Here’s a really great film that I didn’t realize was in the public domain until recently (hence why I didn’t post it earlier). Not only is it Marlon Brando’s one and only film as a director, but it’s also a film with a pretty interesting production history. Had the original writer/director team not been fired then film history as we know it would have turned out quite different.
One-Eyed Jacks (1961)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tztjihfZbC8 - from the ARF YouTube channel (2 hours 21 mins long - 720p)
Synopsis:
After robbing a Mexican bank, Dad Longworth takes the loot and leaves his partner Rio to be captured, but Rio escapes and searches for Dad in California.
Directed by Marlon Brando.
Cast: Marlon Brando, Karl Malden & Katy Jurado.
Trivia:
• The film was originally planned to be directed by Stanley Kubrick from a screenplay by Sam Peckinpah, but studio disputes led to their replacement by Brando and Guy Trosper.
• Kubrick’s involvement in the pre-production of the film is quite evident in the casting as the film features actors Timothy Carey and Elisha Cook Jr., both of whom starred in Kubrick’s 1956 film The Killing, with Carey also appearing in Paths of Glory in 1957. Actor Slim Pickens would later star in Kubrick’s 1964 film Dr. Strangelove.