MovieChat Forums > The Misfits (1961) Discussion > What was it with Monroe and Gable?

What was it with Monroe and Gable?


Does anyone know what was it about Maylin's behavior that made her so hard to work with in this film?. Gable said, very ironically, that working with her almost gave him a heart attack and that he had never been happier when a film ended. But how did she actually behave on the set?

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She was consistantly late on set, sometimes never appeared, and occassionally had trouble with her lines. The end result, however, is a marvellous film that displays the best of both stars, and had Marilyn gotten out of the rut she was in, I'd like to have seen her develop more as an actress.

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Marilyn was addicted to dangerous amounts of prescription drugs. There is also an argument that the couple of shutdowns of the set had more to do with Houstons chronic gambling than her addiction. But it is surprising that she could stand up considering her problems

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I guess this may be a funny way of putting this, but at least she didn't end up as the same pathetic shell as Judy Garland and Elvis. Sure, her fetters were proving unshakable, and privately, she was in trouble, but looking at her in The Misfits, she was as beautiful and sexy as ever...

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So if your all screwed up but look good being screwed up then everything is great, but if your all screwed up and look bad then your a pathetic shell?
You have the mindset of a top notch Hollywood producer!

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I never said that ... at least that's not how I meant for it to sound.

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Nope, that's not what was said. It would be better paraphrased as: "It's better to look good than bad, even if you're all screwed up."

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not "your", but "you're".....every time you used it! remember, it's a shortened version of "you are". when you use "your" it's something that belongs to YOU.
(shocking how many times i've seen this in public places, like stores, advertisements, commentaries, movies, etc, where you would think people that had to project a professional image would have checked......)
LOL
otherwise, i agree that people let WAY too much slip by, if you LOOK good....

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gone was the hard edge of 1050s glamour. Soft focus notwithstanding, I thought she was her most vulnerable and accessible in this film. Gable had aged incredibly well and the two of them together is quite something . . . in eye appeal. The film is not a major success; but I have always loved it for the way those two looked . . . and some scenes between them that were so natural they could have been improvs.

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>>> at least she didn't end up as the same pathetic shell as Judy Garland and Elvis

I'm reading some books about her and I think she did.


It should be against the law to use 'LOL'; unless you really did LOL!

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Yeah, she was often times late, remembering lines, but let's not forget that she was also going through rough times, if not the divorce, with Arthur Miller. I read somewhere that she sometimes got a little frustrated because of the lines Arthur "wrote for her." It was well known that the screenplay was written for her, and obviously about her and their relationship. She was an extremely fragile person, and took a lot of things to heart too. I could write a whole friken' thesis on this so I'll just stop now;)

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I never got why people said she looked bad in this film. I think she's as beautiful as ever. Everyone says her weight gain was noticable, but not to me.

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Gable died.......Monroe died.......yeah......that sums it up!!!

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Gable never hated Marilyn but at the beginning of filming he was quite upset with her for always being late. He spoke to Marilyn and he realized that she was troubled and wasn't holding up production purposely so he understood and it was never bought up again. Psycho_Rooster was right, Arthur began writing scenes based on what he read in MM's diary and that really upset her so Clark refused to do those scenes.

Wait a minute! I smell liquor on my breath: You're drunk!

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I would recommend Marilyn Monroe: The Biography, by Donald Spoto. He wrote
that the director John Huston left the set periodically for gambling, adding to the time and expenses. Also, he and Arthur Miller were constantly changing the script. These changes put an extra burden on Monroe. She hated the revised scene where she is shown at a distance, shouting in fury. According to Spoto, she told someone that she appeared to be "crazy, screaming nuts." Before I knew she felt that way, her yelling at the top of her lungs looked overdone. But that was not her fault.

Monroe was not all she should have been as an actress. Her inconsiderate habits certainly did not help anyone with whom she worked. But Spoto also points out Gable's habit of smoking three packs of cigarettes a day for thirty years. Perhaps it is forgotten that months after his death, when Monroe was being blamed for Gable's heart failure, his widow, Kay, came to her defense.

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Yeah Marilyn used to be late all the time so Clark got bored and decided to do his own stunts instead of "sitting and do nothing"

But she wasn't the one who got him killed, Clark drank and smoked A LOT, especially after Carol died, yes doing his own stunts when his heart was already a mess was a dumb idea but you know.. I think he died too young, but whatever...

