The bright side of a brooding nature

Brando – The Fun Side

by Aubrey Malone (Bear Manor Media, €32.95)

Famously we are advised by Monty Python to look on the bright side of life. And so we ought to. But the bright side of Marlon Brando?  He made his first impact as an actor playing a sullen angry young  man in films that were often challenging, from The Men (1950) onwards,  through much of his career.

But then we can forgive a great deal of all that for the entertainment he provided  in Guys and Dolls (1955) based on the Broadway tales of Damon Runyon. His characterisation  of Sky Masterson still retains its appeal.

Alas Brando the actor-turned-director who lingered on a cliff overlooking the Pacific in Mexico while making One-Eyed Jacks (1961), waiting for ‘the waves to become more dramatic’, allowed his early training at the Actors Studio to dominate a comedic skill that we ought to have had a great deal more of.

This book covers much more than the occasions when Brando,  the fun loving prankster,  smiled, and is really a full biographical account of his career.

The author is the film critic of this newspaper and all those readers who have enjoyed his critiques and followed his advice about what to see, may not be aware that he is a well-recognised film historian as well, with many titles to his credit that explore many aspects of moviedom since 1896 when the first moving images were projected for a startled French audiences.