The Misfits, Marilyn Monroe’s final film, was written for her by her (ex) husband, the great American playwright Arthur Miller. 

Monroe stars alongside fellow greats Clark Gable and Montgomery Clift, and the movie has a poignant sadness about it seeing movie stars past their prime playing characters past theirs, and knowing it too. Gable died just after filming ended and before the release. Monroe apparently hated the movie and her own performance, and was dead herself within 2 years. 

The Misfits under-performed upon release, but has since been hailed as one of the classic movies of the 60s. It was a tough shoot, with director John Huston and the crew having to deal with both the Nevada desert heat and Monroe’s erratic behaviour and prescription drug use during the breakdown of her marriage to Miller.

Arthur Miller once came and gave a lecture at my university. He’s undoubtedly a great playwright (this is the man who wrote Death Of A Salesman, for starters), but I must admit while he was speaking all I could think was “this fella was married to Marilyn Monroe…” (which is probably not how he would want to be remembered).

This is a great little Belgian poster, plus a still of Gable. These can be found for sale as a lot here.