Also Marilyn admired (people say that she was in love with him, that once she even heard him say "i love you" or something like that and went nuts, Clark never said that) him so much, that when she found out he died and people started blaming her, she tried to kill herself. Kay invited her to her child's baptism or something like that to show people that she was innocent and that Clark liked her.

... Viva Clark Gable, el eterno y único Rey de Hollywood

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This film is incredibly wonderful, and the acting is elegantly put together. Yes, most of the cast did have problems and it was the final film for 3 of them. But the film was completed nontheless. And what a film it turned out to be. As said before, Marilyn was notorious for being late to sets, awards even her own dinner parties. But when you look like MM did, you'd want to put a lot of time and effort into it. I know people said that deep down she was a narcissist, maybe she was. (Sorry going a little off topic.) Her pill addiction was unfortunate, but most of Hollywood Golden age was either drinking or on something... said to say but sadly true. Just look at the cast of Misfits.

"Say, is it alright over the you-know-what?" "It's wonderful over the you-know-what."

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Actually all narcissists are insecure deep down.

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Yes, it was the final film for Gable and MM, but who is the third person? If it's Monty Clift, let me say that he did several films after THE MISFITS.

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marilyn knew of gable's storied python in his pants and did her best to divert attention away from what she really wanted....she was a very sharp cookie except when it came to men...

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Hmmm, that's a 180 from what I have read. She wanted to, but he wasn't interested, he was preoccupied with the baby on the way. And her emotional hang ups confused him.

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Hi BlondeVixen,

Agreed. Poor Marilyn's addition issues were certainly no turn-on. Gable was a total professional and was polite to everyone involved but was overjoyed when filming was completed.

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The "heart attack" remark surfaced many years after Marilyn's own death, and I tend to dismiss it. Gable--like everybody else in the industry--knew that Monroe had terrible problems that made working with her challenging.

He was very tender towards her, and there are hundreds of wonderful candid shots from the "Misfits" set of MM and Gable laughing and talking, hugging, etc. I think he understood that the difficulties she caused were, by then, beyond her ability to control.

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Olivier was more than excited, he admitted in his memoirs that after they met in New York, he was wildly smitten with her. But upon her arrival in England--now a married woman-- he disregarded everything he'd been told about her methods and habits--"let her find her performance and she will be magic"-- and demanded she behave like "the other actors." He loathed The Method. The Miller marriage was already in trouble, she miscarried, and since it was HER production, she felt disrespected by her employee, Olivier, and behaved badly.

Gable was an old hand. He knew all the scuttlebutt about Marilyn and was patient and kind. He also left the set promptly at five, no matter what time MM had arrived. He insisted on doing his own stunts.

Curtis had known MM previously. She was not overly fond of him, but didn't hate him--she felt he was a crude opportunist. (A critique shared by his ex-wives and children.) But even after the "Hitler" remark, she never slammed him. She referenced that comment in her last interview, but called him "some actor..." Clearly it had hurt her. And no matter Curtis said later on, it was no joke. he certainly never apologized to her while she was still alive.

Monroe was difficult to work with; her nerves caused her to vomit before leaving her dressing room, or break out in hives. By the time she cranked up her courage to arrive on set, she was a mess and her director and fellow actors were just as tense, justifiably. Movie-making is tedious and difficult. But nothing could happen unless she was there. She knew it, and suffered more because no doubt she could feel the anger, but that was her only way of working. Her coaching from Paula and Lee acerbated her fears, which was good for them, convincing her she was nothing without their support.

Interestingly, even toward the end, she was relaxed, comfortable and on-time when she had to perform on location in front of a crowd of non-judgmental strangers. Billy Wilder was amazed during "Hot" that all the location sequences--on the beach, the pier, etc., were done without extensive retakes or delays. But, once she was back in the studio...

A man named Gene Allen who worked with George Cukor, said this: "She was not difficult ON the set. She wasn't a prima donna, she joked around with the crew and was a lot of fun." Which was fine, but couldn't make up for the lateness, no matter the reason.

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Just a rebuttal to a couple of comments - Marilyn did NOT want to sleep with Gable - she saw him as a father figure, and he knew this, and treated her very paternally.

"My car is outside."
"Naturally."

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yes, marilyn monroe never knew who is her father, she only knew he worked in hollywood as an actor. she suspected clark could be the one and was happy to work with him - this was in a book or film about her.

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