THE NIGHT OF THE FOLLOWING DAY (1968)

Marlon Brando in a B-pic?  Well, yes.  A brutal kidnaping caper that fails thru poor planning, lax execution & personality clashes.  (A description that also fits the Making of this Film!)  Generally accepted as Brando’s nadir (it’s not, worse to come), fair enough to consider it his commercial low point.  So, how typically contrarian of him to diet down to the weight of his wily Asian in TEAHOUSE OF THE AUGUST MOON/’56 (https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2010/12/teahouse-of-august-moon-1956.html), now topped with tousled blonde locks.  Slim & fit one last time for a writeoff project he cared nothing about & knew no one would see.*  (And is the title referencing Polonius in HAMLET?  ‘And it must follow, as the night the day, thou canst not then be false to any man.’)  Richard Boone is funny & frightening as the seriously creepy pack leader while that’s Brando ‘ex’ Rita Moreno as his former gal pal and possible junkie, made up to look like Barbara Harris with the blonde wig Brando rejected for himself.  Occasional writer/director Hubert Cornfield lost control of the pic once Brando refused to take direction (the same ploy he used on Lewis Milestone in MUTINY ON THE BOUNTY/’62, the mega-flop which confirmed Brando’s mid-’60s skid before THE GODFATHER/’72 came to the rescue.)  A puzzling mess, with the last reel pulled off with process work & leftover bits & pieces.  (Boone taking over direction.)  Yet, even barely going thru the motions, Brando casts enough animal magnetism to keep you watching.  Just don’t expect too much.

WATCH THIS, NOT THAT/LINK:  *You know that’s what Brando thought of this woebegone project as he doesn’t even bother to artfully mumble or work up a tricky accent you can’t quite make out, but enunciates every word with the clarity & precision of Laurence Olivier at the National Theatre.  Skip this and check out Brando’s alarming 1968 skinniness in CANDY, made on a week off this.  A ‘hip’ abomination, it’s worth a look (he's around for less than a reel) to see Brando prophetically send up his APOCALYPSE NOW/’78 characterization a decade before he made that film.