A Tiger in the Reeds

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More Sinned Against. But by other members of the sex, The Slob is more amiably known as a Don Juan. ("Done one!" punned a Broadway actress. "He's done 'em all.") He is a hit with the ladies, moreover, despite the fact that (as one of his girls panted) "he does things to you in public that you hardly expect even in private." Still, as a loverboy, Marlon is almost more sinned against than sinning. Many women find it hard to keep their hands off him. A famous middle-aged actress threw herself into his arms the first time they met, and sobbed: "Be my last, great love!" To Hollywood's astonishment, he passes up most of the professional beauties and contract cuties, dates waitresses and secretaries instead. Says one of them: "Marlon is very much of a man. All his former girl friends are still waiting for him."

In rehearsals, Marlon is said to "flob around" so indifferently that the other actors get no benefit from the reading. During a Streetcar rehearsal, Actor Karl Malden once smashed his fist into a wall in sheer frustration. Marlon refuses to change, says he has to feel himself into the part that way. Once when a woman tried to compliment him on a screen performance, Marlon broke in coldly: "You've got a run in your stocking."

The depth of what one actress calls "marlishness" came last February, when Brando complained to Fox that he did not like his role in The Egyptian. A Fox executive talked him out of his objections, or thought he had. Came the day when the first scene was to be shot. As Fox later protested: sets were built, costumes on, extras standing by, cameras ready to roll. No Brando. Then came a telegram from his psychoanalyst in New York: Marlon was "a very sick and mentally confused boy," and in absolutely no condition to work. Fox threw Edmond Purdom into the Brando part, sued Marlon for $2,000 damages. Marlon settled the suit by agreeing to make Désirée, later gloated openly about his success in "copping a medical plea." After that, a Fox executive remarked: "The only good thing I can say about this twerp is that he doesn't like marijuana."

Brando on Brando. Last week Actor Brando, interviewed by a TIME correspondent in his dressing room on the Désirée set, tried hard to scotch such talk and to explain his behavior. "I'll be damned if I feel obliged to defend myself," he burst out in a cultured and fervent half-whisper, "but I am sick to death of being thought of as a blue-jeaned slobbermouth and I am sick to death of having people come up and say hello and then just stand there expecting you to throw a raccoon at them. I have always hated the fact that I have been obliged to conform. I agree that no man is an island, but I also feel that conformity breeds mediocrity. I think this country needs, in addition to a good five-cent cigar, a little five-cent investment in tolerance for the expression of individuality."