Caught this one theatrically last Monday, and I sure am glad I did. I wasn't familiar with the film before, but it seems no proper quality home video release is available. This may be the most beautifully photographed western I have ever seen. The use of natural scenery is reminiscent of Anthony Mann's films, but stylistically, ONE-EYED JACKS appears to be an antecedent of the westerns of Sergio Leone (not only because of the Mexican setting). But I liked this film even better. (I have THE GOOD THE BAD AND THE UGLY in fresh memory as I saw an outdoor screening of that one in August with 5,000 other people. I also saw the whole dollars trilogy theatrically two years ago).

ONE-EYED JACKS also made a bigger impression on me than did (the perfectly acted) ON THE WATERFRONT which I saw a couple of weeks before, also featuring Brando and Malden. Perhaps because I prefer psychology to grit and nature poetry to kitchen sinks. But I think the two leads are every bit as good here as in OTW. Key is Brando's sheer screen presence, without match in film history; it's a delight just watching him gaze, move about and listen to his nasal mumbling. Karl Malden plays Dad Longworth with limpid brutality, especially in a flogging scene which has to be seen to be believed for those only familiar with Malden as Detective Lt. Mike Stone. Equally explosive is the gentle brute Brando's outburst at Ben Johnson. I've never seen a table thrown that far: "Get up, you scum suckin' pig! Get up! I want you standin' when I open you up." By the way, Ben Johnson's performance as Bob Amory is perfect, as is Pina Pellicer's in the role of Dad Longworth's step daughter Louisa. (I only learned after watching the film that she took her own life a few years later).

Most of the film seems to be shot from a slightly low angle (shot from the hip, perhaps), which, on the big screen, gives the feeling that one is watching titans move in and out of frame. The fascinating use of the beach scenery, very unusual for the genre, adds to the lyrical quality of OEJ.

***SPOILER***

A translation of the Swedish title of OEJ is the spoileresque REVENGE, but I didn't know how the film was going to end until I saw Rio pretend to take a bullet in the final shoot-out. But then I expected Dad's last bullet to hit Rio as he and Louisa rode out of town. Later, I read that Brando's original cut had Louisa taking that bullet, so that Rio would end up with nothing. Funny I didn't think of that as I watched the movie, although I figured the film would end in a no-win situation of some kind. However, I don't think the film is hurt by the happy ending.

***END SPOILER***

One thing I notice when I watch these VistaVision prints theatrically is that there is no noticeable grain. The close-ups are incredibly detailed; some of the things that stuck in my mind was Karl Malden's bright blue eyes in the shot where Dad watches Rio approach his beach house, Brando putting a ring on a girl's finger, the carved patterns on a pair of opening saloon doors still visible in the dark. On TV, this stuff probably wouldn't stand out at all.

I wonder if there are any psychoanalytical interpretations to be made from the use of water in this film. The sea symbolizes the subconscious, which is female and hidden in nature, while land is the conscious mind, male and manifest. The first part of the film takes place in the bone dry desert where Dad Longworth, after having lost his shoes escaping from a brothel burns his feet on the blazing hot sand (the water sign Pisces rules the feet). He later ends up living in a property by the ocean. There is an interrelationship of the sea and the womb; Rio impregnates Louisa on the beach. There is the scene where Bob Amory complains about the rolling of the ocean waves and the stench of fish and subsequently kicks away a fish that a Chinese boy puts at his feet. The final shootout takes place by a fountain, and so on.

The prison cell where Rio is placed is located several stories up at the Sheriff's Office. Perhaps this "attic" symbolizes the superconscious. Anyway, those stairs up to the cell reminded me of VERTIGO for some reason.

Conclusion: I loved it. What's the general consensus? Masterpiece or flawed but interesting? I wonder what Brando's original five hour cut was like.

