Marlon Brando, Karl Malden & Ben Johnson in "One-Eyed Jacks" (1961) - feat. Slim Pickens

Rio (Marlon Brando), his mentor Dad Longworth (Sheriff Dad Longworth), and Doc (Hank Worden) rob a bank of two saddlebags of gold in Sonora, Mexico, in 1880. Mexican rurales (mounted police) catch them celebrating in a cantina and kill Doc. Dad and Rio escape, but Dad leaves Rio to be taken by the rurales. Rio is arrested and spends five hard years in a Sonora prison. He escapes and travels to Monterey, California, where Dad has become Sheriff. Rio plans to kill Dad and rob the bank in Monterey with his new partners Chico Modesto (Larry Duran), Harvey Johnson (Sam Gilman) and Bob Amory (Ben Johnson).

Plans are sidetracked when Rio falls in love with Dad's beautiful stepdaughter, Louisa (Pina Pellicer). Rio takes advantage of a fiesta (festival) to spend the night with her on the beach. Dad tries to punish Louisa for what happened, but backs down after intervention by his wife, Maria (Katy Jurado). Instead, he traps Rio, whips him in public, and smashes his gun hand to make sure Rio will never be able to beat him in a gunfight. While recovering from his wounds, Rio struggles with his conflicting desires to love the girl and to get revenge on her stepfather. He decides to forgo vengeance, fetch Louisa, and leave town.

Amory and Johnson kill Chico and pull off the bank job without Rio's knowledge. The heist goes wrong and a young girl is killed. Dad accuses Rio of the crime. Dad has one last private talk with Rio, again attempting to absolve himself for all he has done. Rio replies, "You're a one-eyed jack around here, Dad, but I've seen the other side of your face". Rio tells him he had been imprisoned for the last five years, but Dad calls it a lie.

Louisa visits Rio in jail to tell him she is going to have his baby. He is then beaten by sadistic Deputy Lon Dedrick (Slim Pickens), who desired and has been denied Louisa's affection. Maria confronts Dad and insists on being told the truth about the relationship between him and Rio, stating she knew something was wrong since the moment Rio arrived. She says she knows Dad wants to hang him purely out of guilt. Dad tells her she has no appreciation for everything he has done for her.

Louisa attempts to smuggle a Derringer to Rio, but she is discovered by Dedrick, who carries her out of the jail, leaving the gun on a table. While they are out, Rio is able to get hold of the pistol. Pointing the unloaded gun at Dedrick when he returns, Rio bluffs his way out of jail in a tense confrontation. Rio takes Dedrick's revolver, beats him unconscious, and locks him in a cell. As Rio is making his escape, he is spotted by Dad, riding into town. Under fire, in the final showdown Rio shoots Dad dead.

Rio and Louisa ride out to the dunes and say a sentimental farewell. Now a hunted man, Rio tells Louisa that he might go to Oregon, but will return for her in the spring.

A 1961 American Western film directed by Marlon Brando, produced by Frank P. Rosenberg, screenplay by Guy Trosper and Calder Willingham, based on Charles Neider's novel "The Authentic Death of Hendry Jones" (1956), cinematography by Charles Lang, starring Marlon Brando, Karl Malden, Katy Jurado, Ben Johnson, Pina Pellicer, Elisha Cook Jr., Philip Ahn, Hank Worden, and Slim Pickens.

Rod Serling wrote an adaptation of the novel for producer Frank P. Rosenberg, which was rejected. Rosenberg next hired Sam Peckinpah. Brando's Pennebaker Productions paid $40,000 for the rights to "Authentic Death" and signed Stanley Kubrick to direct for Paramount Pictures. Peckinpah handed in a revised screenplay in May, 1959. Brando fired Peckinpah and hired Calder Willingham to revise the film's script, but eventually Guy Trosper was brought on as a final replacement. Two weeks before starting production Kubric stepped down from directing.This was Marlon Brando's only directorial credit, and ultimately bears little resemblance to Neider's novel.

Spencer Tracy was Stanley Kubrick's preference for the role of Dad Longworth, but Marlon Brando had already given the role to his friend Karl Malden, who was on the payroll of his personal production company, Pennebaker Inc. The movie was scheduled for a three-month shoot, principal photography, on a $2 million budget, but it took six months at a cost of $6 million, while Brando shot 1 million feet of film.

The film was Paramount Pictures' last feature released in VistaVision. Cinematographer Charles Lang received an Academy Award nomination in the Best Cinematography, Color category that year.

The New York Times, favorably noted, "Directed and played with the kind of vicious style that Mr. Brando has put into so many of his skulking, scabrous roles. Realism is redolent in them, as it is in many details of the film. But, at the same time, it is curiously surrounded by elements of creamed-cliché romance and a kind of pictorial extravagance that you usually see in South Sea island films."

A colorful masterpiece with stunning acting, intense drama and marvelously photographed.