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      • The Crimson Kimono (1959)
      • A Face in the Crowd (1957)
      • In a Lonely Place
      • A Kiss Before Dying (1956)
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      • The Misfits ('61)
      • The Umbrellas of Cherbourg/La La Land
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The Misfits

​Nutshell Review:  The Misfits (’61)
Director:  John Huston
Starring:  Clark Gable, Marilyn Monroe, Montgomery Clift, Eli Wallach, Thelma Ritter
Studio:  United Artists
My IBDB Rating:  8
Viewing:   Fox/MGM/UA Blu-Ray
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Plot:  Roslyn Tabor (Monroe) is waiting in Reno, Nevada for a quickie divorce when she meets cowboy Gay Langford (Gable) and his friend Guido (Wallack) in a casino bar.  Along with her rooming house landlady Issabelle (Ritter), they decide to spend an afternoon in Guido’s half constructed house in the desert.  While Guido clearly wants to have sex with Roslyn, he is rebuffed after a high spirited dance to the sounds of the car radio.  Clearly drunk, Gay volunteers to drive her back to town, smitten by her, but not willing to make his move.  Roslyn is clearly sad and confused, admitting to not knowing what she will do now that she is divorced.  When Gay does attempt to kiss her, after telling her “you just shine in my eyes”, she rebuffs him by saying “I don’t feel that way about you, Gay”, but he responds “well, don’t get discouraged girl, you might.”  And so begins their relationship.  The 2 of them decide to stay at Guido’s, planting a garden, redecorating and making improvements. When Guido and Issabelle visit a couple of months later, Guido puts the idea in Gay’s head that they should go “mustangin” (capturing wild horses to sell them for dog food) up in the mountains.  Since they need a third man to help, the four head to a local rodeo and hook up with bronco rider Perce Howland (Clift), who’s down on his luck and estranged from his family.  Rosyln helps win him entry fee money by playing a paddle game, shaking her hips to the delight of all the men in the bar, for which she is seemingly oblivious.  When Perce is seriously hurt while bronco riding, Roslyn is too upset to watch and must be consoled by Gay.  She cannot bear to see animals or Perce hurt and comforts Perce as he suffers from a concussion.  Having lost the prize money Perce agrees to go mustangin’ the following day, but not before Gay drunkenly tries to introduce Roslyn to his adult children, who disappear first.  Gay & Guido are sloppy drunk & Perce is unconscious, but Guido is able to drive the group back to the house, propositioning Roslyn yet again.
When the group attempt to capture the horses, the barbarism of the task is apparent to Roslyn and she becomes inconsolable, offering to pay for the animals’ release.  Angry and embarrassed, Gay single handedly captures and attempts to break a wild stallion, a feat that almost kills him. Once roped, he cuts and frees the animal, realizing that his cowboy way of life is over and returns to Roslyn, just asking to live life.

Thoughts:  The Misfits may be the saddest movie I’ve ever seen.  It is wonderful, don’t get me wrong, but overwhelmingly sad; sad in that it’s Gable & Monroe’s last film & sad in that the characters radiate helplessness, delusion and/or regret throughout.   If the ending is hopeful it is only because Gay & Roslyn have come to realize that there is no more to ask for than simply existing.   The fact that they have chosen to exist together, each having compromised on what life for them means, is in itself very sad.  Gay and Rosylyn’s final exchange, for instance, is not only poignant for them, but for the actors playing them.
                Roslyn:  “How do you find your way back in the dark?”
                Gay:  “Just head for that big star straight on.  The highway’s under it.  It’ll take us right home.”
It’s as if Miller foretold the end for both Gable and Monroe and their longing for peace, Gable towards death and reuniting with the love of his life, Carole Lombard & Monroe simply the peace in death she was never afforded in life, wrapped in the arms of the father figure she always longed for.
Before the fade out, however, both actors are at their best.  Gay’s grizzled and weather-beaten skin reflects a lifetime of hard living, his dimples and smile still holding the mischievousness of a misspent youth.  He is world wary to be sure, but still holds a flicker of hope, but just a flicker.  Roslyn, seems to be a bundle of nerves, unsure of how to feel, how to act and what to do.  Monroe’s doe like eyes playing this insecurity perfectly, not necessarily reflecting the adoration men cast her way, but more melting because if it.  The fact that 2 screen icons, near the ends of both their lives, could pull these performances together under what has been reported as a very trying shoot is nothing short of amazing.
Much is made, and rightly so, of the end of Gable & Monroe’s careers after this movie, but it would have been a mile marker in their careers regardless.  Miller’s screenplay is wonderfully coupled with John Huston’s stark images and simple direction, but there is also an underlying meanness towards the actors.  Miller has Roslyn/Marilyn fumble trying to memorize her lines for her divorce hearing, mirroring Monroe’s own struggles with line readings.  He also has Clift explain to his mother on the phone that his face is alright and looks good as new, an obvious reference to Clift’s own reconstructed face.  The obvious reflection is to point to Miller’s dissolving marriage to Monroe for the bitter touches, but it also speaks to larger issues with the characters themselves as he has constructed them.  Clift’s Perce, along with Gay & Guido are moths drawn to Roslyn’s light, exposing their own foibles & failures, whether cruelly depicted, as in the phone conversation with Perce, or as personal longing in Guido’s case & as a failed parent for Gay.  They each want to cast their redemption onto Roslyn’s purity and simplicity, but each fails in a different way.
The Misfits is not an easy film to watch, but it is highly rewarding, both as a testament to the skill of both Monroe & Gable, but as a study of people longing for love and flailing about to find it.  The black & white images are beautiful, but it’s the actors that make is so rewarding.  Without even saying anything their faces tell the story; a sad, but beautiful story.

