John Huston's complex film about modern life in America, as evidenced in the former cowboy town of Reno, Nevada. Clark Gable is an aging, ruddy cowboy; Eli Wallach a grieving, aimless motor mechanic; Montgomery Clift a burnt-out rodeo rider; and Marilyn Monroe a showgirl in town to obtain a divorce, staying at the rooming house of Thelma Ritter. All the characters are out of joint with one another, yet their attempts at relating have a vital, sympathetic energy. Monroe's presence adds new life to the existence of all three men, but when they embark on the sordid project of rustling up “misfit” mustangs for the making of dog food, her gift for life turns into rebellion.
Huston comments on The Misfits: “The essence of The Misfits really concerns the environment, what civilization does in the way of tarnishing the life around us and our souls. These people represented the holdouts, as it were, against the stamped out factory-made article. The ones who were in revolt against this movement, but who didn't know it themselves, were pursued and harried and put-down the way horses were and made into pet food instead of ponies for children. It was really very painful having to create some of the scenes.... The film was in black-and-white. Color would be a distraction.... Picasso chose to do ‘Guernica' in black-and-white...(and) there are films which, I think, are better in black-and-white.”
The Misfits was the first screenplay of playwright Arthur Miller, who wrote Monroe's part with her in mind. It was also the final performance of Marilyn Monroe, who entered a sanitarium soon after the film's close; one of the last films of Montgomery Clift, who was even then going blind; and the very last film of Clark Gable, who “like the gentleman he was, finished his last shot in the picture and went home and died. Almost unbelievable” (John Huston).