John Huston’s gorgeous elegiac anti-western, The Misfits, set in the late 1950s, about broken-hearted cowboys and broken-down marriages was both Marilyn Monroe’s and Clark Gable’s final – and perhaps best – film presented her in a glorious BFI restoration marking the centenary of Monroe’s birth.
Written by Monroe’s husband, the great American playwright Arthur Miller, The Misfits is a touching and off-beat drama, one of the finest of Monroe’s career, as she lights up the lives of Clark Gable and Montgomery Clift, an aging cowboy and a rodeo-rocked bull rider, both with bittersweet memories of a west that’s no longer wild.
A mutual respect marked the relationship between Monroe and Huston. Huston cast Monroe as an unknown in The Asphalt Junglein 1950, working with her again a decade later, with their two collaborations serving as bookends to her career, both infused with the promises of what could have been if she had been given more time and freedom to explore her skills as a dramatic performer.
Director: John Huston
Starring: Marilyn Monroe, Clark Gable & Montgomery Clift
Year: 1961
Language: In English
Country: USA
Running time: 2hrs 5mins