MovieChat Forums > The Misfits (1961) Discussion > Why did Marilyn hate the movie so much?

Why did Marilyn hate the movie so much?


Was she bitter about the obvious references to her, or did she feel that the script or the story line just wasn't good enough?

Also, does anyone know why her marriage with Arthur disintegrated? I know that he had a tendency to be impatient with her, and it seemed like he talked down to her. I just haven't really read major details about it. Oh, I forgot about the Yves Montand affair.

If that wouldn't have happened (the affair with Montand), would they have stayed married?

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Where did you hear that she hated it?

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Don't remember exactly - pretty sure it was a couple of books about her. She would get frustrated with the movie and take it out on Arthur, who she blamed for the whole thing.

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Yeah I have read the boards and I guess that is the consensus. Some even speculate Arthur sabotaged the screen play. I don't know (or care) if any of it is true, I thought it was a great film. However, its too bad we cannot ask MM why she did not like it just for posterity's sake.



"Morality is temporary. Wisdom is forever."

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She hated the film because Arthur Miller, her husband, went against her basic wishes and wrote about her. He not only wrote The Misfits for her, he wrote about her! She had made him promise NOT TO EVER WRITE ABOUT HER and he did it anyway.

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Marilyn hated the movie because Miller constantly changed the script, giving Marilyn little to no time to memorize pages upon pages of dialogue. She would stay up all night trying to memorize her parts, and sometimes Miller would again change the script by the next morning.
Marilyn's marriage with Miller deteriorated for several reasons. Many sources say that the main reason was because Miller wanted so much to have children, and he would always get angry whenever Marilyn miscarried. Marilyn once said that her marriage didn't work because what Miller wanted was a trophy wife. He just didn't want to accept and deal with Marilyn's flaws and inner demons.
Marilyn's dislike for the film could also be partly because of the way the people handled the horses during the climax of the film. She was known to be a big animal lover.

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The Miller/Monroe marriage was on the rocks before the Montand affair. I think the first cracks appeared when they went to England to film THE PRINCE AND THE SHOWGIRL. Arthur was undoubtedly offended by the hordes of screaming, drooling fans who met them at Heathrow. And for the first time, he actually saw how unprofessional she was--not showing up, blowing her lines, etc.
Like Joe DiMaggio, Arthur Miller was completely opposite of Marilyn. And while opposites may attract, they generally don't stay together very long.

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aah yes the montand affair.. not to mention she was in love with dimaggio.


... did you know that of all the husbands marilyn had, only dimaggio showed up to her funeral, and continued to put flowers on her grave until he died.. i love their story...



"you know what we got here? a mother***kin' charlie bronson!"

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Well, DiMaggio paid for the funeral. He had control over who was allowed to attend.

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When Norma was put into a mental hospital, she called him in tears. He showed up and said," I'm her to get MY WIFE out of here!!"

They were already divorced many years. He was devoted to her. Too bad be beat her.

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I'm watching many docs on Marilyn right now and they all say she hated what Arthur had written for her but they never say what it was she hated. This thread is the closest I have to an answer; she did not want him to write about her at all.

1. BVS 2. TWS 3. Avenger

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Yeah he seemed to really love her and be there when she needed him. I wish he didn't beat her too.

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Miller never beat MM. That was DiMaggio. MM had an affair with Yves Montand while she was married to Miller. She also tried to seduce Montgomery Cliff. Miller was enthralled with her at first and that dwindled over a period of time as he saw her as pitiable needy person who was destroying herself as well as him, his personal and professional life. She was ordering him around. He was carrying her suitcases. Waiting on her hand and foot. He developed a relationship with the photographer on set and after MM, married her.

BUT this movie highlights one of the best performances. Clark Gable’s. And MM was blank in this movie. Not interesting at all. As Bosley Crowther NY Times 1961 said, “there is really not much about her that is very exciting or interesting.” And yet in the dialogue, Miller has someone tell her: "When you smile, it's like the sun coming up." So you see the dichotomy.

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We are talking about DiMaggio not Miller.

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Yes. And I just realized it’s 7 years ago.

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Unfortunately, Marilyn Monroe was a bit of a hypocrite on the animal cruelty situation, as she owned fur coats, and she was not a vegetarian, either.

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I am formerly known as HillieBoliday....Member since May 2006

During the era of MM, wearing and owning fur coats were a status symbol in Hollywood, across America, and the entire world. A good many of the actresses of that time were major animal lovers; but they still wore them. At that time the sensibilities and mind-sets about wearing animal fur was not what it is today. I don't think she was a hypocrite; I just think she was not informed and educated about the cruelty of wearing animal fur like we are now. And possibly, the few who were against wearing animal fur back then; did not have the supporting voice of protest that we have today. I personally know a couple of people who vehemently protest the wearing of animal fur....and they are not vegetarians either.

"OOhhhooo....I'M GON' TELL MAMA!"

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Wearing fur coats, leather shoes and not being a vegetarian doesn't make 1 a hypocrite, she's just not a spoiled entitled pretentious brat.

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Being a vegetarian and passing on fur and leather doesn't make one a spoiled, entitled, pretentious brat. Attacking others for not making the same choices as one's self is what makes one a spoiled, entitled, pretentious brat!

And you, Vicky, sure do seem to be attacking others for failing to make the same choices as yourself...

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What the hell are you talking about?

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You being a bitch!

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Thanks for letting everyone know who and what you are, a hypocrite who can't read. Bye.

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Beeeeeyotch!

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Here's my theory: That Miller was writing a girl character that was more or less based on Marilyn herself... and every time Marilyn read her lines she knew that Miller still didn't understand her and didn't intend to start! I think he was more interested in his perceptions of her than the woman herself, as he proved when he wrote the dubious "After The Fall" (a semi-autobiographical play that I had to read in high school for some bizarre reason). And that's the problem with sharing your life with a writer, they might create a fictional version of you in their heads, and if they're as successful as Miller, they might share it with the world! Even after you're dead!

Plus, by all accounts, the shoot of the film was miserable. The Miller's marriage was falling apart, it was blazing hot and they were mostly out in the middle of Fuck-Nowhere Nevada, Montgomery Clift was drinking his career away and was hours late for his scenes, and Clark Gable was in declining health and would die after the filming completed. Legend has it that he never complained once, and went out of his way to be kind to his troubled co-stars, but he had to have been feeling pretty awful, adding yet another layer of misery to a miserable shoot.

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