The Misfits
Posted: September 17th, 2008, 10:57 am
The Misfits was an outstanding film, but is a bit eerie to watch as all the cast, save Eli Wallace, including Thelma Ritter died young.
Clark Gable had a massive heart attack not long after the completion of filming and died a few days later in hospital. It's been suggested Marylyn Monroe's unprofessionalism or more likely the fact he did his own stunts, roping a mustang, led to his attack. That got me thinking of Montgomerie Clift. Monty, who wasn't in the best of health did his own stunts in the later Defector, including swimming fully clothed in what I assume was a cold river. I wonder if doing that stunt in anyway contributed to his fatal heart attack at the young age of 46, though admittedly he probably would still have died young anyway regardless of the film.
The Misfits IMO seems to mirror both MM and in particulary Clift. Clift who a few yrs earlier nearly died in a horrific car accident (He was save by Elizabeth Taylor. I wonder if saving Clift's life was her finest hour, instead of any of her movies) Clift's character to me was a cowboy, whose body had ben broken due to yrs of rodeo riding. Then he was injured again in the movie with another rodeo fall.
MMs Rosalind was IMO a punch drunk divorcee, trying to pick up the pieces and get on with life. I wonder if this mirrored her divorce from Joe Dimagio and her marriage problems with Arthur Miller.
MM was terrific. She was no dumb blonde as she tore a strip of Wallace for saying he'd stop the roping of the mustangs, if she'd go of with him. To her he was being hypocritical.
One wonders what might have happened, if Gable and also Gary Cooper, who died at about the same age of 60, had another ten yrs. I think they would have matched the likes of John Wayne, who did a lot of good stuff in that period of his life.
I have spoken to admirers of Arthur Miller as regards his plays, Death Of A Salesman for example, but have never heard of The Misfits, a story he wrote for his wife MM. However, MM is as far as I believe on record as saying director John Huston tampered with the script and spoiled what her husband was trying to put across.
Clark Gable had a massive heart attack not long after the completion of filming and died a few days later in hospital. It's been suggested Marylyn Monroe's unprofessionalism or more likely the fact he did his own stunts, roping a mustang, led to his attack. That got me thinking of Montgomerie Clift. Monty, who wasn't in the best of health did his own stunts in the later Defector, including swimming fully clothed in what I assume was a cold river. I wonder if doing that stunt in anyway contributed to his fatal heart attack at the young age of 46, though admittedly he probably would still have died young anyway regardless of the film.
The Misfits IMO seems to mirror both MM and in particulary Clift. Clift who a few yrs earlier nearly died in a horrific car accident (He was save by Elizabeth Taylor. I wonder if saving Clift's life was her finest hour, instead of any of her movies) Clift's character to me was a cowboy, whose body had ben broken due to yrs of rodeo riding. Then he was injured again in the movie with another rodeo fall.
MMs Rosalind was IMO a punch drunk divorcee, trying to pick up the pieces and get on with life. I wonder if this mirrored her divorce from Joe Dimagio and her marriage problems with Arthur Miller.
MM was terrific. She was no dumb blonde as she tore a strip of Wallace for saying he'd stop the roping of the mustangs, if she'd go of with him. To her he was being hypocritical.
One wonders what might have happened, if Gable and also Gary Cooper, who died at about the same age of 60, had another ten yrs. I think they would have matched the likes of John Wayne, who did a lot of good stuff in that period of his life.
I have spoken to admirers of Arthur Miller as regards his plays, Death Of A Salesman for example, but have never heard of The Misfits, a story he wrote for his wife MM. However, MM is as far as I believe on record as saying director John Huston tampered with the script and spoiled what her husband was trying to put across.