The Misfits

The last film to feature Marilyn Monroe, The Misfits is a dramatic western written by Arthur Miller, who was the actress’s husband at the time. Monroe plays a recently divorced woman who encounters a group of men in the Nevada desert: a cowboy (Clark Gable, also in his final role), his adventurous friend (Eli Wallach) and a troubled, restless youth (Montgomery Clift). In a more restrained role, Marilyn appears free of her usual mannerisms, revealing an unusual vulnerability. An outlier in American film of the era, the film dispenses with Hollywood classicism, and while it was a commercial flop, today it is considered a modern milestone and a masterpiece of the 1960s.