Walking Wounded: The Misfits

”Roslyn: How do you find your way back in the dark?”
Gay: “Just head for that big star straight on. The highway's under it - it'll take us right home.”

“The nail that sticks up gets hammered down” is an old adage. The Misfits reinforces the age-old wisdom of how the world doesn’t stop for people unwilling or unable to change.

The Misfits is a character study. It zeroes in on a handful of men that life has passed by - an aging cowboy with no cows to punch; a mechanic unable to cope with the loss of his wife; and a punch-drunk rodeo rider still tied to his mother’s apron strings. All of these lost souls are thrown together with a melancholy divorcee who is a genuine knockout. A film pregnant with emotion, and most of that negative and introspective, the gloomy tone makes it a thorny watch except for one in the best of spirits.

Story by Arthur Miller, who I’m sure thought he had written “the great American novel,” the symbolism is a little heavy handed and obvious but direction by the great John Huston (The Maltese Falcon, Treasure of the Sierra Madre) coaxes the best out of the performers and makes it a worthwhile experience.

Filmed in Nevada, The Misfits stakes Marilyn Monroe, at her most ripe and luscious against the harsh backdrop of a land that grinds women up. Populating that land are cowboys, a fast dying breed who long to live free and can’t understand the encroachments of civilization. The worst sin possible by their code is to work for wages. Their solution is to capture wild horses and sell them to the feed dealer, or maybe to ride rodeo and win money by outlasting the other contestants. To cope with their meager existence they fuel their waking moments with plentiful applications of cheap whiskey, sometimes in a place with a sawdust floor, sometimes straight from the bottle. The harsh practicality of these men who live for the moment, often taking risks in their violent pursuits, is brought smack up against the childlike idealism of Marilyn’s character Roslyn.

Gay Langland (Clark Gable) is the aging cowboy Roslyn chooses after being approached by all three men in their various ways. Guido (Eli Wallach; The Magnificent Seven, The Good, the Bad, & the Ugly) is a mopey widower who tries to gain Roslyn’s sympathy through his tales of woe, and Perce (Montgomery Clift; Red River, Judgment at Nuremberg) is a younger rodeo rider who has been kicked in the head once too often.

The performances are all excellent and absorbing with great support from Thelma Ritter as Roslyn’s sardonic friend who likes cowboys despite their limitations and Estelle Winwood memorable as a charity worker who floats through the Reno saloons like a malignant harpy seeking cash donations for the Lord.

Black and white cinematography by Russell Metty (Touch of Evil, Spartacus) makes the moon-like landscape of Nevada almost inviting and the rugged faces, especially Clark Gable’s, a map of character. Marilyn Monroe is filmed in soft focus in contrast to the harsh glare reflected on the men. The dramatic score is by Alex North (Streetcar Named Desire, Cleopatra, Spartacus) is well suited to the atmosphere.

The Misfits is an ill-starred movie in that Clark Gable and Marilyn Monroe would never make another film, Gable suffering a heart attack and dying a mere 11 days after shooting was wrapped and Monroe a year later. Montgomery Clift died soon after, with this film his last memorable appearance.

The MGM DVD clocks in at 125 minutes and is presented in Black and White in the 1.66: 1 theatrical format. As is true for most of the MGM lineup, the DVD sports very few extras, English, Spanish, and French subtitles being the extent.

Other modern westerns showing the end of the wide open spaces that you’ll want to see are

Kirk Douglas in Lonely Are the Brave

Paul Newman in Hud

See a good film tonight!







Recommended:
Yes

Viewing Format: DVD
Video Occasion: Fit for Friday Evening