Monty @ 100: “The Misfits” and the Specter of Death
Thursday, October 15, 2020 at 9:09PM 
The late-career of Montgomery Clift was laden with tragedy, shaped by the doom that was happening both behind and in front of the camera. While nothing can compare to the cataclysm that was the shooting of Raintree County, The Misfits is another film of Clift that's haunted and haunting. The Angel of Death looms over the picture which unwittingly became the last screen appearances of Clark Gable and Marilyn Monroe before their untimely ends. Clift would hold on for a few more years, surviving his co-stars.
However, as legend has it, the movie was showing on TV the night the actor died. His secretary, Lorenzo James, asked the actor if he wanted to watch it to which he answered: "Absolutely not!". Those were the last words he ever spoke to anyone, enshrining the movie in even more cursed memory. It's a pity these morbid curiosities define the legacy of The Misfits. In many regards, it's one of Clift's best and most fascinating pictures…
The Misfits was born of a script written by Marilyn Monroe's then-husband, playwriter Arthur Miller. Supposedly, the man who was then America's most respected dramaturge, composed the screenplay as a valentine for his wife. If indeed it was made with those intentions, it's one hell of a horrid valentine, a grotesque reflection of a marriage on the throes of ruin. Bear in mind that The Misfits is no heartfelt romance despite the kernel of dashed love playing a central role in its narrative.
If anything, the movie's a poem about suffering, death, and the pain that awaits everyone who still holds on to an optimistic worldview. Its happiest passages happen early on when Monroe's Roslyn is getting divorced in Reno. On the day when the matter is settled in court, she's accompanied by the vivacious Isabelle Steers, an older divorcee who's used to help young women in Roslyn's situation. In fact, the melancholic blonde bombshell is her 77th girl.
While out for celebratory drinks, the two women cross paths with a widowed mechanic, Eli Wallach's Guido, and his cowboy pall, a weathered Clark Gable playing Gay Langland. At first, the younger man has his eyes on Roslyn, going so far as to invite the group to his house in the Nevada desert. However, he's quick to give up on any amorous ambitions, seeing as Roslyn and Gay are instantly attracted to each other. For a little while, it seems like this hero of the Old West and fragile damsel will help each other out of their deep despondency. Such naïve hopes don't last long.
In one occasion, when Guido and Isabella return to the desert to visit the couple, Gay brings up the idea of rounding up wild mustangs to sell. Seeing as that endeavor's a three-men job, the group procures another pair of hands to add to their posse. He's Perce Howland, an old friend of Gay who's wasting his life competing in rodeos. Reckless and desperate, on the brink of overwhelming anguish and self-destruction, Perce joins the two other men and fits right in.
The next day, the hungover Gay and Guido, broken Perce and depressed Roslyn venture into the desert in search of the animals. What Monroe's doomed character doesn't know is that they're not after the horses for breeding or riding. They'll sell the horses to dogfood factories. She's horrified by this, by the harsh reality of old-time cowboys taking their wild-willed horses to the slaughterhouse, the majestic creatures turned to mincemeat and the heroes of the Old West made guides to the scaffold.
The western is one of the most knowingly romantic genres in American cinema, but The Misfits is as anti-romantic as they come, twisting the paradigms of film myth into something ugly and bruised, like a rotten fruit whose sweetness has turned acrid. Miller's writing, with all its emphatic symbolisms and well-articulated themes, is heavy-handed to a fault. Thankfully, the execution of this genre evisceration elevates The Misfits. John Huston's direction, in particular, is so dry and harsh it combats the florid bleakness of the text, a chisel that breaks away the common rock hiding a cinematic diamond.
Through his and DP Russel Metty's camera, the Nevada desert is transmuted into a barren landscape that looks as if it's never been kissed by human kindness or known the quality of mercy. Furthermore, Huston was a great director of actors. One would have to be to scrounge up a functioning human drama out of the nightmare that was The Misfits' shooting. Tirelessly documented by behind the scenes photoshoots, the making of this classic was a deep well of misery for all involved.
