An interesting perspective on The Misfits from Steve Forrester, editor of the Daily Astorian:
‘One of the most fateful collisions of movie cults and icons was The Misfits, the 1961 film by John Huston, starring Marilyn Monroe (cult), Clark Gable (icon) and Montgomery Clift (cult). The screen play was written by Monroe’s husband Arthur Miller (icon). It was the last film for Gable and also for Monroe. Ten days after the movie’s filming ended, Gable died. Monroe died within 10 months of wrapping the film.
After my wife and I watched The Misfits last week, she said: “That’s a tough movie. I can only watch it once a year.”
As acting goes, The Misfits is magnetic. Many believe it is Gable’s best performance.
The startling effect of this movie stems from the parallel between the fictional characters and the actors playing them. Both bear life’s scars and age lines.
As Gable, Wallach and Monroe move to the desert for their last scene, they reach the kind of crisis that Arthur Miller masterfully concoted in his stage plays of which ‘Death of a Salesman’ is only the most celebrated. The characters leave this scene with more self-knowledge and knowledge of each other.
Then we have the eerie final scene of Monroe and Gable driving through the desert at night. They sit in the truck’s cab looking up at the sky.
Perhaps Monroe captured the hopeless duality of the actor when she told Life magazine: ”It’s nice to included in people’s fantasies, but you also like to be accepted for your own sake.”‘
