Curator Watchlist
A flawed but distinctive revenge western with strong atmosphere, striking coastal imagery, and a memorable central performance. Its uneven pacing is part of the package, but the emotional betrayal at its core and the unusual setting make it stand out from more routine genre entries.
Where to watch: Buy
Thu · 2h 21m
Director: Marlon Brando
Starring: Marlon Brando, Karl Malden, Katy Jurado
Running from the law after a bank robbery in Mexico, Dad Longworth finds an opportunity to take the stolen gold and leave his partner Rio to be captured. Years later, Rio escapes from the prison where he has been since, and hunts down Dad for revenge. Dad is now a respectable sheriff in California, and has been living in fear of Rio's return.
Marlon Brando
Marlon Brando, Karl Malden, Katy Jurado
A flawed but distinctive revenge western with strong atmosphere, striking coastal imagery, and a memorable central performance. Its uneven pacing is part of the package, but the emotional betrayal at its core and the unusual setting make it stand out from more routine genre entries.
One-Eyed Jacks is less a tidy western than a bruised, romantic hangover of one. The story is familiar on paper: betrayal, escape, revenge, and a final reckoning. But the film’s personality comes from how it lingers on wounded pride, masculine vanity, and the uneasy bond between two men who can’t quite stop orbiting each other.
What makes it linger is the texture: the California coast, the sun-bleached exteriors, the odd beachside western feeling, and the sense that the movie is always slightly off-balance in a way that suits its characters. Brando’s performance is all swagger, hurt, and self-regard, while Karl Malden gives the film a sharper, more controlled pulse.
It’s not a seamless classic, and the looseness will frustrate some viewers. But if you like westerns that feel more like character melodramas than genre machinery, this is a rewarding one: rough, handsome, and unusually haunted.
SilentDawn (5★) · 304 likes
92 "You've been tryin' to get yourself hung for the last fifteen years kid. This time I think you might have made it." A melodrama of scoundrels.
Richard Chandler (4.5★) · 207 likes
"A man can't stay angry for five years, can he?" The only film ever directed by the inimitable Marlon Brando is this admittedly baggy yet woefully underrated 1961 Technicolor Western. One-Eyed Jacks follows the revengeful "Kid" Rio (a roguishly charming Brando) as he undertakes an involved, tripartite stratagem of reprisal against his erstwhile criminal mentor Dad Longworth (a typically zealous Karl Malden). Having betrayed Rio—owing more to cowardliness than to malice—after a Mexican bank heist a half-decade prior, Longworth has… more
Cinemonster (3.5★) · 187 likes
An unevenly directed and edited film, One-Eyed Jacks shows Marlon Brando at both his best and worst. A lovely unsung performance by Karl Malden and solid cinematography from Charles Lang are the highlights. Supporting cast, including Slim Pickens and Ben Johnson, are also solid. No one takes a beating onscreen like Brando. David Webb Peoples clearly saw this film before writing Unforgiven. Not too many projects can claim to have canned talent the likes of Stanley Kubrick, Calder Willingham and Sam Peckinpah.
Robert Franco · 136 likes
a flawed (good, but flawed) film but there’s one aspect about this film that makes it absolutely iconic: the ocean. while i’m sure there’s a handful of others, this is the only western i can think of that uses the ocean as a backdrop. and i just think that’s incredibly special.
theriverjordan (4★) · 106 likes
A troubled production directed by and starring a legendary prima donna of an actor — it’s a shock that the notorious cinematic problem child “One-Eyed Jacks” actually turned out to be a chill but attractive mess of a beach Western. “Jack’s” was the movie that nobody wanted. Except for the taxman. After Marlon Brando’s Paramount-owned production company blew a tidy sum on a socially progressive Western, the star began searching around for a project that would balance the books. A… more
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western, revenge, melodrama, antihero, Technicolor, coastal setting, betrayal, 1950s/1960s studio era, moral ambiguity, character-driven