The MISFITS: The final film of Marilyn Monroe and Clark Gable
May 3rd 2010 14:34
I truly believe that The Misfits is one of the most important and special American films ever made. It mines deep into the human soul and represents a truly larger than life film, which ultimately feels like a very personal one. The Misfits exposes a raw nerve for the men in this film and as a result elicits the same from it’s audience. In the final roles of Clark Gable and Marilyn Monroe, before they died, they left us with a most revealing portrait of them selves. This is also a very important film for Montgomery Clift – Clift would leave an indelible mark on the art of acting, influencing a new generation of more real, vulnerable, tougher actors such as Marlon Brando, Steve McQueen and James Dean.
John Huston, by this time, had certainly come a long way too since he directed his first major film, ‘The Maltese Falcon’. The richness and depth of The Misfits has as much complexity to it as the works of Eugene O’Neil or Anton Checkhov. Obviously so, as it’s born from the stage play written by the great Arthur Miller (The Crucible, Death of a Salesman), Miller himself, who was married to Marilyn Monroe, penned the screenplay which goes deeply into a story of three outsiders who essentially offer their souls to one woman, in the name of----the name of what----Ego? Possession? Love?----they’re really not sure, they just want her, everyone does.
Divorced and disillusioned, Roselyn Tabor, played by Marilyn Monroe (Some Like It Hot, The Seven Year Itch) befriends a group of ‘Misfits’ played by Montgomery Clift (From Here To Eternity, A Place In The Sun), Eli Wallach (The Good, The Bad and The Ugly, Mystic River) and Clark Gable (Gone With The Wind, It Happened One Night). These three men vie for her attention and affection. What is staggering to witness though is the degree that these three ‘men’ give away all their personal power, pride, integrity and any sense of true manliness, as they are all overcome by obsession and desire for this one woman.
Roselyn Tabor is a woman of pure feminine energy, she belongs to no particular man, but Roselyn is not Roselyn in this movie, she is only Marilyn Monroe and no one else. When we see any of these characters on screen, we don’t see them, but instead see these four actors like never before, we see something shocking, we see these ‘stars’ being laid bare, giving way to all vulnerabilities, their vanity exposed as Huston dissects their mythology.
What surprises me is how deeply spiritual ‘The Misfits’ is. We witness the very essence of man’s nature brought before us which makes me wonder what Hustons personal feelings were about the material. Huston had always been a director who took a tough love approach towards his actors yet he was the only director to elicit such a realistic performance from Marilyn Monroe. Maybe it wasn’t him, maybe it had to do with her husband being the writer? Marilyn Monroe shows us that there will never be another like her again - and that she can really act!
Clark Gable plays with his leading man image, by starting out in a less than convincing performance as usual, this time however, pacing himself and eventually allowing true seriousness to flourish and emerge.
As for Montgomery Clift, he can absolutely devastate you in ‘The Misfits’, revealing his outer and inner wounds – and Marilyn Monroe stands right next to him which is staggering for an actress who really never did anything great with her roles. I can’t decide who is better in this film. Clift absolutely breaks my heart here, yet Marilyn Monroe demonstrates that she has the ability, also, to be everything that this ground breaking method actor was. Clift was known to bring out the best in lesser actors, we saw some impressive acting from John Wayne in ‘Red River’, but not to this point. The misfits leaves us with much to contemplate over.
The crisp black and white cinematography by Russell Metty (Spartacus, A Touch Of Evil) captures the emotions of a moment caught in time, a moment that seemed to transcend every other event in your life. The classy way he shoots the film compliments the air of prestige it’s leading actors bring to it.
I admire the Misfits, it's got a whole lot of soul which is rare in any film, it examines the obsessions of man in the same all encompassing manner that Hitchcock's Vertigo did. I admire John Huston for the way he handled Arthur Miller’s wonderful script, I admire what the actors do in it, Gable gives his best performance ever, Clift overwhelms you at times and you fall in love with Monroe the same way that these male characters do. I recommend it to anyone who is a lover of anything that has something important to say. It’s a one of a kind film made under exceptional circumstances and it’s clear to me, that there will never again, be anything quite like it.
Here's a scene from 'The Misfits'.
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Comment by Marie Anne
It's Easy Being Green
Good Scoop
Crafts Galore
Comment by JohnDoe
Film & TV on DVD
The only film that ever made me see Marilyn Monroe as an "actress"
Comment by David O'Connell
Screen Fanatic
Comment by ShaunK
Screen Adventure
JD - I'm feelin the film love
David - thanks for that. As you can see I can't praise it highly enough and of course North's score can't be ignored either.
It's a film which really shows the good films from the great films.
Comment by Marie Anne
It's Easy Being Green
Good Scoop
Crafts Galore
Comment by Bryn
Horrorphile
Comment by ShaunK
Screen Adventure