No, I appreciate your observations and responses, as always.
I didn’t see him with Larry King and I haven’t read the Capote piece either. Of course Brando was (seemed to be) a man consisting almost entirely of his appetites, which would surely bring out the fangs of Capote, who was the same only with wholly different tastes.
I am a terrible filmologist and live off bits of movies and readings about movies largely from 20 and more years ago.
I saw a piece of film (some cable channel) of Brando in the early years, he and a couple hangers-on and then (as I recall it) a beautiful young woman conducting an interview, all of them sitting in a kind of circular booth in a diner.
Brando was by turns very shy, nervous and suddenly alive with strength, brashness and raw charisma-—the young woman was flirting with him, kind of trying to toy with him, but at moments it was obvious that this was a very powerful and dangerous toy.
He seemed callow but not stupid.
An acquaintance of mine wrote the screenplay for Missouri Breaks and I remember reading an interview with him in which he spoke of Brando’s nightmarish interference, with daily demands for rewrites of nearly the entire film, issued from the “sickbed” Brando had taken to for most of the film, complaining of various silly and disgusting ailments.
But there were also some quotes from Jack Nicholson in the piece who described Brando’s tremendous presence, even as he routinely stalked by Nicholson without so much as a glance. “Not much for leavin’s in his wake is there,” Nicholson grinned as Brando swept by tornado-like at one point.
Brando destroyed MGM with Mutiny on the Bounty. His bizarre performance wrecked the film although I love the moment when he settles down for a moment, slaps Trevor Howard and says: “You bloody bastard.” It was as if he suddenly decided to drop the campy stuff for a moment and “live in the moment” as actors say.
Missouri Breaks is one of his weirdest performances. I must admit I never made it through. I’m sorry your friend had his screenplay so messed up. Writers are always destroyed by Hollywood!
You may be right about Capote and their differing tastes. But the quotes contained in the essay are painful to read. Brando never forgave Capote. Well, he came to an even worse end than Brando.
I recommend a movie Steyn ignores because it came earlier than Streetcar: The Men. A beautiful movie about paralyzed vets in a VA hospital. Brando is very young and very good.
Also, see if you can find a You Tube video of Edward R. Murrow interviewing Brando. It’s standard stuff until Brando’s father appears. He lauds his son’s talent and then says something along the lines of “But I have no respect for him as a person.” This was very early in Brando’s career - long before he went off the deep end. It’s sad to see Brando’s hurt and shocked expression after this little bit of tv history.
I also wish Steyn had knocked off the fat stuff.
What a small world. A friend of mine went to high school with the girl who played Randy Quaid's fat gal at the dance.