It’s so easy to recommend Revolt In The Big House. Just the fact that Timothy Carey ends up with a machine gun makes it essential. And it’s got a lot more going for it than that.
– Toby Roan, “DVD Review: Revolt In The Big House (1958)”; The Hannibal 8, November 20, 2014
Whoa everybody, I apologize for being away most of this week! I got sidelined with a bad cold. Today, though, I am back with something really special. I promise to post a better scan of this as soon as I figure out how to scan transparencies (apparently I have to make a folded paper doohickey… well anyway). For now, I’m using the pic that accompanied the eBay auction I got this from. It’s an original transparency of a behind-the-scenes shot from One-Eyed Jacks (1961), featuring Timothy and his director/star, Marlon Brando. And they’re laughing!
Poor Margarita Cordova can be seen on the left. I owe a really good high-quality scan of this to my pal Toby of 50 Westerns From the 50s, who brought this auction to my attention, for the book he’s writing on the filming of Jacks. This is another one of those rarities of Careyana that brings a smile to my face. Hope you feel the same.
Let’s close out the week with another publicity still. This one is from the low-budget Western Naked Gun (1956), directed by Eddie Dew and an uncredited Paul Landres. Timothy is getting his clock cleaned by a determinedly two-fisted Tom Brown.
Many thanks to Toby from 50 Westerns From The 50s for this one! No wonder I missed it; it’s listed as Naked Guns, plural. Pretty bad when the distributor (Associated Film Releasing Corp.) can’t even get the name of their own film right. As I believe I’ve mentioned before, Brown began his career as a child model for advertisements, including Buster Brown shoes. Any relation? You make the call.
Today we observe the 90th birthday anniversary of the legendary Marlon Brando. Timothy appeared with him twice, in The Wild One (1953) and One-Eyed Jacks (1961). Here is a rarely seen promo still from that latter film that I received from friend of the blog Toby Roan, author of the forthcoming A Million Feet of Film: The Making of One-Eyed Jacks. In a scene not appearing in the final cut of the film, the dead body of ne’er-do-well Howard Tetley is carried away by Rio, the man who shot him (Brando), Chico (Larry Duran) and Sheriff Dad Longworth (Karl Malden).
“You know, I was always a hound for publicity,” Tim said in the Psychotronic interview. “They were doing the Academy Awards and Brando was up for it. Well, I knew him from The Wild One, I knew he was going to get it (for On the Waterfront), so I was getting dressed up for it and I was going to go up there and get it before he got there, but some guy from Western Costume who was dressing me up talked me out of it.” I think most of us secretly – or perhaps not so secretly – wish he had gone ahead with his dastardly plan. Sending afterlife birthday greetings to you, Mr. Brando!
Today’s pic comes to us courtesy of our friend Toby Roan of the great 50 Westerns From The 50s blog. Toby is also the author of the work-in-progress A Million Feet of Film: The Making of One-Eyed Jacks. He sent me this amazing still a while back. It’s a behind-the-scenes glimpse of the shooting of the whipping scene from that film. Even though Timothy’s character doesn’t appear in this scene, being dead and all, we are fairly certain that that is Tim sitting on the ground at the upper right of the photo.
We’re not exactly sure what that is he’s holding; looks like some kind of measuring instrument. In the foreground are, of course, Marlon Brando and Karl Malden. I for one am anxious to read Toby’s finished work. It’s bound to be something special!
We are indebted to 50 Westerns From the 50s blogger Toby Roan (and his wife!) for this week’s quote. This is the earliest newspaper tidbit about Timothy that I’ve seen to date.
Timothy Carey of Brooklyn followed Horace Greeley‘s advice, went West and landed a screen role with Clark Gable in Across the Wide Missouri.
The lanky young Brookridge High School alumnus, following several seasons playing pro baseball, found himself in Colorado.
He heard that Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer was about to film the outdoor saga near Durango. With summer stock experience in the east to his credit, Carey set up housekeeping at an abandoned cabin near the studio location.
He finally met Director William Wellman, who gave him the role of French Dunord, Gable’s trapper friend.
Not being a member of the regular Hollywood group, Carey has the distinction of being the only screen actor to share a cabin with several chipmunks.
– “Hollywood Newsreel,” Lebanon (PA) Daily News, August 24, 1950
The entirety of Tim’s role as “French Dunord, Gable’s trapper friend”
Our pic for today is an interesting behind-the-scenes shot from Marlon Brando‘s One-Eyed Jacks (1961). Timothy and Brando appear to be going over their big fight scene.
Thanks to the awesome Toby Roan, who runs the great 50 Westerns From The 50s blog and is writing a book on the making of One-Eyed Jacks, we now know why Tim’s character, Howard Tetley, looks like he’s been beaten up. He has been! Toby sent me copies of several pages of the original script, which depict Tetley drunkenly taking on all comers, challenging them to knock him off of a wooden sawhorse type of thing. Several men, including Sheriff Dad Longworth (Karl Malden), have a grand time rearranging Tetley’s face. It’s just too bad most of Timothy’s scenes ended up on the cutting room floor. They would have gone a long way towards defining his character.
We close the work week with another promotional still from Marlon Brando‘s only directorial effort, One-Eyed Jacks (1961). If I am not mistaken, this scene does not appear in the finished film; at least I don’t remember it (there is a handwritten notation on the back of the photograph: “cancelled shot”). Timothy’s roughneck Howard Tetley is getting a tuba-full of what looks like beer dumped all over him, as Chico (Larry Duran) watches. Oh, the glamorous life of a Hollywood actor. A bit of payback for the Wild One incident, perhaps?
I am very much looking forward to friend-of-the-blog Toby Roan‘s upcoming book, A Million Feet of Film: The Making of One-Eyed Jacks. Perhaps we will finally gain some insight as to why and how Tim’s role in the film became so ambiguous.
The Timothy Carey Experience 