As a Monroe fan and film collector, I'm disappointed that none of her pictures have been released to DVD. However, two were released to Divx shortly before the format's demise: Some Like It Hot, and The Misfits, the last picture both she and Clark Gable completed. I had a chance to play the latter last weekend, and decided to use it as the subject of my first review.

A new divorcee (Roslyn Taber - Monroe) and her friend Thelma Ritter (Steers) are in a Reno casino when they encounter a reclusive cowboy Langland (Gable) and a recently-widowed towtruck driver Guido( Wallach). They all end up going to Guido's disused house outside of town for a party, where Taber is convinced to stay in the area for a while, instead of returning home. Afterwards, Langland and Guido concoct a plan to capture some wild horses to sell to a pet food producer. To realize the scheme, they venture into town and enlist the aid of an old acquaintance, beat-up rodeo rider Howland (Clift). Howland is just about to enter a rodeo, and when he does, he is injured. This horrifies Taber, as do several other aspects of rural Western life. After this, the big climax comes when Taber travels with Langland, Guido, Howland into the desert to capture the wild horses, and ends up confronting the cowboys over the morality of the capturing and destruction of free, wild things for commercial gain.

This picture has some great shots of 1960-era Reno street scenes and casino interiors packed with vintage electro-mechanical slot machines. It also provides a glimpse into an era when Reno was the fashionable place for gambling in Nevada, and the heartland of the state of Nevada. In contrast to Las Vegas, which has been mostly built up over the last 25 years, Reno was a small city in 1961. Much of that still in place, and there are some familiar scenes in the picture, like the bridges over the Truckee River (into which divorcees would throw their wedding rings as a symbol of their new independence).

The transfer quality is sharp, although I would have preferred it in widescreen. The storyline is thought-provoking, as well as being a window into a very different past, a pre-big government one, where some states were literally wide-open, while others legislated morality heavily.

Update: MGM released The Misfits to DVD in the summer of 2001. The disc has a 1.66:1 letterboxed transfer, a theatrical trailer, and optional French and Spanish subtitles. Although extras are sparse, the disc is attractively priced, being available for $15 delivered from some e-tailers.

• - full-frame
• - scene selection (27 chapters)
• - mono - black & white
• - run time of 205 minutes