It was impossible for me to watch this simply as a film. These players loom so large in movie history and the story of the making of this film is so well known that mostly what I saw was the legends interacting in front of a camera.
The strongest impression I had was that she couldn't act at all. She had a limited repertoire of schticks that she employed constantly. By this time (1961) she had completely lost her ingenue looks, was some 25 pounds overweight and was completely unable to bring believability to her character. She was more annoying than anything else.
This was written by Arthur Miller, her estranged husband at the time. He wrote the script around what he perceived as her persona but she was so neurotic and unstable that to my eye she badly needed help. Help no one around her was able to provide.
Gable was fine here in his last role. So was Montgomery Clift. I didn't care for Eli Wallach's performance...he seemed too intense, too wired to be credible as a westerner. And Miller gave him some very clunky lines.
This has great historical value but as a film...not so much. Huston did a great job staging and editing the horse wrangling scenes at the end. But it was not enough to save it.
3
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