CWC Classics: The Misfits

The Misfits (1961) brings together an extraordinary convergence of Hollywood legends, both behind and in front of the camera. Directed by John Huston and written by Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Arthur Miller, the film follows recently divorced Roslyn (Marilyn Monroe) as she drifts into the orbit of three aging cowboys (played by Clark Gable, Montgomery Clift, and Eli Wallach) ; the cowboys’ uneasy attempts at capturing wild mustangs mirror their larger struggles finding purpose in a rapidly changing American West. Filmed on location in the Nevada desert, The Misfits is remembered not only for its luminous performances and demystification of the Western genre, but also for its troubled production history and its status as the final completed film for both Monroe and Gable. Today, it stands as one of the most compelling and unconventional Westerns of its era, released at a moment when Hollywood itself was in a period of great transition. Emily Carman (Film and Media Studies, Chapman University) joined moderator Ross Melnick (interim director of the Carsey-Wolf Center) for a post-screening discussion of The Misfits. Emily Carman is an Associate Professor of Film and Media Studies in the Dodge College of Film and Media Arts and a Fellow at the Ferrucci Institute for Italian Experience and Research at Chapman University. Her research and teaching interests include American film history, (specifically Studio-era Classic Hollywood) , archival-based research, and media historiography, as well as film genres (film noir and the Western) , moving-image archival theory and practice, film censorship, gender and stardom, and media industry studies. She is author of Independent Stardom: Freelance Women in the Hollywood Studio System and co-editor of the anthology Hollywood and the Law. Her new book, forthcoming on University of Texas Press, A Misfit Cinema, examines how John Huston’s The Misfits is a transitional film between Classical and New Hollywood. Ross Melnick is Professor of Film and Media Studies at UC Santa Barbara and Interim Director of the Carsey-Wolf Center. He was named an Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Film Scholar and a National Endowment for the Humanities Fellow for his book Hollywood’s Embassies: How Movie Theaters Projected American Power Around the World (Columbia University Press, 2022) . He is the author of American Showman: Samuel ‘Roxy’ Rothafel and the Birth of the Entertainment Industry (CUP, 2012) , co-editor of Rediscovering U. S. Newsfilm: Cinema, Television, and the Archive (AFI/Routledge, 2018) , and co-author of Cinema Treasures (MBI, 2004) . His research has appeared in Journal of Cinema and Media Studies, Film History, The Moving Image, Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television, and in numerous other journals and edited collections. This event is sponsored by the Carsey-Wolf Center and the James Hayman (’75) fund for CWC Classics. The CWC Classics program celebrates cinema’s rich history, bringing classic films back to the big screen for critical viewing and discussion. These events feature filmmakers, academics, and professionals who can contextualize the production and historical impact of the films. The series occasionally presents classic films in their original 16 or 35 mm formats. CWC Classics events celebrate the history and significance of cinema’s enduring legacy.