Marilyn Monroe

Marilyn Monroe's last movie was The Misfits, written by Arthur Miller (as his marriage to her was collapsing), and directed by John Huston.  It's a flawed, uneven movie, but it has some great moments.

It's about how Marilyn Monroe goes to Reno for a divorce, then shacks up with aging cowboy Clark Gable. (This was his last movie too.) They couldn't be explicit back in 1961, but it's pretty clear that they've shacked up!

There's a terrific climax when Gable and the other cowboys round up some wild mustangs to sell to the dog food factory, and Marilyn freaks out.  I like the way the camera shows here from a hundred feet away as she screams.  Poor Marilyn! (This scene has greater meaning for people seeing it today than it must have had for contemporary moviegoers seeing it before her death.)

Montgomery Clift had a good role as another cowboy. (In a town full of sad stories, his is one of the saddest.) He has a great scene talking to his unheard mother on the phone. They say he nailed it in one take!  Miller ended the movie with Marilyn and Gable staying together--he later admitted this reflected wishful thinking about saving his real marriage--but Clift wanted him to end it with Marilyn getting together with him.  That would have made more sense.

It was a very troubled production, with serious delays and budget overruns.  Gable insisted on doing his own stunts, which may have contributed to his death. Marilyn was widely blamed for the delays, but it wasn't all her fault:  Huston gambled away the cash that had been set aside for daily expenses!  Yet she and Clift got along famously. (She said he was "the only person I know who is in even worse shape than I am.") It's a shame that this is the only film they made together.