Huston might have been a gifted auteur, but he spent much time on the shoot drinking into unconsciousness during the day, spending the nights gambling. His actors followed the director's example with Monroe and Clift boozing their lives away and taking pills to make matters worse. As for Gable, the 59-year-old star clashed with his younger colleagues, unable to understand their "Method".
It was perhaps Gable's embittered stubbornness that drove him to insist on doing all his stunts, a taxing exercise that fustigated his sick heart. No wonder he expired less than two weeks after shooting wrapped. There's little evidence pointing towards Thelma Ritter's particular feelings during the shoot but it's probable that she too was miserable. How could she not? It was one of Hollywood history's most famous and most unhappy sets.
The gloom of cast and crew infects the screen, a pestilent disease that makes the hot desert look cold like a dead body already stiffened by rigor mortis. Seeing as The Misfits is a film essentially about suffering, all this off-screen agony was convenient. It lends a layer of caustic authenticity to the cinematic artifice of the project, drawing acidic truth from the madness of the cast member's off-screen lives. In many ways, the movie's as much about dissecting the western genre as it is an autopsy of its actors' stardom.
I'd love to wax rhapsodic about Monroe and Gable, both of whom offer audiences what's probably their best performances ever. Nonetheless, we're here to celebrate Clift and celebrate Clift we must. He might not be as extraordinary as his costars, but his supporting turn is quite impressive. The harsh shooting, the psychological games of John Huston, and all of the actor's well-known neurosis bring great weight to his screen presence as Perce Howland.
There's an aura of primordial sadness around Clift, so thick it's almost palpable. Even during the energetic preamble to the rodeo, he looks tired and as if he's on the brink of giving up on living all-together. What's Clift and what`s Perce is hard to parse out, but actor and character are so symbiotically connected one can't complain or say that this is a failure of characterization. The Misfits benefits from such confusion, from this lived-in fucked-up quality by which performer and role become one.
It would be easy to invest too much attention on Clift's appearance and visible exhaustion, but those aspects don't negate the meticulous acting he does throughout. Early on, there's a phone scene when Perce talks to his mother, that vibrates with need. A dialogue turns into a monologue, a confession, a canny self-mutilation of the soul that uses wavering voice and aborted motion as the tools of its horror.
Classifying what Clift does here as naturalism is too simplistic, for he transcends the natural. The mimesis of reality gives way to something more profound, where shattered psychology can find space to express all its sorrows and a look is never just a look, but a silent symphony of longing, of pleading for some joy that never comes. Abrasive and sickening, the performance is a glimmer of glory buried underneath mountains of misery, a ruined orgasm and a perfect fit for Clift at this point in his career. As this rodeo cowboy whose glory days are long gone, Monty is wickedly perfect.
It takes 47 minutes for Clift to enter this 2-hour movie, making for a decidedly supporting turn with not a lot of screen time. It's one of the few times the actor played second-fiddle to other, bigger stars, making for curiosity in his short, though rich, filmography. In 1961, Clift would feature in two projects, both of which would see him take on minor roles. This magnificent American tragedy was the first of the pair, while the second's a post-Holocaust courtroom drama which would earn him his fourth, and final, Oscar nomination. Of course, as you're well aware, that's a story for another time.
Tomorrow: Judgment at Nuremberg
Reader Comments (15)
On paper this must have sounded like a sure thing and great Oscar bait.
The Misfits is a masterpiece, but I always think of it as Gable or Monroe’s Picture (or occasionally Ritter’s during her splendid monologue about her ex), but it’s intriguing to think of it from Clift’s perspective-great article.
I liked this more than I expected based upon the “legacy” of what the film was known for. I was surprised to see Clift in such a smaller role since he was third billed, but nonetheless he does make an impression. Ritter was lovely in this, and I do wonder if there’ll ever be a retrospective or analysis of her career (and all those 6 Oscar nominations).
I'm shocked to say that today's rewatch brought an unexpected revelation: I think MC's performance in The Misfits is in many respects his best screen work, from start to finish.
