I reported a similar problem last week. For me, MC was unable to show the image file, whilst all other jpg handlers on my PC would do as asked.
Using the rather good, and free for home use, XnView MP (
https://www.xnview.com/en/), it reported xmp errors.
Hopefully, for the last time, I have been feeding my photo backup DVDs into the drive and getting MC to build thumbnails for them. There are many that won't build.
For those that won't build, MC is also unable to open the file for display.
All other image handlers here can, and do, open them for display and thumbnailing.
XnViewMP allows for close scrutiny, and includes EXIFTool, which, as well as displaying all the info, reports the following:
ExifTool Version Number 12.05
Warning XMP format error (no closing tag for x:xmpmeta)
Warning [minor] Empty XMP
After removing the tags, MC was then able to open the image file.
-marko.