Marilyn Monroe's final movie, The Misfits, was also one of the most controversial of her career, but viewers may not know the reasons why. She was only 36 when she died in 1962 of an overdose of barbiturates at her home, ruled a probable suicide. The iconic star has since become a symbol of cinema, classic Hollywood, and even glamor. If Monroe had lived, she would have risen to even bigger heights — and likely appeared in an Alfred Hitchcock movie, given his penchant for blondes. Off-screen, her marriages to Joe DiMaggio and Arthur Miller, as well as her looks and ditsy-blonde demeanor, were well-publicized by the press. The controversy of The Misfits was also well-known upon its release in 1961, but details are less familiar to audiences today.
Desiring acclaim and respect at the time, Monroe took a role in John Huston’s neo-Western drama about an aging rancher who debates selling his horse herd to the glue factory for extra cash. Monroe plays the rancher’s girlfriend, Roslyn, who is disgusted by his actions. The actress was frequently late to set during production and often showed up drunk or high on medication. The movie's realistic and emotional plot apparently took a lot out of her. Meanwhile, Huston did not get along with Monroe and wanted her off the picture. She was to next appear in director George Cukor's movie Something's Got to Give, but due to her premature death, The Misfits wound up being her final picture.
The Misfits has been critiqued and studied in the decades after its release because of its controversial significance in film history. Monroe’s co-star Clark Gable, a fellow screen legend best known for his role as Rhett Butler in Gone with the Wind, died of a heart attack just 10 days after the movie wrapped principal photography. Monroe would die nearly two years later, while Montgomery Clift would not appear in another hit after The Misfits and also died shortly after, in 1966. John Huston may have worked his actors too hard. The production also may have been cursed because it was allegedly shot on an indigenous burial ground. On top of that, a long-rumored nude scene with Monroe added to the lore of The Misfits. In 2018, the scene was finally confirmed and recovered after being cut from the movie, which would have been far too scandalous to include it at the time.
Shot in stark black and white in the hot and isolated Nevada desert, The Misfits was released on Feb 1, 1961, which would have been Gable's 60th birthday. The movie wasn't nominated for major awards, nor did it make much of an impact in pop culture at the time beyond its unusual subsequent deaths of its three leads. While West Side Story swept the Oscars for that year, critics have since championed The Misfits as one of the best of the year and celebrated it as containing the very best performances of Clift, Gable, and particularly Monroe, who proved that she had the acting chops to pull off such a dramatic and deep role. Fans have blamed Huston and the harsh production — which also happened to occur during Monroe’s marital difficulties with Miller that resulted in their divorce soon after filming ended — for putting her in the pained and helpless state that led to her death.
Monroe’s legacy has not wavered in the 60 years since. Countless biographies have explored her life, career, and especially her death. The latest, an equally controversial, NC-17-rated biopic called Blonde from writer-director Andrew Dominik and starring Ana de Armas as Monroe, is set to hit screens via Netflix in 2022, with the movie expected to explore the inner life of the tragic Hollywood icon. With that dramatic portrayal and more, fans and scholars will continue to dissect the complicated life of Marilyn Monroe for years to come, and the controversial production of her last work, The Misfits, will continue to always be a piece of the puzzle.