superb gift for comedy. ‘He was great in it,’ says Corman. ‘He brought all kinds of individual bits of humour to the role. I think the high point of the scene was the way Jack yelled, “Don’t stop now!” when the dentist was trying to stop his drilling; it was almost a parody of the sex act, which was the subtext. Jack was great in that part.’
3
The Drugged-Up Sixties
You remarkable pig. You can thank whatever pig God you pray to that you haven’t turned me into a murderer.
M idway through shooting One-Eyed Jacks , Anna Kashfi walked out on Marlon Brando, fed up with his flagrant infidelity. Both ended up in court fighting over custody of their son. What was revealed did not paint a pretty picture. Marlon accused Anna of coming at him once with a butcher’s knife. ‘Go ahead if it makes you happy,’ he screamed at her. Anna claimed that Marlon bombarded her with phone calls during the night and ransacked her house, and when she protested he ‘brutally beat and struck me’. Once, while Marlon was visiting his son, Anna left the house but on her return discovered Marlon having sex with a woman. ‘Would you mind leaving the bedroom while I speak to my husband?’ The woman refused, so Anna threw a lamp at her. Brando countered by saying that on another occasion his wife had attacked and bitten him in his own bedroom. After giving her a good spanking he’d thrown her out, but Anna had forced her way back in. Pinning her to the ground, Marlon tied her up with dressing-gown cord and called the police. It was, it’s safe to say, a messy divorce.
Far from being put off the opposite sex for life, Marlon wasted little time marrying wife number two, in June 1960. Mexican actress Movita Castaneda was nine years his senior. Curiously, after the ceremony she was installed in a separate house and the couple never actually lived together. Obviously Marlon visited from time to time, since she gave birth to a son and daughter.
According to Movita, Marlon was still battling with weight problems due to binge eating. She had to put a lock on their refrigerator to stop him pilfering on the nights he stayed over. She’d usually wake in the morning to find the lock broken. She also related how he often drove down to his favourite all-night hot-dog stand in Hollywood in the early hours of the morning and polish off half a dozen of them.
It was soon back to work for Marlon, turning down Lawrence of Arabia in favour of playing Fletcher Christian in a remake of the classic Mutiny on the Bounty (1962). It very nearly proved his undoing. The production was a madhouse almost from day one, at least six writers had a go at the script, tropical storms ravaged the Tahitian locations and director Carol Reed and Marlon argued constantly. Stories began to emerge that when Marlon didn’t get his way he’d throw a hissy fit or walk off set, slowing the rate of production to a crawl. His weight fluctuated wildly, too, and he regularly split the seat of his pants. The costume department solved the problem by sewing stretch fabric into his trousers.
With shooting running desperately behind schedule, MGM ordered the company back to Hollywood. Carol Reed confessed he couldn’t go on and quit. His replacement, Lewis Milestone, a no-nonsense industry veteran, collided with Brando head-on, causing even more friction and collective trauma. Milestone complained that Brando was sulky and argumentative and undermined his authority by taking over the direction of his scenes. ‘I’ve been working in the business for forty-six years and I’ve never seen anything like it.’ He considered quitting but was persuaded to stay on.
Brando’s behaviour got worse. Trevor Howard, playing the indomitable Captain Bligh, found the star ‘unprofessional and absolutely ridiculous. He could drive a saint to hell in a dogsled.’ In the end Milestone could take it no longer and walked, leaving an assistant to shoot Brando’s death scene, for which the actor
3
The Drugged-Up Sixties
You remarkable pig. You can thank whatever pig God you pray to that you haven’t turned me into a murderer.
M idway through shooting One-Eyed Jacks , Anna Kashfi walked out on Marlon Brando, fed up with his flagrant infidelity. Both ended up in court fighting over custody of their son. What was revealed did not paint a pretty picture. Marlon accused Anna of coming at him once with a butcher’s knife. ‘Go ahead if it makes you happy,’ he screamed at her. Anna claimed that Marlon bombarded her with phone calls during the night and ransacked her house, and when she protested he ‘brutally beat and struck me’. Once, while Marlon was visiting his son, Anna left the house but on her return discovered Marlon having sex with a woman. ‘Would you mind leaving the bedroom while I speak to my husband?’ The woman refused, so Anna threw a lamp at her. Brando countered by saying that on another occasion his wife had attacked and bitten him in his own bedroom. After giving her a good spanking he’d thrown her out, but Anna had forced her way back in. Pinning her to the ground, Marlon tied her up with dressing-gown cord and called the police. It was, it’s safe to say, a messy divorce.
Far from being put off the opposite sex for life, Marlon wasted little time marrying wife number two, in June 1960. Mexican actress Movita Castaneda was nine years his senior. Curiously, after the ceremony she was installed in a separate house and the couple never actually lived together. Obviously Marlon visited from time to time, since she gave birth to a son and daughter.
According to Movita, Marlon was still battling with weight problems due to binge eating. She had to put a lock on their refrigerator to stop him pilfering on the nights he stayed over. She’d usually wake in the morning to find the lock broken. She also related how he often drove down to his favourite all-night hot-dog stand in Hollywood in the early hours of the morning and polish off half a dozen of them.
It was soon back to work for Marlon, turning down Lawrence of Arabia in favour of playing Fletcher Christian in a remake of the classic Mutiny on the Bounty (1962). It very nearly proved his undoing. The production was a madhouse almost from day one, at least six writers had a go at the script, tropical storms ravaged the Tahitian locations and director Carol Reed and Marlon argued constantly. Stories began to emerge that when Marlon didn’t get his way he’d throw a hissy fit or walk off set, slowing the rate of production to a crawl. His weight fluctuated wildly, too, and he regularly split the seat of his pants. The costume department solved the problem by sewing stretch fabric into his trousers.
With shooting running desperately behind schedule, MGM ordered the company back to Hollywood. Carol Reed confessed he couldn’t go on and quit. His replacement, Lewis Milestone, a no-nonsense industry veteran, collided with Brando head-on, causing even more friction and collective trauma. Milestone complained that Brando was sulky and argumentative and undermined his authority by taking over the direction of his scenes. ‘I’ve been working in the business for forty-six years and I’ve never seen anything like it.’ He considered quitting but was persuaded to stay on.
Brando’s behaviour got worse. Trevor Howard, playing the indomitable Captain Bligh, found the star ‘unprofessional and absolutely ridiculous. He could drive a saint to hell in a dogsled.’ In the end Milestone could take it no longer and walked, leaving an assistant to shoot Brando’s death scene, for which the actor
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