Eastwood and Brando Together in One Show!

Eastwood and Brando Together in One Show!

Yes, blink and you may well have missed this double-feature which showcased Eastwood and Brando. There really wasn’t too much of a theme connecting these two movies, other than they were both Universal pictures. The Night of the following Day (1969) was co-produced by Elliott Kastner and Jerry Gershwin, both of whom would collaborate to produce Where Eagles Dare (1968). The Night of the following Day was a routine thriller starring Marlon Brando (with a hip blonde hairdo) and Richard Boone (who wasn’t). Filmed in France, around Le Touquet it tells the story of a kidnapped heiress being held hostage in a remote beach house on the coast of France. 

Coogan’s Bluff (1968) marked the first of five collaborations between Don Siegel and Eastwood. A far more enjoyable film starring Clint Eastwood, Susan Clark, Don Stroud, Tisha Sterling and Lee J. Cobb. Eastwood plays the part of a veteran deputy sheriff from a rural county in Arizona, who travels to New York City to extradite an apprehended fugitive named Jimmy Ringerman, played by Stroud, who is wanted for murder.

Before Hang 'Em High had been released, Eastwood had set to work on Coogan's Bluff, a project which saw him reunite with Universal Studios after an offer of $1 million, more than doubling his salary for the previous film. Jennings Lang was responsible for the deal. Lang was a former agent of Don Siegel's, a Universal contract director who had been eyed to handle Coogan's Bluff, which would be Eastwood's second major American film. Eastwood was not familiar with Siegel's work, but Lang arranged for them to meet at Clint's residence in Carmel. Eastwood, having seen three of Siegel's earlier films by then, was impressed with his directing and the two became friends, forming a close partnership in the years that followed.

Above: The double-bill was significant enough to warrant a quad poster release – a poster which is quite hard to come by these days. Also below are a couple of original newspaper ads promoting the double bill release.