On M List of Movie Reviews
(For optimum viewing, adjust the zoom level of your browser to 125%.)
The Misfits (1961)
Rate:
5
Viewed:
3/06, 12/15
3/06:
Talk about a movie that no one wants to see: The Misfits.
Clark Gable, Marilyn Monroe, and Montgomery Clift are a shell of themselves. It's a sad sight. Worse, there's no story.
The dialogue goes nowhere.
All in all, for a John Huston film, The Misfits is disappointing given the immense star power.
12/15:
An analogy to describe The Misfits is not being able to look away from a 10-car pileup.
What the hell happened to Clark Gable, Marilyn Monroe, and Montgomery Clift? They were at top of the world
for a while, and then, they're all the way at the bottom.
Possibly because of Marilyn Monroe's on-set difficulties, Clark Gable died of a heart attack twelve days after the
completion of filming. At 59, He insisted doing the stunts himself such as being dragged by a truck at 30 miles
per hour for 400 feet.
Looking somewhat ugly, Marilyn Monroe was on drugs and drank heavily the entire time while she was trying to get
a divorce from Arthur Miller who turned out to be a mean son of a bitch. She spent two weeks in the hospital during the
filming and never did another picture, dying a year later. Suicide? Murder? Who knows, and who cares?
Montgomery Clift had the "longest suicide in Hollywood history" due to not recovering fully from
the auto accident in 1956 that left his face partly shattered. To cope with the pain, Clift resorted to
pills and alcohol, having become completely dependent on them to get through the day. Rumor has it that he was
sitting up in his bed one night and The Misfits was playing on TV. His boyfriend asked Clift if he wanted to see it
with him. In response, he yelled, "Absolutely not!" The next morning, Clift passed away.
As for the film, it's a disaster from start to finish. Nothing makes sense, yet the performances are good.
All in all, it's shame that Clark Gable and Montgomery Clift went out like this; on the other hand, Marilyn Monroe was a joke.