Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/637797
26 CINEMONTAGE / Q1 2016 THIS QUARTER IN FILM HISTORY and tried to get her to fight through her problems with a fine performance. Monroe, however, would only discuss her performance with the personal acting coach she insisted upon for the production, Paula Strasberg, wife of Actors Studio director Lee Strasberg. Called "Black Bart" by the crew for dressing only in black in the searing heat, Strasberg was at one point barred from the set itself by the director. Meanwhile, Monroe's anxieties kept leading her back to the sleeping pills she thought she needed for a good night's sleep, making it more difficult for her to find a consistent thread in her performance the next day. Miller hoped making the film would help bring his wife and him closer together, but instead she moved out of their suite and moved in with acting coach Strasberg. Monroe would rage at him for his rewrites of the next day's scenes. And he knew Monroe's off-hand comment about her last scene with Gable — which would not be shot for weeks —was about their marriage: "Marilyn, with no evident emotion, almost as though it were just another script, said, 'What they really should do is break up at the end.'" Throughout the shoot, Gable was patient with the delays, partly because he was getting $25,000 for every day they went over schedule. Yet the well- seasoned professional was always gentle with the co-star 25 years his junior who had idolized him as a young girl. Graciously, he even kept visiting journalists entertained while she struggled to pull herself together for interviews. Aggravated with the delays, Huston distracted himself by staying up all night at the local craps tables. The next day, he would occasionally fall asleep in his director's chair and lose track of which scene he was shooting. Producer Taylor later told Gable biographer Lyn Tornabene that, at times like these, it was Gable's composure and good humor that served as the guiding spirit for the production. Despite his own drug dependency, Clift turned out to be a solidly reliable performer and Monroe formed a bond with the sensitive actor. With his help, she succeeded in completing a five-minute long conversation scene with him in six attempts, with two perfect takes. Ironically, Clift's drug use proved to be a serious hindrance to his performance as Freud (1962) in Huston's next feature. Five weeks into shooting, Metty expressed concern that Monroe's close-ups were clearly showing her drugged exhaustion. On August 27, the movie star was flown to a private hospital in Los Angeles to be weaned from barbiturates under the care of her personal physician. Using storyboards prepared by art director Stephen Grimes, second unit director Tom Shaw started shooting the horse roping scenes with stunt doubles on a dry lake bed east of Carson City, today officially known as Misfits Flat. Meanwhile, Huston went into the cutting room to work on the first cut of what had been shot with editor George Tomasini, ACE, best known for his collaboration with Alfred Hitchcock on nine films over 10 years. Using outtakes, the editor miraculously salvaged scenes of sustained dialogue, creating coherence from material marred by Monroe's paraphrased speeches and omissions of words and sentences. The actress returned to Reno on September 5 and filming resumed the next day. With call times set for noon every day, the physically demanding mustang scenes with the principal actors on Misfits Flat were completed slowly over about 15 days. Despite the heat, Gable insisted on doing some of the less strenuous stunts himself. Except for three days of retakes later in the month, October 17 was the last day on location and the company returned to Hollywood for shooting at Paramount Studios. Production wrapped on November 4, the 90th day of shooting — 40 days Arthur Miller and Marilyn Monroe on the set of The Misfits. United Artists/ Photofest