The Misfits

What do you get when you have two of Hollywoods biggest stars from the "golden age" in their last movie together? I mean their last movies period.

A parade of lost souls. Part western and part car wreck, on and off the screen. Three men fall in love with the same woman, written by Arthur Miller, Marilyn Monroe's husband at the time.

Starring Clark Gable, Marilyn Monroe, Montgomery Clift, and Eli Wallach. This was Gable and Monroe's last movie while Clift would film three more I believe before dieing.

This was a collision of the personal lives of these stars on the screen. When Eli Wallach talks about how he spent time in the war, designing his house but it never looked right until Rosyln came there. He says she has the gift of life. He toasts, "Here's to your life Roslyn, I hope it goes on forever", you know he is talking right to Monroe.

He actually seems to be tapping into something that was surrounding Marilyn, the tragic air about her. Her tumultous life. He seemed to know that she would be dead shortly afterwards and to live all she can right now.

You see Montgomery Clift as the hard drinking, hard living, screwed up apotime of the Hollywood star. He plays Perce however it just doesn't feel like he is playing a character, it is more like he is going to therapy on screen. Like he is baring his soul for all to see. You can read any biography about him to see all of the many many stories about him, who knows how many are true, maybe all maybe none.

Not that Eli Wallach isn't a tremendous star in his own right but this movie just wasn't about him as much as it is Clark Gable. The biggest star of the golden age. Bigger than life in every way. He defined living big. He was struggling finding roles after being the massive star of Mutiny on the Bounty, Gone with the Wind, and It Happened One Night (In which he won an Oscar).

This movie stands alone as the last movie featuring big albeit aging stars, signalling the end of an era. It really isn't about the story on the screen. Not at all, it is about the stars on the screen. The story is irrelevant and fleeting but the stars remain forever.