The Misfits (1961)

A divorced hot chick (Marilyn Monroe) and her landlady (Thelma Ritter) meet up with a tow truck driver (Eli Wallach) and his cowboy friend (Clark Gable). They later swap out the landlady for a troubled ranch hand (Montgomery Clift), then go rustling Mustangs. They all fall over Marilyn while she falls out of her dress.

Clark Gable was 59 going on 109 and would pass just after filming wrapped. He had said that working with Marilyn was going to give him a heart attack and, well, it seems he was right. He got in shape for the roll, quitting booze and losing weight, but too little, too late. There was a doctor on call but it was for the troubled Monroe and Clift. This would also prove to be Marilyn’s last film, dying of a semi-accidental drug overdose a year and a half later. Of the five principles, only Eli Wallach would see 1970, leaving us in 2014 at 98.

Maybe because he wasn’t playing the romantic lead, I liked Montgomery Clift’s performance. He played a neurotic, self-destructive cowboy. A role I suppose he could relate to. Except for the cowboy part. I’ll again repeat Marilyn’s quote about him: "the only person I know who is in worse shape than I am".

Not what I was expecting. There is a whole lot of ogling of Marilyn to the point where it seems to serve the dual purpose of making a point and appealing to men who like ogling Marilyn. She was 34 or 35 here and still effectively playing the 20-something bombshell, if maybe carrying a bit more weight than normal. It was said that they suspended production for two weeks so she could detox but that may have been a ruse to cover director John Huston’s gambling losses.

The four main characters (excluding Ritter’s landlady) are trying to figure out where they fit in. The aging cowboy out of touch in the new west, the tow truck driver dealing with the dead wife he worshiped, the young ranch hand not sure where he is going in life, and of course the divorcee who based her identity on the men who want her. You know, Misfits. They seem to come to terms with their issues, but it is not altogether clear.

The Misfits is an interesting film. Here we say goodbye to two icons of classic Hollywood. However I don’t know what to make of the overt “male gaze” aspect of the film. It felt very intentional. I may not see it again, but I do find myself thinking about it. AMRU 3.5.

"Honey, we all got to go sometime, reason or no reason. Dyin's as natural as livin'. The man who's too afraid to die is too afraid to live."