. It was even the subject of jokes — Jerry Lewis: “Spend your vacation at One-Eyed Jacks.” But over the years, its reputation has evolved from trainwreck to cult film to maybe even a classic.
It’s the subject of my book-in-progress A Million Feet Of Film: The Making Of One-Eyed Jacks. For this blogathon, I’m focusing on a single sequence — one that was ultimately left out of the film.
Some say One-Eyed Jacks is a film with too many climaxes. If so, one of those climaxes is certainly the sequence where Dad Longworth (Karl Malden) ties Rio (Marlon Brando) to a hitching post, horsewhips him, then smashes his gun hand with the butt of a shotgun. It’s a brutal scene, with Rio striking a Christ-like pose as the whole town watches his torture.
Brando and his partners in crime withdraw to a Chinese fishing village for him to heal up, rehab his gun hand and plot his revenge. During the wait, tensions mount between Rio and a couple members of his gang, Bob Amory (Ben Johnson) and Harvey Johnson (Sam Gillman). In the script and Brando’s rough cut, there were scenes with Brando and a waitress in the village (Lisa Lu).
Marlon Brando: “I was supposed to get drunk, come in out of the rain and rape a Chinese girl. You can’t fake drunkenness in a movie, so I figured the scene would work better if I really got drunk.”
The scene was scheduled for a Friday afternoon, so Brando would have the weekend to recuperate.
Brando: “I started drinking about 4:15 in the afternoon of the day I was going to shoot the scene, after telling the other actors what I wanted them to do.”
Makeup artist Phil Rhodes: “So Lisa Lu brought in the food as instructed, but by then Marlon was so drunk he couldn’t say his lines.”
Brando: “It has never taken much alcohol to put me over the edge, so in no time at all I was staggering around, grabbing hold of the girl…”
Alice Marchak, Brando’s personal assistant: “The shots they did film were unusable.”
It was decided to try again the next Friday.
Brando: “It still wasn’t right and I had to do it a number of afternoons to get it right.”
Alice Marchak: “Each night filming came to a halt because Marlon was falling-down drunk… Mostly, it was Marlon falling out of bed, staggering around thoroughly enjoying himself, having loads of fun along with members of the crew… What nobody knew was that most nights before I left the studio, Marlon was so sick I had to hold his head to keep him from drowning in the toilet as he knelt and hugged while he threw up into the toilet bowl.”
All those weeks, all that money, all those hangovers — and the scene was cut.
Producer Frank P. Rosenberg: “The only sequence that was dropped in its entirety was an ancillary and transient love story between Brando and a Chinese girl. Everything about this episode was admirable except that it brought the film to a standstill.”
SOURCES: The New York Times; Neon; Me And Marlon by Alice Marchak; Brando: The Biography by Peter Manso.
I recently purchase One Eyed Jacks, but haven’t seen it yet. I know that many have had unfavorable remarks, but it seems to have more going on than people think. Thanks for the post and for sharing honest opinions about this film.
This movie has some powerful scenes … some that were shocking at that time … and some great actors.
One of the best supporting casts ever: Timothy Carey, Elisha Cook, Katy Jurado, Ben Johnson, Hank Worden, Slim Pickens, John Dierkes.
And I’m probably forgetting somebody.
One of my favorite films of all time. We saw it multiple times in the theater and I must have seen it 100 times over the years.
Every time I watch it, I find something new — which means something else to research and write about. There’s so much there.
I’ve never seen it in a theater. Just the thought of Death Valley and Big Sur in VistaVision and Technicolor gives me goosebumps. When the book’s done, if somebody needs someone to introduce the film at a screening someplace, just say the word!
I’ve never seen One-Eyed Jacks before, but after looking a few things up about it, now I’m kind of intrigued by it. The plot definitely sounds like it could be good. I also didn’t realize Marlon Brando had directed it. I’ll have to keep an eye out for it.
Thank you very much for participating in the Paramount Centennial Blogathon!
I first saw it in high school, split over two days on the afternoon movie.
Not the best way to see it. But I was, to use your word, intrigued — and 30 years later, there’s a mammoth Word document that will be a book before too long.
So maybe this is a warning. That intrigued thing can get out of hand.
The Blogathon is terrific. Did someone do a Universal one?
Journeys in Classic Film hosted a Universal blogathon I think a week or two ago.
Hate I missed it.
I didn’t know the story behind this film, but if Karl malden is in it, then I must watch. Of course getting drunk wasn’t a good idea. Only Brando didn’t see it.
Don’t forget to read my contribution to the blogathon!
Greetings!
Le
Toby: Miriam Colon and Philip Ahn.
I was totally in love with Brando when I was a teenager. I LOVED this western. I think I went to see it every day for a week. Movies were a lot less expensive back then! I had forgotten this one … thanks for the reminder!
Reblogged this on Serendipity and commented:
I was utterly in love with Marlon Brando when I was a teenage girl. I think I saw this at least a dozen times in the movies. I haven’t seen it in years, but this is a great back story that adds an interesting layer to the movie.
“You can’t fake drunkenness in a movie”?? Oh, Marlon. Sure you can. It’s called ACTING. *eyeroll* I also love how Brando said he was supposed to rape the girl, but the producer called it “a love story.” OW my eyes hurt from all the rolling!
Excellent article, as always, Toby!
To me, ONE-EYED JACKS is a classic and should be seen as such. If someone does not want to call it a classic then, at the very least, it is an excellent, top-rate, work-of-art western film.
One-Eyed Jacks is an under-rated movie. It is not a typical western film. I was impressed by it. I saw it no long ago; the film quality was so poor. Hope the distributor will restore and reprint the original prints. So the film can be viewed as it should be.
I love the movie. When is your book coming out? Is it true that the unused footage for ‘One Eyed Jacks’ was junked to get the silver out of it. Too bad if true, otherwise we could see Brando’s four hour version. I assume they had footage in the prison. I hope you book tells every missing scene in detail. Finish it quick, I can’t wait.