Category:  Drama

See Also:  Bus Stop, Mutiny on the Bounty, Mogambo, Judgment at Nuremberg

Random Notes & Quotes: 
*a Screen Actors Guild strike led to delays in shooting Monroe’s Let’s Make Love, which in turn led to a delay in the start of production of The Misfits.  Shooting began on July 17th in the desert, contributing to the harsh conditions that are often attributed to Gables death.

*As a young woman Monroe kept a picture of Gable, telling people he was her father, whom she never knew.

*Gable, a noted homophobe, was said to have taken Clift under his wing during shooting, protecting him from the often volatile outburst of director Huston.

*After watching most of The Misfits with Huston, Gable was reported to have said that he now had 2 movies to be proud of Gone with the Wind &The Misfits.
​
*on November 4th, Gable finished retakes.  3 days later he was admitted to the hospital having suffered a series of heart attacks.  He died on November 16th, 1960.
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  • Home
  • Top 10 Lists
    • My Top 10 Favorite Movies
    • Top 10 Heist Movies
    • Top 10 Neo-Noir Films
    • The Top 10 Films of the Troubles (1969-1998) >
      • The Troubles Selected Timeline
    • Top 10 Films from 2001
    • Director Top 10's >
      • Top 10 Film Noir Directors
      • Top 10 Coen Brothers Films
      • Top 10 John Ford Films
      • Top 10 Samuel Fuller Films
      • Top 10 Alfred Hitchcock Films
      • Top 10 John Huston Films
      • Top 10 Fritz Lang Films (American)
      • Val Lewton Top 10
      • Top 10 Ernst Lubitsch Films
      • Top 10 Jean-Pierre Melville Films
      • Top 10 Nicholas Ray Films
      • Top 10 Preston Sturges Films
      • Top 10 Robert Siodmak Films
      • Top 10 William Wellman Films
      • Top 10 Billy Wilder Films
    • Actor/Actress Top 10's >
      • Top 10 Joan Blondell Movies
      • Top 10 Clark Gable Movies
      • Top 10 Ava Gardner Films
      • Top 10 Gloria Grahame Films
      • Top 10 Jean Harlow Movies
      • Top 10 Miriam Hopkins Films
      • Top 10 Grace Kelly Films
      • Top 10 Burt Lancaster Films
      • Top 10 Carole Lombard Movies
      • Top 10 Myrna Loy Films
      • Top 10 Marilyn Monroe Films
      • Top 10 Robert Mitchum Noir Movies
      • Top 10 Paul Newman Films
      • Top 10 Robert Ryan Movies
      • Top 10 Norma Shearer Movies
      • Top 10 Barbara Stanwyck Films
    • Top 10 Noir Films (Classic Era)
    • Top 10 Pre-Code Films
    • Top 10 Actresses of the 1930's
  • Reviews
    • Quick Hits: Short Takes on Recent Viewing >
      • Be Natural: The Untold Story of Alice Guy-Blache
      • Elevator to the Gallows ('58)
      • Days of Heaven
      • Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986)
      • Incindies (2010)
      • In the Mood For Love (2000)
      • Last Picture Show Teaser Intro
      • Le Silence De La Mer ('49)
      • The Princess Bride ('87) Intro
      • Pulp Fiction ('94) Intro
    • The 1910's >
      • The Lubitsch German Silents
    • The 1920's >
      • The Odessa Steps Sequence as Continuing Film History
      • Sunrise (1927)
      • Wild Orchids ('29)
    • The 1930's >
      • Becky Sharp (1935)
      • Blonde Crazy
      • Bombshell ('33)
      • The Cheat
      • The Conquerors
      • The Crowd Roars
      • The Divorcee
      • Frank Capra & Barbara Stanwyck: The Evolution of a Romance
      • Heroes for Sale
      • The Invisible Man (1933)
      • L'Atalante (1934)
      • Let Us Be Gay
      • My Man Godfrey
      • No Man of Her Own (1932)
      • Platinum Blonde ('31)
      • Reckless ('35)
