Here is a photo of director Stanley Kubrick and actor Marlon Brando shot during the pre-production preparation for what I would call (and I've seen a lot of them) the most extravagantly fucked-up western ever made, One Eyed Jacks (1961). Notable as the only film Brando ever directed, this is largely due to Kubrick, the original director, leaving after purportedly telling the idiosyncratic Brando, "Marlon, why don't you go fuck yourself?" It's said that Brando shot way more footage than industry standard and that his initial cut came in at about five hours, before the studio took the reins, so to speak. Dialogue and scenarios are utterly crazed at times, but brilliant writers and script doctors came and went including the formidable director Sam Peckinpah and novelist and screenwriter Calder Willingham. It's kind of like some sort of wide-screen (last picture shot in VistaVision, apparently!) lurid Douglas Sirk spectacle, far stranger than Dennis Hopper's later The Last Movie or Peckinpah's (still stupendous) Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid. It clocks in at over 2 hours and many won't have patience with the schmaltzy music and erratic pace but if you are into the real deal cinema, this is a good'un. For more on the troubled production of this film and the source of the fantastic pic above, see one of my favorite blogs Cinephilia and Beyond's post. Below you can view the full film (also available for free download at the Internet Archive.)
