Plagued by a difficult shoot, burdened by bad reviews and marked by the death of its leading man shortly after production was completed, "The Misfits" suffered the biggest indignity--audience indifference--when it was released in 1961. That's what makes the growing appreciation for the drama during the last four decades especially surprising.
What seems clear now is that the hauntingly poetic drama--written by Arthur Miller and directed by John Huston--was ahead of its time. Now the somehow appropriately titled film is the subject of a "Great Performances" documentary that airs Wednesday on KCET.
As the documentary points out, "The Misfits" marked the final screen appearances of its larger-than-life stars Marilyn Monroe and Clark Gable. The latter died of a massive heart attack less than two weeks after production wrapped.
"I think audiences expected Gable to be dashing and heroic," says Gail Levin, producer of the new documentary, "The Making of the Misfits." "He's not. He's burned out. And she wasn't what you always expected of her. I think rather than take it on its terms, the audience took it on the audience's terms, so they didn't allow themselves to find it."
Levin, who first saw "The Misfits" on television as a teenager, says her lingering affection for the film is what motivated her to make the documentary. "It was so eerily close to the bone for all of them. It couldn't have been better cast. It is just an extraordinary moment in time. Everybody was who he or she [was]. And Huston was the perfect person to direct this thing."
Monroe plays Roslyn, a beautiful but troubled woman who has just gotten a divorce in Reno when she meets up with two friends, the aggressive flier Guido (Eli Wallach) and aging cowboy Gay Langland (Gable). Added to the mix are aging rodeo star Perce Howland (Montgomery Clift) and the much-married Isabelle Steers (Thelma Ritter).
The film ends in the desert with a disturbing and allegorical roundup of wild mustangs--much to Roslyn's hysterical dismay--by Gay and his friends.
But there was more drama going on behind the camera than in front of it. Shooting locations were difficult; the Miller-Monroe marriage was crumbling before everyone's eyes, and her chronic lateness and difficulty remembering lines caused the film to go over schedule and budget. The only person Monroe would take direction from was her acting coach, Paula Strasberg. And because of a drinking problem, Clift was considered unstable.
