Production
The making of The Misfits was troublesome on several accounts, not the least of which were the 108 degree (42°C) heat of the northern Nevada desert and the breakdown of Monroe's marriage to writer Arthur Miller. Miller revised the script throughout the shoot as the concepts of the film developed.
Director Huston gambled and drank and occasionally fell asleep on the set. The production company had to cover some of his gambling losses. In a documentary about the making of The Misfits, Wallach told a story of Huston's directing a scene in which Wallach was at a bar with Gable. Huston told him that the most intoxicated he had ever been was the day before, even though he had seemed sober. Huston's lover, Marietta Peabody Tree, had an uncredited part.
Monroe was sinking further into alcohol and prescription drug abuse; according to Huston in a 1981 retrospective interview, he was "absolutely certain that she was doomed" while working on the film: "There was evidence right before me every day. She was incapable of rescuing herself or of being rescued by anyone else. And it affected her work. We had to stop the picture while she went to a hospital for two weeks." Huston shut down production in August 1960 to send Monroe to a hospital for detox. Close-ups after her release were shot using soft focus. Monroe was nearly always late to the set, sometimes not showing up at all. She spent her nights learning lines with drama coach Paula Strasberg. Monroe's confidant and masseur, Ralph Roberts, was cast as an ambulance attendant in the film's rodeo scene.
Gable insisted on doing his own stunts, including being dragged about 400 feet (120 m) across the dry lake bed at more than 30 miles per hour (48 km/h).
1930s Western actor Rex Bell (who was married to Clara Bow) made his final film appearance in a brief cameo as a cowboy. Bell was Lieutenant Governor of Nevada at the time.
Thomas B. Allen was assigned to create drawings of the film as it was made. Magnum Photos had staff photographers, including Inge Morath and Eve Arnold, assigned to document the making of The Misfits. Morath married Miller, Monroe's former husband, soon after the film was released.
During production, the cast's principals stayed at the Mapes Hotel in Reno. Film locations included the Washoe County Court House on Virginia Street and Quail Canyon, near Pyramid Lake. The bar scene wherein Monroe plays paddle ball and the rodeo scenes were filmed in Dayton, Nevada, northeast of Carson City. The climax of the film takes place during wrangling scenes on a Nevada dry lake 20 miles east of Dayton, near Stagecoach. The area today is known as "Misfits Flat".
Filming was completed on November 4, 1960, and The Misfits was released on February 1, 1961.
Read more about this topic: The Misfits (film)
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