One-Eyed Jacks

Running from the law after a bank robbery in Mexico, Dad Longworth finds an opportunity to take the..

• Director: Marlon Brando
• Genre:Western
• Runtime:141 minutes

Cast

Marlon Brando : Rio
Karl Malden : Sheriff Dad Longworth
Katy Jurado : Maria Longworth
Pina Pellicer : Louisa
Ben Johnson : Bob Amory

Rio (also called “The Kid”), his partner Dad Longworth and a third man, Doc, rob a bank. It is successful, but some Mexican Rurales attack and kill Doc. Dad and Rio escape in the desert followed by a posse.

Rio figures the Rurales will be “swarming all over us inside an hour.” One partner might take the remaining pony and ride to a little jacalito down the canyon about five miles and return with fresh mounts. They shake for it, with Rio fixing the deal so his pal Dad can be the one to go.

Dad gets to a corral, strapping the swag bag onto a fresh pony, but he gets second thoughts. He casts one eye towards that point on the ridge sure to be taken by the Rurales, and with the other he gazes off in the opposite direction out past a low-lying treeline towards the border and safety. One way leads to danger and a poor chance at surviving with half the booty, the other towards a virtual certainty with all of it. After a decidedly short moment of reflection, he takes the latter and leaves his friend to be taken by Rurales.

Rio spends five years in a “stinkin’ Sonora prison,” which allows him to concentrate on Dad’s having abandoned him. When he locates his former partner in crime, Longworth has become the sheriff of Monterey, California. Dad finally gets a chance to “explain” why he left his friend back in Mexico but tries again to deceive Rio by lying about why he never returned. Read more