      • The Sign of the Cross (1932)
      • The Sin of Nora Moran (1932)
      • True Confession ('37)
      • Virtue ('32)
      • The Women
    • The 1940's >
      • Casablanca (1942)
      • The Story of Citizen Kane
      • Criss Cross (1949)
      • Double indemnity
      • Jean Arthur in A Foreign Affair
      • The Killers 1946 & 1964 Comparison
      • The Maltese Falcon Intro
      • Moonrise (1948)
      • My Gal Sal (1942)
      • Nightmare Alley
      • Notorious Intro ('46)
      • Overlooked Christmas Movies of the 1940's
      • Pursued (1947)
      • Remember the Night ('40)
      • The Red Shoes (1948)
      • The Set-Up ('49)
      • They Won't Believe Me (1947)
      • The Third Man
    • The 1950's >
      • The Asphalt Jungle Secret Cinema Intro
      • Cat on a Hot Tin Roof ('58) Intro
      • The Crimson Kimono (1959)
      • A Face in the Crowd (1957)
      • In a Lonely Place
      • A Kiss Before Dying (1956)
      • Mogambo ('53)
      • Niagara (1953)
      • The Night of The Hunter ('55)
      • Pushover Noir City
      • Rear Window (1954)
      • Rebel Without a Cause (1955)
      • Red Dust ('32 vs Mogambo ('53)
      • The Searchers ('56)
      • Singin' in the Rain Introduction
      • Some Like It Hot ('59) >
        • Some Like it Hot Intro (Beyond the Bay)
    • The 1960's >
      • The April Fools (1969)
      • Bonnie & Clyde (1967)
      • Cape Fear ('62)
      • Cool Hand Luke (1967) Intro
      • Dr Strangelove Intro
      • For a Few Dollars More (1965)
      • Fistful of Dollars (1964)
      • The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1968)
      • The Hustler ('61) Intro
      • The Man With No Name Trilogy
      • The Misfits ('61)
      • The Umbrellas of Cherbourg/La La Land
    • The 1970's >
      • Beyond the Valley of the Dolls (1970)
      • American Graffiti Introduction
      • Chinatown Introduction
      • The Friends of Eddie Coyle ('73)
      • Jaws Intro
    • The 1980's >
      • Blood Simple ('84)
      • A Christmas Story Intro
      • Scarface (1983)
    • The 1990's >
      • The General (1998)
    • 2000's >
      • Belfast (2021)
      • Blonde (2022)
      • Hunger (2008)
      • In Bruges (2008)
      • Joy Division
      • Mank (2020)
      • No Man's Land (2001)
      • Portrait of a Lady on Fire (2019)
      • Wall-E
      • Y Tu Mama Tambien (2001)
      • The Top 10 Films I watched in 2020
  • Artists
    • Actors/Actresses >
      • Joan Blondell
      • Faye Dunaway: 1967-1976
      • The Noir Villainy of Dan Duryea
      • Clark Gable Bio
      • Jean Harlow Bio
      • Veronica Lake
      • Norma Shearer
    • Directors/Producers/Cinematographers >
      • Founders Series: Alice Guy-Blache
      • John Alton
      • Joan Harrison-Producer/Writer
      • Hitchcock & Cary Grant
      • William Wellman
    • Books >
      • Book Reviews >
        • Book Review: Clark Gable by D. Bret
      • Pre-Code
      • Actor Bios
      • Film Noir
      • Director Bios
      • Studio Head Bios
      • Hollywood History
    • Studio
  • Resources
    • Sight & Sound Top 100 2022
    • NOTES >
      • American Graffiti Notes
      • Anatomy of a Murder Notes
      • The Asphalt Jungle Outline
      • Breakfast Club Notes
      • Citizen Kane Notes
      • It's A Wonderful Life Notes
      • Rebel Without a Cause Notes
      • Singin' in the Rain Notes
    • CMBA Interview/Profile
    • Bay Cinema Society Press
    • Hollywood History >
      • Production Code
      • Film Noir
  • Video Introductions
    • Video Introductions
  • Last Picture Show Notes
  • Paul Verhoeven