Town recalls star-crossed movie

RENO -- Toni Westbrook-VanCleave was only 6, but she still recalls Marilyn Monroe strapping on a toy gun belt and playing cowboys and Indians with her brother while filming "The Misfits."

Like other residents of the Northern Nevada town of Dayton, she had no clue of the demons that drove Monroe to be consistently late on the set, causing frustrating delays for director John Huston and co-stars Clark Gable and Montgomery Clift.

"She was gorgeous, very sweet, naive," said VanCleave, who was a $10-a-day extra during a rodeo scene. "She wasn't snobby. She seemed real down to earth and friendly."

It has been 50 years since the last complete movie for Monroe and Gable was filmed in Dayton, about 40 miles southeast of Reno.

Many of its 250 residents turned out en masse in 1960 to be extras or watch the filming, and those who are still around rave about the cast's friendliness and accessibility.

"It was a big deal to have these Hollywood legends in town for a month or so. It's a source of pride for us," said Laura Tennant of the Historical Society of Dayton Valley.

Filmed almost exclusively around Dayton and Reno from July to October 1960, the movie was plagued by almost daily delays caused by Monroe's pill-popping to fall asleep and wake up, said Curtice Taylor, son of "Misfits" producer Frank Taylor, who would send his 12-year-old son to her trailer to check on her readiness.

He thought a child would be less threatening than an adult, said Taylor, who witnessed most of the filming .

"Nobody said anything to her about the delays. It could have made things worse. She was the star and she was incredibly vulnerable."

Eli Wallach, 94, the only surviving cast member, said Huston told the actors not to complain about Monroe's tardiness because it would cause her to cease functioning.

"Huston got us together and said he couldn't make the movie without Marilyn," Wallach said. "Marilyn had a lot of problems with time, but I never said anything that would make her unhappy. What could I do? She tried her best."

Unlike Monroe, Gable memorized his lines the night before and showed up on time each morning, Taylor said.

"Clark Gable was bored. He was going crazy with the delays," he said.

At the time, Huston realized the drugs were giving her a vacant look and taking away her ability to "seduce the camera," Taylor said.

"In one scene while walking down the street on Clift's arm in Dayton, she had the smile of a stoned person. It's not the 1,000-watt smile she usually had. The wattage wasn't there."

The delays helped make "The Misfits," written by her then-husband, Arthur Miller, one of the most expensive black-and-white films ever made. She and Miller divorced a short time later.

Monroe was troubled by an unhappy childhood, a miscarriage, the stress of doing three movies without rest and the pressure of tackling such serious material, Taylor said.

Despite an all-star cast and acclaimed director, "The Misfits" didn't live up to Frank Taylor's hopes for the "ultimate motion picture," said former Nevada state Archivist Guy Rocha.

The movie centers on an insecure, lonely divorcée played by Monroe, an aging but sensitive cowboy (Gable) and a troubled rodeo rider (Clift). It has developed a cult following since the deaths of its stars, who played characters much like themselves, Rocha said.

"What happens over time is this movie begins to get a following because of what happened after the filming," Rocha said. "The movie freezes Marilyn Monroe and Clark Gable in time, and has a haunting quality."

Just 12 days after filming ended, Gable died of a heart attack at age 59. Less than 21 months later, Monroe died of a drug overdose at age 36 in what was ruled a suicide. Clift appeared in several other films before he died at age 45 in 1966.