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The John Huston film 'The Misfits' remains Marilyn Monroe's final, completed appearance in a motion picture. Making the movie was like a trip to a salt mine for the entire cast…and for Marilyn the emotional impact was devastating. It left her depleted, defeated, depressed.
The whole endeavor was art imitating life for everyone involved…
'The Misfits' was Arthur Miller's warped "valentine" to Monroe…and their failing marriage. It would be a non-comedic role for Marilyn, one that allowed her to flex her chops and stage a bit of a Hollywood perception intervention. The personal and professional pressure Monroe was under was intensified by the location, the harsh, dry Nevada desert where they filmed.
Cast alongside the dark-hearted heartthrob Montgomery Clift and the "King" of the silver screen Clark Gable, ‘The Misfits’ was marquee gold. A tepid response at the box office, the loss of Gable (who suffered a fatal heart attack just two weeks after filming ended) and the collapse of her third marriage - Monroe soon found herself involuntarily committed to the Payne-Whitney Psychiatric Clinic in New York.
During that time Marilyn wrote a six page letter to her L.A. based psychiatrist Dr. Ralph Greenson. Letters similar to this one would be included in a forgotten archive Dr. Greenson's widow gifted to the UCLA Special Collections Dept. at the Charles E. Young Research Library. This collection, including research, session notes and sealed folders of notes re: Monroe - was given under one condition, the Monroe papers were to be left sealed until 2039.