There is not a false note in it, he is alive and immersed even when you only see him at the edge of the frame or in the background of a shot. Obviously, the small amount of total screen time compared to his leading roles makes it tricky to rank it, but as someone who is obsessed with his work in A Place in the Sun, From Here to Eternity and Red River and has seen sixteen of his films multiple times I was blown away watching what he does here as Perce (despite a reluctance to rewatch this truly depressing film): that opening phone call with his mother is just incredible (with those lines about his damaged face); that rodeo sequence; his chemistry with Monroe; and so much more. On top of that, this performance is completely different from anything else in his oeuvre.
And at the moment, it's my favorite. I'm shocked.
Underappreciated in its day and fortunately reassessed since this is a powerful film but as much as I love all the participants I rarely revisit the film. You have to be ready to wallow in despair since that's what the film is selling and that mood doesn't strike very often.
It's not so much that Monty's overshadowed by Gable and Monroe because when he's onscreen he is vivid and punches the broken Perce across but he really is a supporting character. I realize that his character has ridden a rough road so his being a wreck makes sense within the story but it's shocking how far Monty has fallen physically in the year between this and Wild River.
Thelma Ritter's part is small and she seemed to have missed most of the worst of the shoot but when she was working the next year in How the West Was Won she probably thought the rigors of that sprawling epic were a cakewalk compared to this!
It's a beautiful film enacted by legends but so grim.
This movie is one of the best examples of cinema as the addition of different parts. The direction is excellent , the technical aspects are really good ant the actors are great, maybe it wasn't a happy set but the result is not only interesting, its's impressive.
Monroe's best.
This series and others sure brought out the Thelma love on this site.
A Masterpiece,overlooked at the time and still not as appreciated as it should be,Monty was of course better a year later in Freud but he is so broken here and it suits the character.
I always wonder what kind of career MM would have had a Liz Taylor or a Bette Davis.
yet another reminder of how viciously Monroe had been snubbed by AMPAS of nominations and wins... had she survived, probably she would have been nominated later in the late 60s or early 70s, maybe winning and completely being interested in John Cassavettes films, as she would grow "older" for the main industry stardom... that ultimately would have played off to break-through the overlooking of Monroe - just think of Kim Bassinger's Oscar, and Kim wasn't half the star that Monroe was - and launched her to some career-recognition Award (plus she would have been warranted a Lifetime Achievement). It is a tragedy she died so young
Monroe would have gotten one of those career Oscars if she had not died young
John T -- Thank you for the kind words. It's odd how prominently he features on the movie's marketing and the similar billing to Monroe and Gable. They're the stars of the narrative and his role is decidedly supporting.
George P. -- I love Thelma Ritter and she's wonderful here, delivering the only morsel of glee that survives through the film. Her merriment at divorcing matters is exquisite. I'd love to revisit her nominations one day, especially her heartbreaking supporting turn in PICKUP ON SOUTH STREET.
Working stiff -- I think he's brilliant and would have nominated him for THE MISFITS instead of NUREMBERG. He might be my pick for that year's win too.
Jesus Alonso -- She was Oscar-worthy here, that's for sure. I'm a Monroe fan, to be honest, and would have nominated her many times.
Jaragon -- That's probably true, even if it's sad to ponder about what might have been.
Thank you all for the feedback.
Cláudio, you are such a gentleman. I really appreciate that!
I think Miller was a bit cruel here, using too many real life incidences in the screenplay, but I love this movie. It’s so sad but so poetic. I think the whole ensemble is perfect and I would have nominated all of them. Marilyn Monroe in particular leaves me breathless. While she is undoubtedly the biggest movie star of all time I think she’s still quite underrated as an actress.
So many outside factors lead to this film being overlooked or forgotten at the time of its release. Production went over time and budget and Monroe was blamed even though Huston was gambling away most of the money at nearby casinos. Gable did his own stunts and got beaten up quite a bit. He died after completing the film, but many said this movie killed him. The bad press and behind the scenes turmoil caused people to turn away from the film. After Gable and Monroe died, it was probably too soon to watch the movie. The audience felt like they were watching ghosts. But now that time has passed, I'm glad the film has been rediscovered. The behind the scenes drama is in the past and not as immediate for modern audiences and now we can appreciate what is on screen. It's a beautiful film and most of the actors are giving career best work.
I'm not much of a fan of this film. It's beautifully moody, but I found Marilyn overwrought here.