Trailer
Plot summary
In Reno, Nevada, Roslyn Taber waits out the six weeks of residency she needs to divorce her inattentive husband, Raymond. Her landlady, Isabelle, takes her to a cocktail lounge, where they meet Gay Langland, an aging cowboy, and Guido, who drives a tow truck. Guido mentions a house he started building for his late wife and never finished, and the group visits it. One evening they drink and dance, and Gay drives Roslyn back to Reno. She and Gay then settle into the house to finish the work, and he tells her how much he misses his children, from whom he is estranged. When Guido and Isabelle visit, Guido proposes catching wild mustangs to sell. At a rodeo in Dayton the group meets Perce Howland, a bronco rider and friend of Gay's, who joins them.
Cast
- Peggy Bartonas Young Bride (uncredited)
- Ryall Bowkeras Man in Bar (uncredited)
Show all 20 cast
- Frank Fanelli Sr.as Gambler at Bar (uncredited)
- Bobby LaSalleas Bartender (uncredited)
- Philip Mitchellas Charles Steers (uncredited)
- Walter Ramageas Old Groom (uncredited)
- Ralph Robertsas Ambulance Driver at Rodeo (uncredited)
- Dennis Shawas Fletcher (uncredited)
- J. Lewis Smithas Fresh Cowboy in Bar (uncredited)
- Marietta Treeas Susan (uncredited)
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about The Misfits (1961)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Huston said in a 1981 retrospective interview that he felt absolutely certain Marilyn Monroe was doomed, a conclusion he reached while working on the film. She was, he said, incapable of rescuing herself or of being rescued by anyone else, and they had to stop the picture while she went to a hospital for two weeks.
- Clark Gable insisted on doing some of his own stunts, though not the scene of being dragged 400 ft across the dry lake bed at more than 30 mph. After Gable's death, director John Huston said he would never have allowed him to do the more dangerous mustang stunts.
- Filming was completed on November 4, 1960, twelve days before Clark Gable's death, and the film was released on February 1, 1961, on what would have been Gable's 60th birthday.
- Huston shut down production in August 1960 when Monroe went to a hospital for relaxation and depression treatment, and some of her close-ups filmed after she was discharged were shot using limited soft focus.
- Veteran B-movie Western actor Rex Bell, who had been married to Clara Bow, made his final film appearance here in a brief cameo as an amusing elderly cowboy. Bell was lieutenant governor of Nevada at the time.
- Miller's assertion that the script was a valentine for Monroe helped inspire Alex Finlayson's docu-drama play Misfits, which premiered at the Royal Exchange Theatre in Manchester in 1996 with Lisa Eichhorn as Marilyn Monroe. Miller's last play, Finishing the Picture (2004), was based on the events of the making of the film.
