'The Misfits'

November 15, 2012 at 5:15PM
Clark Gable (at left) and Marilyn Monroe (right) are among several stars in the 1961 movie "The Misfits." Photo by Elliott Erwitt for Magnum Photos, and courtesy of PBS Television and Thirteen WNET New York.
Clark Gable nd Marilyn Monroe in the 1961 movie "The Misfits." (Magnum Photos/The Minnesota Star Tribune)

★★★ out of four stars

When: 7 p.m. Mon. Where: Riverview.

When Clark Gable died in 1960 at age 59, there were rumors that his heart attack was caused by the physical stress of shooting horse scenes for "The Misfits" in the Nevada desert heat. His trials were compounded by the erratic, let-'em-wait moods of co-star Marilyn Monroe and director John Huston's battle with alcohol. And yet there's a haze of doomed, elegiac romance about this production that gives it a special place in American film history. Arthur Miller wrote the sad-cowboy script for Monroe, his wife, giving her a showcase role as a fragile nature spirit among modern-day stockmen who wrangle mustangs for dog meat. Gable is a tender, stoic hand at the end of the line. COLIN COVERT

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