The Misfits (1961)

The film begins in a little apartment building in Reno, Nevada. We are introduced to Marilyn Monroe, and her landlord (Thelma Ritter). One day, after appearing in court to finalize her divorce, she meets a smooth-talking rugged cowboy in a bar - none other than Clark Gable. He and his associate, another misfit (Eli Wallach) both fall for her, naturally. After all, it's Marilyn. They let her stay at Wallach's country home for a retreat she longs for.

Gable and Monroe have alot of great scenes together. Right from the start, he puts on the charm. They spend several days together doing nothing but relaxing by a lake. Ahh! Then, the turning point in the relationship comes -- one day, Gable discovers a rabbit gnawing at his vegetable garden. He grabs his rifle and starts to chase it, to Monroe's horror. "I can't stand to see anything killed" she says. She also can't take rodeos, either, and suffers a nervous breakdown when she sees Gable's old friend (Montgomery Clift) thrown off a bull.

Later in the film, director John Huston shows us some magnificent scenes of the wide open canyon, wild horses running freely. But the men plan to capture and sell the horses in exchange for several hundred dollars. Still in love with Gable, Monroe decides to come along with the group during their round up.

Gable, Clift, and Wallach first chase a group of mares, then they go after the stallion. This sequence can be unpleasant to watch: we see how they all get lassoed, then their legs tied to a tire, anchoring them to the canyon floor where they are to stay through night until they're picked up by the dealer in the morning.

A baby colt is left behind, uncaptured, and we see him going up to his mother, all tied up.

All of this is upsetting to Monroe, who becomes even more horrified when she learns that the horses will eventually become butchered into dog food. As the men debate how much money they will make, Monroe can't take it anymore.

"You're all murderers!" she screams at them, and wants to see them all freed.

The last scene in this film is amazing.

The Clift character does what she wants: he cuts the ropes of the horse's legs. Once freed, the stallion unselfishly runs directly back to the mares tied up on the canyon floor. What an image! This horse displayed more human values and compassion than many people out there in the world today. (Mel Gibson could learn a thing or two from this horse) I saw the horses as representing the desire within us to live freely. And the misfits would be those things in our lives that seek to control us, tying us up.

Once Gable captures the stallion again, he takes out a pen knife and he cuts the horse loose. "Why did you do that?" asks a puzzled Wallach. Gable, giving up, says, "I didn't want anyone making up my mind for me."

Marilyn Monroe is the soul of this film. If there's one film she should have got an Oscar nomination for, it's this one. She is in every scene. There's a bit of John Huston in her character; you just have to watch the movie to see what I mean.

It saddens me to think this was her final film. What's even more bittersweet is that in the movie, one of the characters proposes a toast to her, and says, "Here's to your life...I hope it goes on forever".

---BEHIND THE SCENES---

In his autobiography, John Huston said she was late on the set almost every day. By that time she was taking pills to help her sleep and in the morning. When the doctor on the set refused to give her any more, she found drugs elsewhere. One day she broke down on the set and was hospitalized for two weeks shutting down production. Huston enjoyed working with Monty as well, but also recalled that he took pills during filming as well, unfortunately. And he wrote that Gable was a great actor to work with, and was very professional about his craft. He always had stories of the old days in the 1930s.

More about Clark Gable from Huston's memoir:

Because I edit as I go along, Clark got to see the first cut of the film, and he was delighted. The picture was way over budget. It would cost about $4,000,000 - and that was a lot of money in those days for a black and white film. Clark said, "Hell, John! If the studio is unhappy about the cost, I'll buy this picture for four million dollars. I think it's the the best thing I've ever done. Now all I want is to see that kid of mine born!" That was on November 4, and he was due to become a father in February. It wasn't meant to be. He suffered a heart attack on November 5 and died less than two weeks later.

Because of Clark's death and the tragedy of seeing Marilyn slowly destroying herself, my memories of The Misfits are mostly melancholy.

Read another post from Confessions of a Film Philistine

Another blog post from The Magnificent 60s

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This post is part of the 2010 John Huston Blogathon
hosted by Adam at Ice Box Movies

Hard-boiled Cinema: Exploring Communism in American films of the 1950s

In the Spring of 2004, I enrolled in Facets Film School's 6-week appreciation series that dealt with the subject of blacklisted and/or propagandized American films from the 1950s, during the Cold War era.

