"Let's just live."

An all-star cast is a dream for both producers and audiences. Only rare movies can afford to have tons of big name stars who are guaranteed to make a box office success no matter what. This is true of The Misfits (1961). The title says it all about the movie’s story and the cast involved in it. It was one of those rare movies that included stars at every position, from director to screenwriter to lead actor to lead actress to supporting actors and actresses. It is also a story that is not the greatest when you consider who wrote the screenplay.

Arthur Miller was married to Marilyn Monroe at this time. Miller and Monroe were expecting a baby, but Marilyn had a miscarriage. This devastated her. As sort of a present, Miller decided to write a screenplay for his wife. That screenplay was The Misfits.

Miller had conquered Broadway with Death of a Salesman and The Crucible by this point. Critics of Marilyn Monroe say Miller’s creativity dried up while he was married to her, but defenders point out that he was starting to wane at the end of his first marriage. Anyway, he would never reach the success of Death of a Salesman and The Crucible for the rest of his career – which lasted many years after Marilyn Monroe divorced him and died.

Miller was not a big screenwriter. He had done a couple screenplays in the ‘40s, but had focused instead on what he knew – the play. So any deficiencies in the story, and there are some, could be attributed to Miller’s inability to master the screenplay format, which forces writers to be more tied to reality than the stage does.

The director of the movie was John Huston. Huston was a man’s man who jumped at the opportunity to direct a movie about the death of the cowboy’s lifestyle. He loved to drink, gamble and on this trip to location shooting in Reno – gamble. Huston was rugged enough to put a macho stamp on the picture even if others involved in the company were not.

One man not afraid of adventure was Clark Gable. Gable was cast as the lead cowboy, Gay. This was Gable’s final film role. A few days after shooting finished, he died of a heart attack. Those who hate Marilyn Monroe blame his death on her. They say because she took so long to get on the set, she made Gable stand around in the heat when he was not feeling well. Whatever they might say, Gable treated Monroe like a daughter. He was respectful of her and always was there to reassure her. This makes it odd to see the two become lovers in the movie. Monroe grew up calling Clark Gable her father, because her real father, who she never met, looked a lot like the actor.

This was also Marilyn Monroe’s last movie. She would divorce Arthur Miller shortly after production finished. Miller and Monroe would arrive on the set in separate cars at times during the shooting. Marilyn’s erratic behavior is what finally drove Miller away. It is also what finally drover her to commit suicide after being fired from Something’s Got to Give in 1962. Fox fired her from that movie because they believed she was making up the fact that she claimed to be sick. She felt better for a few days to continue shooting, but then left the company to sing “Happy Birthday” to President Kennedy at Madison Square Garden.

Another misfit in the cast was Montgomery Clift. Clift, the Method actor, was cast as Perce, a rodeo cowboy. Now Clift doesn’t seem like the typical actor to play a cowboy, but he was able to adapt to any role. He was great opposite John Wayne in Red River (1948), even knocking the Duke down in a fight scene. He had been in a terrible car accident and never really recovered after that, always drinking and feeling sorry for himself.

Eli Wallach plays Guido, the cowboy who falls for Marilyn first, but is unable to do anything about because Gay overrides him due to age. If this were a Marx Brothers’ picture he would be Zeppo.

Thelma Ritter plays the role of Marilyn’s guardian for a period in the movie. The great character actress who was nominated for six Academy Awards runs a boarding house in this movie. Marilyn stays there while waiting to get a divorce in Reno.

With stars all around it doesn’t really matter what they are doing on-screen. The basic story is Marilyn’s character, Roslyn, goes to Reno to get a divorce. She meets Guido and the two have some fun together. Guido introduces her to Gay and they all have some fun together. On their way to a rodeo they meet Perce, who wants to compete, but doesn’t have the entry fee. Perce competes and gets knocked around a bit. The cowboys say he is fine, while Roslyn desperately wants to see him go to a doctor. The main fight here is Roslyn, who cares deeply about any sort of living thing, versus the old cowboys, whose way of life demands that they kill living things to survive. Eventually Roslyn’s way wins and Miller wants us to think that this is the end of the cowboy. Maybe he was right.

The movie was the final chapter of Marilyn Monroe’s career. It ended with her appearing in a movie directed by John Huston, just like her first big break did a decade earlier with The Asphalt Jungle.

In the years since her death, Marilyn Monroe has become more of an image than anything. She has been criticized unrightfully, stories have been made up about her, people try to imitate her. But they all can’t stop talking about her. In a way she has not died and as long as people still admire physical beauty, she will always have a place in our society.