The Misfits (film)
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The Misfits is a 1961 American movie, written by Arthur Miller, directed by John Huston, and starring Clark Gable, Marilyn Monroe, Montgomery Clift, Eli Wallach and Thelma Ritter. It turned out to be the final film appearance for both Gable and Monroe. Filming was completed on November 4, 1960 and it was released on 1 February 1961.
The Misfits depicts the chance meeting and unlikely love affair in Reno, Nevada of a depressive divorcée, Roslyn Taber (Monroe), and Gay Langland (Gable), an aging ex-cowboy prone to gambling and surviving on mustang rustling. He then sells the horses to slaughterhouses for the manufacture of dog food. Clift and Wallach play Perce Howland and Guido, respectively.
The "misfits" of the title are both the weak horses which are most likely to be caught in the cruel roping, and the weak, sad characters of the story, unable to find satisfaction and picked off, one at a time, by fate.
The movie
The making of The Misfits was troublesome due to several factors, not the least of which was the heat of the Nevada desert. Furthermore, Huston gambled and drank through the nights, and occasionally fell asleep on the set. The production company had to cover for his gambling losses.Marilyn Monroe was sinking further into the world of alcohol and prescription drugs. Huston shut down production in August 1960 to send Monroe to a hospital for detox. Close-ups of her after her release were shot using soft focus to mask her appearance.
Gable insisted on doing his own stunts, including being dragged approximately 400 feet across the lakebed at over thirty miles per hour. Three days after filming ended, Gable, a heavy smoker, suffered a massive heart attack, and died eleven days later. Less than two years on, Monroe died of a drug overdose. The Misfits was the last completed film for both Monroe and Gable, her childhood screen idol. Thelma Ritter died eight years after the movie was made. Montgomery Clift, who had been badly injured in an automobile accident in 1956 and had to undergo reconstructive surgery on his face, died four years after the shooting. By contrast, Eli Wallach went on to a career that extends into the 21st century.
Despite the difficulties, Monroe, Clift and Gable delivered performances that are considered superb by modern movie critics [link]. Monroe portrayed a lost young woman searching for answers, whereas Gable and Clift characterized men struggling to find their place in life.
Initially, the film was met with mixed reviews and it failed to meet expectations at the box office, but it has since developed a cult following. Despite being shot in black and white, the final cost was around four million dollars. Its domestic gross was just under four million. It was not quite the "flop" of legend, but it brought no profits to United Artists.
Trivia
- Freddie Parker, who had a reputation for portraying drunkards in stage productions, froze up on set. Huston tried to talk him through it, but after filming ended one day, with Parker still in costume, Huston got Parker drunk. The scenes shot of Parker are of him actually intoxicated.
- In a documentary on the making of The Misfits, Eli Wallach tells a story of Huston directing the scene of Gay (Gable) and Guido (Wallach) at a bar. Huston thought Wallach's acting at being intoxicated was unrealistic. The director told him that the most intoxicated he himself had ever been in his life was the day before. Wallach was astonished, as Huston had seemed perfectly sober. The lesson was that an intoxicated person tries to act sober. Wallach replayed the scene accordingly.
- The punk band The Misfits took its name from the movie.
- Thomas B. Allen was assigned to create drawings of the film as it was made.
- Magnum Photos was given exclusive rights to take pictures of the making of the movie. Photographs taken by Inge Morath and Eve Arnold among others, have since been on display at various exhibitions around the world. Morath and Arthur Miller were married in 1962 and their union lasted 40 years, until her death in 2002.
- Miller wrote new pages throughout the shoot, frequently editing and revising the script as the concepts of the film continued to evolve through his discussions with the director, John Huston.
- Monroe was nearly always late to the set, sometimes not showing up at all. She spent her nights learning lines with her drama coach, Paula Strasberg. Strasberg's coaching of Monroe irritated Miller and Huston, who felt that Monroe was receiving mixed signals preventing her from performing. Because Strasberg wore black clothing and black hats in the Nevada heat, the crew referred to her as Black Bart.
- Producer Frank Taylor heralded The Misfits as "the ultimate motion picture" before its release.
- Arthur Miller's last play, Finishing the Picture, (2004) was largely based on the events involving the making of The Misfits.
See also
- Montgomery Clift
- Clark Gable
- John Huston
- Kevin McCarthy
- Arthur Miller
- Marilyn Monroe
- Alex North
- Thelma Ritter
- Eli Wallach
Further reading
Goode, James (1963). The Making of The Misfits, Limelight Editions. ISBN 0879100656. A detailed day-to-day account on the shooting of The Misfits, written by a journalist.External links
- [Site on the production of The Misfits]
- [Site on the making of The Misfits, including an extensive gallery]
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