cinemajesty Actor Marlon Brando's solely directing effort in the year 1960 "One-Eyed Jacks", shot entirely on location in the United States, brings elegant Western - Cinematography to screen, but misses out to grip the audience's tension on an over-long editorial of 141 minutes running time. Director Marlon Brando manages to push all the right buttons with his cast, mainly preliminary acting collaborator Karl Malden, who brings fine vicious beats to story as the character of Sheriff Dad Longworth, who changed the side of the law after a robbery with Marlon Brandon's character Rio in the film's opening scene in order to save his own existence.The interactions between the actors Karl Malden & Marlon Brando keeps the "One-Eyed Jacks" alive until the very end. But it becomes a stretched pathway to follow the character of Rio from one location to another, from working relationship to another failed romance, before he completes unfinished business in the duel shoot-out with Sheriff Dad Longworth. Specatators, who appreciated Marlon Brando's minimalistic, yet powerful performing skills, may enjoy the full length of the movie. The others, who are looking for suspense and thrills must wait between sequence before another hook snatches the specter's attention.There are some excellent directed scenes in the picture as the character of Rio sitting at breakfast with his Mexican companion, drinking coffee, before he gets dragged into a shoot-out with a drunkard, who is molesting a prostitute at the bar. The timing of the scene and calmness of the execution lets settle in a stroke of genius with Marlon Brando's directing, but his talent can not be maintained by him throughout the picture.It is senseable throughout the picture that the Director fell in love with his own film, which became a deadly working relationship when Marlon Brando and Editor Archie Marshek approached the editorials. Unable to cut a well-executed scene as the mentioned Interior Salon breakfast scene from the Final Cut, to achieve much more thrilling two-hour (or less) motion picture, which might have attract a wider audience in 1961, "One-Eyed Jacks" remains a gem in cinema, which can probably only be fully appreciated by the filmmaking community itself.© 2017 Felix Alexander Dausend (for Cinemajesty Entertainments LLC)

PimpinAinttEasy One-Eyed Jacks is a solid, violent and melancholic western directed by MARLON BRANDO. STANLEY KUBRICK worked on this movie for a while as a director before him and Brando fell out over the casting of SPENCER TRACY (Brando wanted KARL MALDEN for the role).BRANDO is at his smoldering and mumbling best here. And he is nearly bursting out of his tight clothes in most of the scenes. There is great chemistry between Brando and Pina Pellicer. The scenes between them are very very intense. And Brando's introduction scene is excellent.The film is extensively filmed near a beach - I haven't seen too many westerns with a beach in them. It is a bit long at 140 minutes, but it is pretty gripping throughout.(7/10)

Robert J. Maxwell This is the only film that Marlon Brando directed. It's easy to understand why no producers would let him get near a camera afterward. It's expensive to expose film, and while Brando the director would argue with Karl Malden the actor, the cameras would roll philosophically along, exposing the rehearsals, the arguments, the conversations about the weather, the new styles in men's clothing, and the conundrum of mind/body dualism. It cost a fortune -- and the result is a long, colorful Western with a conventional revenge plot. By "conventional", I mean that the usual fallacies apply. Whose gun is faster than whose? A clip on the jaw or a whack on the head renders a man unconscious for as long as the plot requires. A dozen men galloping after two fleeing bandits fire their pistols wildly although they're a quarter of a mile behind their quarry.It's not a BAD movie. It's just hard to assess. The location shooting around the Monterey Peninsula in California is rich in texture and exquisite, as is the location itself -- or was, before it turned into Disneyland. Hugo Friedhofer's romantic score is appealing if overused. Brando must have had the cast improvising all over the place and in every instance it seems obvious and awkward. You'll notice the scenes when they come around.The story, briefly, is that Brando is betrayed by his fellow bank robber, Malden, in Mexico. After five years in the Sonoran pen, Brando escapes and seeks revenge on Malden, who has now become civilized and is a popular sheriff with a nice Mexican wife and stepdaughter in Monterey. They shake hands, both faking. Brando spitefully seduces and impregnates the stepdaughter, Pina Pellicer. And when the opportunity presents itself, with the townspeople behind him, Malden reveals his barbaric side, bull whips Brando, and smashes his gun hand. A final shootout resolves some of the issues, but not all.It's far from Brando's best performance. He says little, glowers a lot, and blinks reflexively. When he's facing someone down, his feet are in the first ballet position, and when he walks he puts one foot in front of the other. He must leave not two parallel sets of footprints but a single trail of two prints, one on top of the other.And when you get right down to it, he's a pretty rotten guy. He lies to most of the people he meets, and for the worst of reasons. In the last scene, he rides off romantically into the white dunes of Monterey, leaving behind a winsome young Mexican girl whom he has knocked up out of spite for someone else. And this in a culture where there are only two kinds of women -- Madonnas, who bring their hymens to the party, and whores, for whom anything goes. "I'm off to Oregon but I'll be back for you some day -- maybe, if I find it convenient. So long, baby."Slim Pickens gives a good performance as Lon, "you tub of guts," "you gob of spit." But the best performances are turned in by Karl Malden and his family -- Katy Jurado as the wife, and Pina Pellicer as the slender and beautiful stepdaughter. Much of their dialog is in Spanish. (Both actresses were from Mexico City.) Pellicer, in particular, is bewitching.The movie may have wasted a lot of money but it's by no means a complete waste of time. You'll have to judge for yourself.

SixtusXLIV It is is Blu-Ray. Not perfect, but 80% superior to the umpteen USA DVD VERSIONS. I own two of those which like all goo were inexpensive, but not free..In the USA "public domain" means BS. That is why Criterion Collection has very few Americam films, but to be fair nor the main reason... I ignore and prefer not to refer to this version. Just tell you that the source was "Paramount France". Do your navigation...It is is Blu-Ray. Not perfect, but 80% superior to the umpteen USA DVD VERSIONS. I own two of those which like all goo were inexpensive, but not free..In the USA "public domain" means BS. That is why Criterion Collection has very few Americam films, but to be fair nor the main reason... I ignore and prefer not to refer to this version. Just tell