The Misfits

The Misfits, a 1961 film by John Huston, is now best known as the last film for both Clark Gable and Marilyn Monroe. At the time of its release, though, it was memorable for being a flop. The film deserved better, but it is a strange thing, written by Monroe's husband, Arthur Miller, as they were breaking up, and featuring a mixture of acting styles.

Set in Reno, Nevada, Monroe is doing her six weeks to get a divorce. She becomes chummy with her landlady, Thelma Ritter (who came to Reno to get her divorce) and ends up meeting a tow-truck driver (Eli Wallach), who then introduces her to a cowboy (Gable). In a bit of fantasy, she immediately takes to Gable (who is at least 25 years older) and moves in with him in Wallach's unfinished house out in the desert. All the while, Wallach is sore that she went for Gable instead of him.

They all go to a rodeo and meet up with Montgomery Clift, a bull rider. He, too, becomes attracted to Monroe (the way Monroe is lit, with soft focus and key lights, a corpse would have interest). Wallach, who flies a plane, has spotted mustangs out in the desert, so he, Gable, and Clift go out to wrangle them, and then sell them for dog food. Monroe does not like this, and tests how much Gable really cares for her.

The most fascinating thing about The Misfits is watching Gable, the King of Hollywood from the '30s, acting with the Method Generation. Wallach, Clift, and even Monroe had studied with teachers like Lee Strasberg, and of course Miller was a giant of American drama. Gable, looking older than his 59 years, fits in quite well, though. He inhabits his character like an old shoe, and has one scene, in which he lost track of his adults kids, with a rare bit of raw emotion.

The film itself has trouble hanging together. Much of it is just the characters hanging out and drinking, with the men jockeying for position with Monroe. The misfits of the title are said to be the horses, who are wild and have no purpose (for people, of course), but we know that the characters themselves are misfits, especially cowboys in an age of the automobile.

I never got the sense that Huston knew what to do with the material, and I wonder how many rewrites this went through. I will say the climax, when the wrangling takes place, is very dramatic, and the ending, with Gable and Monroe driving off into the night, following the North Star, is unintentionally poignant.