The Misfits
(1961)
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The final film of stars Clark Gable and Marilyn Monroe is an elegy for the death of the Old West from writer Arthur Miller and director John Huston. Gable stars as Gay Langland, an aging hand traveling the byways and working at rodeos with his two comrades, Guido (Eli Wallach) and young Perce Howland (Montgomery Clift). The three men come up with a plan to corral some misfit mustangs and sell them for dog food, but Gay's new girlfriend Roslyn Taber (Marilyn Monroe), a high-minded ex-stripper who has just divorced her husband Ray (Kevin McCarthy) in Reno, is appalled by the plan. Although both Guido and Perce are also in love with Roslyn, she stands by Gay, sure that in the end he will do the right thing, even as he and his pals begin their planned roundup.~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide |
This drama from John Huston is more of a mausoleum than a movie. The last film of both Marilyn Monroe and Clark Gable, and some might say containing the last real performance by Montgomery Clift, it went from box-office flop to cult status within the space of a year. Written by Monroe's then husband, Arthur Miller, it's a grey, solemn and at times pretentious piece about three drifters who hunt horses destined to become pet food. Somehow the flat, arid Nevada landscape mirrors the characters' bleak existence and sets the overall mood of despair and depression. Dogged by various production problems (Monroe's emotional upheavals, Clift's substance abuse, United Artists freezing the budget, Huston's gambling exploits and more), it's a film that's easy to admire — especially for Gable's rugged charm — but so hard to enjoy fully.
Halliwell's Film Guide
Ill-fated melodrama whose stars both died shortly afterwards; a solemn, unattractive, pretentious film which seldom stops wallowing in self-pity.