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The Misfits (1-Feb-1961)

Director: John Huston

Writer: Arthur Miller

Music Composed and Conducted by: Alex North

Producer: Frank E. Taylor

Keywords: Drama

Four aimless drifters find each other in Reno. Marilyn Monroe is Roslyn, in Reno for a divorce (she and screenwriter Arthur Miller were actually getting divorced at this time). Clark Gable is Gay, a cowboy whose world has been passed by. Montgomery Clift is Perce, a washed-up rodeo star. Their friends are Guido and Isabelle, played by Eli Wallach and Thelma Ritter. Final film of Clark Gable, a bizarre anti-Western unappreciated at time of release.

[watch trailer]

NameOccupationBirthDeathKnown for
Montgomery Clift
Actor
17-Oct-1920 23-Jul-1966 From Here to Eternity
Clark Gable
Actor
1-Feb-1901 16-Nov-1960 Gone With the Wind
Kevin McCarthy
Actor
15-Feb-1914 11-Sep-2010 Invasion of the Body Snatchers
Marilyn Monroe
Actor
1-Jun-1926 5-Aug-1962 Some Like It Hot
Thelma Ritter
Actor
14-Feb-1905 4-Feb-1969 Stella in Rear Window
Eli Wallach
Actor
7-Dec-1915 24-Jun-2014 The Magnificent Seven
Estelle Winwood
Actor
24-Jan-1883 20-Jun-1984 The Producers

CAST

Clark Gable   ...   Gay Langland
Marilyn Monroe   ...   Roslyn Taber
Montgomery Clift   ...   Perce Howland
Co-Starring
Thelma Ritter   ...   Isabelle Steers
Eli Wallach   ...   Guido
And by Special Arrangement
James Barton   ...   Old Man
Kevin McCarthy   ...   Raymond Taber
Estelle Winwood   ...   Church Lady

REVIEWS

Review by Mark J. Shallow (posted on 12-Dec-2008)

Much has been written and said about this film, and the majority opinion is that it is a masterpiece. While it does have some captivating moments, in the main, it is seriously flawed and not really deserving of the high praise that's been heaped upon it. Arthur Miller, who wrote the screenplay, was perhaps the greatest playwright of the last century, but his genius for telling a compelling story was sadly lacking here. The central theme of the sanctity of rigged individualism in the film has a great deal of width, but almost no depth. The male characters talk disparagingly of working for "wages", yet their words seem hollow. The attempts to bolster their dignity are undermined by their proclivity for doing some rather undignified things. They drink ceaselessly and are prone to objectify women. They engage in sermonizing about the value of being free, but they come off sounding as if they only half-believe what they're saying. Like Willy Loman in Miller's brilliant play DEATH OF A SALESMAN, the central character of Gay Langland (Clark Gable) is an anachronism, but whereas Willy's wife touchingly got us to truly feel for her downtrodden husband, no such sympathy is forthcoming for Gay. Rather, we might feel more likely to be embarrassed for him. Clark Gable was a wrong choice for the character of Gay. He squints, leers and looks as if he wished he was somewhere else. The brash self-assuredness that made him great in the thirties and forties is here nothing more than self-centered boasting. Eli Wallach missed an opportunity to inject the character of Guido with some palpable humanity. Instead, we see just one more in a dull grey line of life's losers. Montgomery Clift as the the battered rodeo rider Perce Howland is a one-dimensional presence who was supposed to act as a more civilized counterpoint to the crudities of Guido and Gay, but he's merely as self-absorbed as his two friends and therefore lacking in any moral authority. And, of course, there's Marilyn Monroe as Roslyn Tabor, newly divorced and unsure of where life will take her. Her marriage, we're told, ended because her husband was cold and aloof, and she felt that, emotionally, he had abandoned her. The fact that she would choose to jump from that frying pan right into the fire with Gay et.al. is the height of improbability.


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