The Misfits 1961

     This film is based on a short story written by Arthur Miller.  Roslyn Taber has been renting a room from Isabelle Steers.  They’ve become friends and Isabelle is going with Roslyn when she goes to the courthouse to obtain a divorce.  Roslyn is nervous but Isabelle has been a witness many times before.  The women meet Guido and Gay Langland.  Guido is a mechanic, his wife died and he came to fix Roslyn’s car plus he gave them a ride to the courthouse.  Gay is a divorced aging cowboy friend of Guido.  Guido takes everyone out to his unfinished house in the desert of Reno, Nevada.  Gay and Roslyn decide to live there.  Later they all run into Perce Howland and he’s headed to the rodeo.  Gay and Guido know Perce and they all go to the rodeo together.  Later, they go out into the desert to look for wild horses.  

     Roslyn is very beautiful and she can't take it if any people or animals are hurt.  She doesn't want Gay to kill a rabbit that's eating the lettuce Gay planted.  She has a very difficult time when the men round up the wild horses.  She didn't know for a while what was going to happen to the horses after they were sold.  She thought people would train them and ride them?   3 ½* (I liked this movie)

125 min, Drama directed by John Huston with Clark Gable, Marilyn Monroe, Montgomery Clift, Thelma Ritter, Eli Wallach, James Barton, Kevin McCarthy, Estelle Winwood.

Note:  Imdb 7.4 out of 10, 100% critic 78% audience on Rotten Tomatoes, Amazon 4.4* out of 5* with 202 reviews, TCM average rating 4.23 out of 5, The Guardian 4* out of 5* review by Peter Bradshaw, 3* out of 5* review by Mark Kermode.

Special Note:  Filmed in Pyramid Lake, Dayton, Stagecoach, Reno, Nevada and Los Angeles, California.  At the end of filming, Clark Gable said Marilyn Monroe almost gave him a heart attack.  The next day, he did have a real heart attack and he died ten days later at the age of 59.  Gable smoked four packs of cigarettes a day for thirty years.  Marilyn Monroe died 1 1/2 years later.  A doctor was on call 24 hours a day for Monroe and Clift because both had health problems from alcohol and medical stimulants.  Production was shut down for two weeks when Monroe went to the hospital to detox.  Thelma Ritter was hospitalized the last day of shooting for exhaustion.  Monroe, Clift and Eli Wallach all practiced method acting and Gable thought this was like an alien religion?  Miller wrote the story while he was waiting for his own divorce in Reno prior to marrying Monroe in 1956.  Monroe and Miller became estranged and later divorced after making this film.  The temperatures in Nevada were over 100 degrees during production.