Our instructor was Robert Keser. I learned alot from this course about communism and the impact the cold war had on the society and in films. We discussed the blacklisting of filmmakers/actors and how communism, socialism, activist movements, and public/government attitudes were was portrayed on the screen during this time.

Each week we watched a feature film from the 1950s during the McCarthy years. After each film, we discussed and analyzed the messages in the films. My notes are summarized below.

Week 1 (5/6/2004)
Christ in Concrete / Give Us This Day
Starring actor Sam Wanamaker. British audiences did not like the fact that the film had "Christ" in the title, so the title was changed in the UK to "Give Us This Day". In some other parts of the world it was called "Salt of the Devil".

Week 2 (5/14/2004)
I Can Get It For You Wholesale (951)

In 1947, there was the Taft Hartley act, which forced people to renounce communist ties if they are in unions. There was the Hollywood 19, who were all subpoenaed. In 1951 we had the Hollywood 10. Almost all were writers. One of these who were called in was actor Larry Parks.

We also discussed the following films:

• The Iron Curtain, the first movie to discuss the communist scare.
• Red Scare (1949), one of the most famous movies about communism, from New Republic Films.
• Joan of Ozark (1942) starring Judy Canova, made by Republic Films. Not about communism but about Nazi spys.

Week 3 (5/21/2004)
My Son John (1952)
A very interesting movie on so many levels. Stars Ms. Helen Hayes, Oscar-winning actress and stage veteran. Directed by 3-time Oscar winning director, Leo McCarey.  Before the film started, our instructor warned the class by calling the film "A Very bad film".

As the movie began, I was eager to see what was so bad about it. I was surprised; the film was not really as bad as our teacher made it seem, at least in my opinion. In fact, I found the film to be very memorable, especially the final scene which I can't give away just yet.

Week 4 (5/29/2004)
Pickup on South Street (1953) Starring Richard Widmark, Thelma Ritter, Jean Peters. Directed by Samuel Fuller

Week 5

Salt of the Earth (1954 - Dir: Herbert Biberman).

Shortest Oscar-nominated Performances

The briefest performances ever nominated for an Oscar. The screen times provided were gathered from other sources and have not been independently verified:

02:32 Hermione Baddeley ("Room at the Top," 1959) for best supporting actress
05:00 Claire Trevor ("Dead End", 1937) for best supporting actress
05:40 Beatrice Straight ("Network," 1976) for best supporting actress WON
06:00 Ned Beatty ("Network," 1976) for best supporting actor
06:00 Sylvia Miles ("Midnight Cowboy," 1969) for best supporting actress
06:05 Carolyn Jones ("The Bachelor Party," 1957) for best supporting actress
06:10 Diane Cilento ("Tom Jones," 1963) for best supporting actress
06:50 Thelma Ritter ("Pillow Talk," 1959) for best supporting actress
07:10 Geraldine Page ("The Pope of Greenwich Village," 1984) for best supporting actress
07:30 Maximilian Schell ("Julia," 1977) for best supporting actor
08:00 Jane Alexander ("All the President's Men," 1976) for best supporting actress
08:00 Judi Dench ("Shakespeare in Love," 1998) for best supporting actress WON
08:00 Charles Durning ("The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas," 1982) for best supporting actor
08:00 John Lithgow ("Terms of Endearment," 1983) for best supporting actor
08:00 Sylvia Miles ("Farewell, My Lovely," 1975) for best supporting actress
08:00 Michael Shannon ("Revolutionary Road," 2008) for best supporting actor
08:30 Gladys Cooper ("My Fair Lady," 1964) for best supporting actress
08:30 Anthony Quinn ("Lust for Life," 1956) for best supporting actor WON
09:00 William Hurt ("A History of Violence," 2006) for best supporting actor
09:50 Piper Laurie ("Children of a Lesser God," 1986) for best supporting actress
10:00 Ruby Dee ("American Gangster," 2007) for best supporting actress
12:00 Viola Davis ("Doubt," 2008) for best supporting actress
14:00 Ed Harris ("The Hours," 2002) for best supporting actor
15:38 David Niven ("Separate Tables", 1958) for Best Actor WON
16:00 Anthony Hopkins ("The Silence of the Lambs," 1991) for best actor WON