The reviews for this book were great so I was really looking forward to reading it. It was promoted as being a fictional account of the making of The Misfits. What an amazing film and what a story. Over the years the tales from that difficult shoot have been legendary and the characters & relationships themselves were interesting enough in real life to make a behind the scenes account seem like a reasonably good idea, there’s enough material out there to conjure up a really good story. Sadly, the interest in this novelette quickly diminished as I read the authors assumptions about the characters involved, writing with very little sensitivity. Her portrays Marilyn as a slut, can’t write two line about Montgomery Clift without making a reference to his sexuality and can’t get away from the fact that Gable is a man of senior years, and as for Huston, well a gambler with an alcohol problem and very little regard for his actors ability, that is if they had any in the first place.
So instead of having this beautiful story about these characters all coming together to make a movie, we’re basically a witness to their assassinations in print. This at times reads more like a cheap pornographic novel, or something you’d read in Hustler magazine (note: I don’t say Playboy because at least it’s articles and story’s have a certain standard). And I don’t think he’s a particularly good writer. For instance, there’s a line that goes “Gable heard a red headed woman in the Mapes coffee shop say,” and I thought, mmmmm why did he write about the hair colour when he only heard her? Could he not have described her voice or accent or do all red heads sound the same? Little things like that didn’t help his skills as a story teller.
It never really does justice to the film or it’s stars and for the time it’s set in I don’t even think people spoke like that back then as I feel the dialogue used by the characters is too modern. I doubt if Monroe or Gable would have used the word “icon” to describe themselves. To me people didn’t really use that as a description until much later on, from the late 80’s & 90’s. They would have possibly used “legend” or “myth” at a push but Icon, no! So if you’re thinking of buying this book, don’t. Borrow it from your library but don’t waste your cash otherwise.
By Fraser Penney
