The Misfits is showing at the Princeton Garden Theatre next Wednesday, May 31st at 7 pm, as part of the Hollywood Summer Nights series.
“It’s rare for a non-western to turn into one of the greatest westerns of all time … What’s perhaps most astonishing is that three major Hollywood stars plus a top director and one of the three greatest American playwrights of all time combined to make an indie. There’s no high drama of the kind Hollywood usually requires … What reverberated was the acting, with each big star producing a scene of the highest quality, for pure emotional impact possibly unsurpassed in their entire careers.
This is probably the closest Monroe got to playing a character who reflected her inner turmoil … Without John Huston’s empathetic direction it would be unbearably sad, but with virtually nothing in the way of real plot he draws us inexorably in to their small lives. Given its budget and the box office potential of the stars, it was a flop on release. Now it’s a masterpiece.
However tragic or premature, few Hollywood stars could have gone out at the top with a picture of this quality as did Gable and Monroe.”
– Brian Hannan, The Magnificent 60s
The Marilyn Report 