Les désaxés

I've always wanted to see this movie because of the legendary actors associated with it and yesterday I finally rented it. I can't say it is an entertaining movie, but it is certainly profound and stays with you.

Clark Gable, Marilyn Monroe and Montgomery Clift were all wonderful. There is something extra poignant about the casting of these three actors. It is like "misfits" playing misfits. Knowing that it is Clark Gable's and Marilyn Monroe's last film added to the aura of finality at the end. Marilyn Monroe definitely does not get the credit she deserves as the fine actress she was. Even her character is trying to get beyond the external first impression she makes on men.

It is the first film I've seen of Montgomery Clift's. What a fine actor! He brought enormous depth to his character--much of which was portrayed without speaking.

Once again, if you're looking for an entertaining film, you may be disappointed. If you're looking for an interesting blend of characters who, in many ways, are mirrors of the actors playing them, then rent the Misfits. It is packed with stars but not with glitzy star quality, just no-holds-barred, uninhibited acting.

To view "The Misfits" in 2006 turns out to be quite a chilling experience. Prophetically in its "doomness" - personal doomness that is. Arthur Miller writes, unwittingly, his wife's swan song and she sings it with a combination of uppers and downers. Pay attention to Eli Wallach describing Marilyn to Clark Gable. Was that Miller himself being particularly misogynistic or what hell was it? She talks about herself, they all talk about her. She is a hurricane right in the middle of a human storm. Montgomery Clift seems to be talking about himself too. The whole bloody thing is really close to the knuckle. Arid, depressing, slow and yet, riveting, funny, mesmerizing. "The Misfits" should be seen for a variety of reasons but to see Gable and Monroe sharing a black and white screen a short time before their deaths is an experience on itself.

THE MISFITS is a delicate gem of a film, poetic and harsh and as cold as those western stars on the horizon that Gable and Monroe drive toward at film's end. The title refers to the wild mustangs they hunt, but it also describes the 4 main characters, each lost in a world they hardly recognize. At one point Monroe points to a mountain vista and says "it's like a dream." Each of the characters is wounded and lost in some way. Marilyn Monroe plays a divorcée trying to figure out what to do next. Clark Gable plays a cowboy in a vanishing west. Montgomery Clift plays a rancher cheated out of his legacy when his mother remarries. Eli Wallach plays a guy whose life has come to a standstill after the death of his wife. The characters circle each other, trying to make connections, but their timing is always off. Gable and Monroe seem to find something until they go on the mustang hunt.

Gable is magnificent as the aging cowboy who fears "working for wages" as the final sign of giving in to the commonplace and losing the old west. But the old west is, of course, already lost. Most of the action takes place in and around Reno, the perfect symbol for what the west has become. His drunk scene (after he has seen his kids) is astonishing in its pain and ugliness. It's a great performance.

Monroe is stunning and gives a quiet and simple performance that shows what she could have done (had she lived). Leaving her "dumb blonde" persona in the dust, what we get here is Monroe the actress, and she's just plain terrific. Aside from the scene (done in a long shot) where she rages at the men after they have captured the horses, Monroe plays this character very quietly and with lots of small reactions (watch her eyes). It's a great performance.

Clift and Wallach do wonders with their characters and provide a lot of the tension since all three men pursue Monroe. Thelma Ritter is solid as Isabelle. Estelle Winwood has an odd role as the old lady collecting money. James Barton and Kevin McCarthy have small roles.

I think THE MISFITS is a must see for any serious film buff. The film collapsed under the weight of its publicity in 1961 and there was a huge backlash when Gable died within 2 weeks of finishing the film. Yet the film is gorgeous, a shimmering Arthur Miller poem to the worlds and people we've lost.

This movie is about despair. Despair at the passing of a way of life. Despair at disappointed hopes and dreams. Despair at the loss of a loved one, either through death, divorce or disinterest. Knowing that going in and if you don't mind downbeat films there are some really moving performances from a cast full of legends.

Heavy with gloom there is still much too admire though Miller's prose is at times heavy and tending towards pretension. Marilyn's woozy sexuality coming through a haze of pills and booze at times still suits her character's searching and displaced loneliness.

Clark Gable accepted his part after first choice Robert Mitchum passed. Mitchum would have been great of course and publicly stated he regretted not taking the role since he and Marilyn were longtime friends, before both were famous he had worked with her first husband, and he felt that around him she would have been able to pull herself together as she had on River of No Return. This was the end of the line for Gable and his weathered appearance and weariness actually suits the role better than Mitchum's ruggedness would have at that point. The film contains some of the best acting Clark ever did.

Clift and his sad broken looks make a powerful impact and Wallach scores well too but the great Thelma Ritter is somewhat shortchanged since she disappears about halfway through the picture. Her astringent tartness would have been most welcome later in the film when the real heavy going takes place.

I still remember when it was reported Clark Gable had had a heart attack shortly after completing The Misfits. It happened just before Election Day because there was a news item and it's mentioned in at least one Gable biography that he voted by absentee ballot in 1960. Shortly after that he died and the world was waiting the birth of his son and his last posthumous film.

No doubt about it Gable does look all of his 59 years in the Misfits. But he's still exudes that gruff animal magnetism that leaves you no doubt as to why Marilyn Monroe was finding him so sexy. It's an interesting and challenging role for Gable, his Gay Langland is a bitter multi-layered character, whose family has deserted him and his way of life is vanishing. All three of the men, Gable, Monty Clift, and Eli Wallach have a deathly fear of working for wages expressed often during The Misfits.

For Monty Clift it's more than fear. He's also bitter about being cheated out of his father's ranch by a stepfather who offers him wages. So he's taken to the rodeo circuit, but he's also past his prime in that dangerous sport.

Eli Wallach starts out as what we think is a deep sensitive portrayal, but as we go along we find there's less than meets the eye. He wants Marilyn Monroe real bad (who wouldn't) and it's clear he's just using some of his best lines in his quest for her.

Marilyn as eastern divorcée to be serves as the group's conscience when they start going after mustangs for dog food manufacturers. Quite illegally of course, but that's part of the challenge for this group. Lots of shots of Marilyn's bulges both front and rear are another good reason to see this film.

Towards the end the wild mustangs on the Nevada desert take over the film from the human actors. They are a kind of doppleganger for this group, they are also misfits with no place in the modern world for them except as canned dog food.

Those roping stunts and Clark Gable being dragged by a horse probably put a strain on his cardiovascular system. It's been written that Marilyn was the cause of his demise. Pure and utter nonsense. I can't believe John Huston the director let him do those scenes. Why wasn't a stunt double used? Marilyn Monroe was one royal pain to work with, what with all of her issues, but that surely had nothing to do with what happened to Gable.

The Misfits still holds up well after over 40 years. All of the cast can be proud of their work in that film.