I don't want to see a 5-hour version of it, but ONE-EYED JACKS is long overdue on a professional DVD. It's an unusually offbeat western, and I think Brando shows real directing chops. I'm curious why he never did it again, though he strikes me as someone possibly too lazy to put in the effort. His visuals and action scenes are exciting, and his mumbling portrayal of a tough cowboy is just weird enough to be interesting.

JACKS has always been a favorite of mine. A 5 hour version might be a little much, but I've always wondered what would've happened if the original writer (Sam Peckinpah) and director (Stanley Kubrick) would've lasted through the project. But it's a film that demands a proper DVD release, that much is certain.

ONE-EYED JACKS was scheduled for two months shooting. It took six months (starting in late 1958) and cost over six million to make, but it only made $4,300,000 at the U.S. box office. That, Brando's reputation for being difficult and his own disappointment with studio interference may have hindered him from helming another film.

I forgot to mention Hugo Friedhofer's wonderful score in my initial post.

Good, I hate run-of-the-mill offbeat... *yawn* :P

. . . very envious you were able to see this one at the cinema . . . I have posted several times (actually, whenever the oppportunity presented itself) that I think this film is a masterpiece . . . the only idea I have to encourage a much needed, proper DVD release (since Paramount appears to have little interest in their library) would be to email the folks at Criterion, who have a deal with Paramount to produce DVDs of some of their titles, and suggest this would be an excellent choice to add to their collection . . . I just hope the original elements have not degraded to such an extent that an expensive restoration is required . . .

http://www.criterion.com/asp/support_home.asp

I was about to say that I wish I could see this on the big screen -- when I realized that I had: a half century ago during the film's first release.

Someone whose father worked on the film told me Brando got the girl to cry by unexpectedly shooting off a gun behind her.

I'd consider this a masterpiece. The scenery filmed near the ocean (Monterrey, CA, I believe) is breathtaking. The Dialague, "Get up you big tub of guts" or "He didn't leave me (or "give me") no selection" is priceless.

I own a non-anamorphic widescreen edition put out by Diamond Entertainment, which I believe is a port of the laser disc edition, since there are only four chapter stops. I believe it's about the best way to view the film on DVD today.

There's also a small paperback I picked titled Brando Rides Alone by Barry Gifford, which is a reevaluation of the film and includes chapters on Brando, Malden, Tim Carey, Ben Johnson, Peckinpah & Kubrick, Slim Pickens & Elisha Cook, Jr., Katy Jurado & Pina Pellicer and more.

Terry Southern wrote a piece in "Grand Street" that covered the making of Kubrick's DR. STRANGELOVE (1964), for which he wrote the script and which includes in the cast, as two of the bomber crew, Slim Pickens, who's in ONE-EYED JACKS, and James Earl Jones. Here Southern describes the two actors' first meeting, which includes a reference to ONE-EYED JACKS:

"Hold on there, Slim," I said. "I want you to meet another member of the cast." Jimmy got to his feet. "James Earl Jones -- Slim Pickens." They shook hands but both continued to look equally puzzled. They had obviously never heard of each other. Somehow I knew the best route to some kind of rapprochement would be through Jones. "Slim has just finished working on a picture with Marlon Brando," I said.

"Oh well," he boomed, "that must have been very interesting indeed.... Yes, I should very much like to hear what it is like to work with the great Mr. Brando."

As if the question were a cue for a well-rehearsed bit of bumpkin business, Slim began to hem and haw, kicking at an imaginary rock on the floor. "Wal," he drawled, his head to one side, "you know ah worked with Bud Brando for right near a full year, an' durin' that time ah never seen him do one thing that wudn't all man an' all white."

When I asked Jimmy about it later, he laughed. His laugh, it must be said, is one of the all-time great laughs. "I was beginning to think," and there were tears in his eyes as he said it, "that I must have imagined it."

I recall a PBS documentary about Mort Sahl where he espouses his love for the film and his identification with Brando's oft bleeding hero.

Karl Malden always called his gorgeous L.A. home "the house that JACKS built," a reference to how much he was paid in overtime.