February 21, 2017 (XXXIV:4) John Huston, THE MISFITS (1961, 124 min) The online version of this handout—http://csac.buffalo.edu/goldenrodhandouts.html—contains working URLs. Director John Huston Writer Arthur Miller (short story, screenplay) Producers Frank E. Taylor, John Huston Music Alex North Cinematography Russell Metty Film Editing George Tomasini Art Direction Stephen B. Grimes, Bill Newberry Set Decoration Frank R. McKelvy Cast Clark Gable…Gay Langland Marilyn Monroe…Roslyn Taber Montgomery Clift…Perce Howland Thelma Ritter…Isabelle Steers Eli Wallach…Guido James Barton…Fletcher's Grandfather Kevin McCarthy…Raymond Taber they were convinced that if the American public saw Huston’s Estelle Winwood…Church Lady Collecting Money in Bar scenes of American soldiers crying and suffering what in those Peggy Barton…Young Bride days was called “shellshock” and “battle fatigue” they would Rex Bell…Old Cowboy have an even more difficult time getting Americans to go off and Ryall Bowker…Man in Bar get themselves killed in future wars. One military official Frank Fanelli Sr….Gambler at Bar accused Huston of being “anti-war,” to which he replied, “If I John Huston…Extra in Blackjack Scene ever make a pro-war film I hope they take me out and shoot me.” Bobby LaSalle…Bartender During his long career he made a number of real dogs e.g. Annie Philip Mitchell…Charles Steers (1982), Victory (1981), Phobia (1980), and The Macintosh Man Walter Ramage …Old Groom (1973), part of the price of being a director in the studio system. Ralph Roberts…Ambulance Driver at Rodeo He also made films that regularly turn up on all major critics’ Dennis Shaw…Fletcher - Young Boy in Bar lists of classics. Probably no director anywhere made so many J. Lewis Smith…Fresh Cowboy in Bar films of major works of literature. Some of his fine films are The Marietta Tree…Susan Dead (1987) based on James Joyce’s short story, Prizzi's Honor (1985), Under the Volcano (1984), Wise Blood (1979), The Man John Houston (b. August 5, 1906 in Nevada, Missouri—d. Who Would Be King (1975), The Misfits (1961), Moby Dick August 28, 1987) was a writer, painter, boxer, actor and, most (1956), Moulin Rouge (1952), The African Queen (1951), The famously, director. He directed 41 films over 46 years and co- Red Badge of Courage (1951), The Asphalt Jungle (1950) and adapted and acted in more than 20. He was a flamboyant The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948). The best Huston films raconteur, bon vivant, horseman, big-game hunter and eventually have lean, fast-paced scripts and vibrant plots and filmdom’s grand old maverick. His first film is the classic film characterizations, and many of them deal ironically with vanity, noir, The Maltese Falcon (1941). Soon after finishing it, he was avarice and unfulfilled quests. In them, nonconformists and drafted into the army, making documentaries for the Department misfits brave danger fatalistically in a world where women are of War with San Pietro (1945) noted as being one of the two or often peripheral. Among the filmmaker’s distinctive three best documentaries made by the US military during WW II. achievements was casting his father, Walter, in The Treasure of Another, Let There Be Light (1946), so frightened military the Sierra Madre in 1948 and his daughter Anjelica in Prizzi’s officials they kept it under lock and key for 25 years because Honor 37 years later, in roles for which each won an Academy Powell and Pressburger—THE RED SHOES—2 Award. He was given the American Film Institute’s Life Best Play and Best Author for Miller. Miller also was awarded Achievement Award in 1983. He also won the Razzie for Worst the 1949 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. Salesman also made lead Director for Annie. The film maker, who lived as hard and at actor Lee J. Cobb, as Willy Loman, an icon of the stage times as dangerously as the protagonists of his movies, rarely comparable to the Hamlet of John Barrymore: a synthesis of slowed his pace. Though he had suffered for decades from acute actor and role that created a legend that survives through the emphysema, which forced him in recent years to rely on oxygen bends of time. A contemporary classic was recognized, though tanks to help him breathe, he some critics complained that the play continued to smoke. Like Clark wasn't truly a tragedy, as Willy Loman Gable, Mr. Huston was married was such a pathetic soul. The fall of five times. He was divorced from such a small person as Loman could all his wives except one, who was not qualify as tragedy, as there was so killed in an auto crash in 1969 little height from which to fall. Miller, after a 10-year marital separation. a dedicated progressive and a man of Speaking of his wives right before integrity, never accepted the criticism. his passing, Huston told an As Willy's wife Linda said at his interviewer, “They were a mixed funeral, "Attention must be paid," bag: a schoolgirl, a gentlewoman, even to the little people who were a motion picture actress, a crucified alongside the capitalist gods ballerina and a crocodile.” Lauren in the pursuit of the American Dream. Bacall, a longtime friend, Miller never again attained the critical described him as “daring, heights nor smash Broadway success unpredictable, maddening, of Salesman, though he continued to mystifying and probably the most write fine plays that were appreciated charming man on earth.” by critics and audiences alike for another two decades. In fun facts: In Arthur Miller (b. October 17, his autobiography Timebends, Miller 1915 in Harlem, New York—d. recounts that he had written a February 10, 2005, age 89, in screenplay dealing with corruption on Roxbury, Connecticut) wrote the New York waterfront called The plays, screenplays, novels, short Hook. Kazan had agreed to direct it, stories, non-fiction, and an autobiography, most famously, Death and in 1951 they went to see Harry Cohn at Columbia Pictures of a Salesman and The Crucible. Miller's characters often suffer about making the picture. Cohn agreed in principle to make the from anxiety, depression, and guilt, and it was the genius of the picture, but his minions were troubled by the portrayal of corrupt writer to portray their pain and sorrow realistically, creating union officials. When Cohn asked that the antagonists of the works that were familiar, yet uncanny in their power to move an script be changed to Communists, Miller refused. Cohn sent audience. Miller's stature is based on his refusal to avoid moral Miller a letter telling him it was interesting that he had resisted and social issues in his writing, even when the personal cost was Columbia's desire to make the movie pro-American. Kazan later terrible. Miller is of Austrian-Jewish descent, whose father made a movie about corruption on the waterfront that did include manufactured women's coats, but whose business was devastated corrupt union officials, based on articles by Malcolm Johnson. by the Depression, seeding his son's disillusionment with the He asked Miller to write the script, but Miller declined due to his American Dream and those blue-sky-seeking Americans who disenchantment with Kazan's friendly testimony before the pursued it with both eyes focused on the Grail of Materialism. House Un-American Activities Committee. Budd Schulberg, a Due to his father's strained financial circumstances, Miller had to fellow HUAC informer, developed the story and wrote the script. work for tuition money to attend the University of Michigan. It The movie was produced by Sam Spiegel and distributed through was at Michigan that he wrote his first plays. They were Columbia. On the Waterfront (1954), which won eight Oscars, successes, earning him numerous student awards, including the including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Screenplay, is Avery Hopwood Award in Drama for No Villain in 1937. In considered a classic and was one of the first films named to the 1938, upon graduating from Michigan, he received a Theatre National Film Preservation Board's National Film Registry in Guild National Award and returned to New York, joining the 1989. Disenchanted with Kazan over his testimony before the Federal Theatre Project. In 1944, he made his Broadway debut House Un-American Activities Committee, the two parted with The Man Who Had All the Luck, a flop that lasted only four company when Kazan refused to direct The Crucible, Miller's performances. He then went on to publish two books, Situation parable of the witch hunts of Sen. Joseph McCarthy. Directed by Normal in and Focus, but it was in 1947 that his star became another Broadway legend, Jed Harris, the play won Miller the ascendant. His play All My Sons, directed by Elia Kazan, became 1953 Tony Award for Best Play. In 1956 that Miller made a hit on Broadway, running for 328 performances. Both Miller perhaps his most fateful personal decision, when married movie and Kazan received Tony Awards, and Miller won the New York siren-cum-legend Marilyn Monroe. With this marriage Miller Drama Critics Circle Award. It was a taste of what was to come. achieved a different type of fame, a pop culture status he Staged by Kazan, Death of a Salesman opened at the Morosco abhorred. It was a marriage doomed to fail, as Monroe was, in Theatre and ran for 742 performances. The play was the Miller's words, "highly self-destructive." Ever the bleak realist, sensation of the season, winning six Tony Awards, including in his autobiography Miller wrote that a marriage was a Powell and Pressburger—THE RED SHOES—3 conspiracy to keep out the light.