History Trivia / TheMisfits

* SwanSong: This was Creator/ClarkGable's final film. He had been in poor health for quite some time and it is believed that the strain of this film contributed to his death. It was also Creator/MarilynMonroe's last completed film before her death (her next film was the uncompleted screwball comedy ''Something's Gotta Give'').

* WhatCouldHaveBeen: Creator/JohnHuston originally wanted Creator/RobertMitchum to play Gay Langland but Mitchum didn't like the script and turned it down. Huston and Creator/ArthurMiller rewrote the script, but by the time Mitchum got to see the rewrite he had committed to another film. The role was instead offered to Creator/ClarkGable, who took it.

** Among the other cast members, Clift had been struggling with drug problems ever since he had been seriously injured in a car accident in 1956, and he and Monroe required onset doctors. Monroe allegedly said of working with Clift, "It's good to meet someone who's in worse shape than I am."[[note]] Huston cast Clift in the lead role in his next film, ''Freud: The Secret Passion'', and for that film, it was Clift's drug problems that caused the shoot to go over time and over budget, rendering him uninsurable and unemployable. He only made one other film, the largely forgotten ''The Defector'', in an attempt to show that he was fit to play the male lead in Huston's ''Reflections in a Golden Eye'' opposite his close friend Creator/ElizabethTaylor; he died before filming began on the latter. His final conversation with anyone before his death came when he told his housekeeper "Absolutely ''not!''" when she asked if he wanted to watch a TV screening of ''The Misfits'' that evening.[[/note]] Thelma Ritter's health problems were much more minor, as she was rushed to hospital after suffering from exhaustion as the shoot shuddered to a close. d to get the film into cinemas before the end of December to make Gable eligible for a posthumous Best Actor nomination at the following year's Oscars, but post-production had only just begun, and the film did not have a musical score - composer Alex North had not even seen a rough cut of the film, so he had no idea what he was writing for. By early December, it became apparent that the film would not be ready by the end of the year, and although North finished writing and recording the score in just three weeks, the film was released in February 1961, and Huston's hopes of securing Gable a posthumous Oscar nomination were dashed.[[note]] The only nomination the film received was a Director's Guild of America nomination for Huston. He lost to Jerome Robbins, Creator/RobertWise, and Robert Relyea for ''Film/WestSideStory''.[[/note]]
* WagTheDirector: C

** In 2004, Danzig tried to arrange for a Misfits reunion with Jerry Only and Doyle. Doyle was on board but Jerry Only was against it as he preferred covering '50s pop songs instead. Instead, Doyle occasionally joins Danzig onstage for Misfits mini-sets, which finally came to a show with the 90s Misfits line-up (minus Jerry Only) opening for Danzig, who performed classic songs in the middle of his set. Only's response to this proposal [[TheScrappy has not made him popular with the fans.]]
** Davey Havok of {{Music/AFI}} was proposed by Jerry Only as the new vocalist of the band after Michael Graves left; however, Havok was busy working on ''Sing The Sorrow'' and had found his own band in AFI, and turned down the proposal.
** The Danzig/Only/Doyle reunion [[CueTheFlyingPigs finally happened]] on September 4th, 2016 at Riot Fest Denver, with a second show set for September 16th.

* RealLife/MeanCharacterNiceActor: Creator/ClarkGable, playing the disturbed and obsessive Gay, was in real life "an inordinately shy man who enjoyed the camaraderie of his fellow actors", according to Creator/EliWallach.
** Wallach himself, who played the equally obsessive Guido, was a warm, friendly, sociable, personable man.

** Creator/EliWallach, Creator/ArthurMiller and Creator/JohnHuston attended numerous conferences rewriting the script so that Guido was a sort of hero, Roslyn was a prostitute and Gay was an alcoholic bum. Creator/ClarkGable protested and the ideas were scrapped.

** Creator/EliWallach, unlike the rest of the cast, had no health problems, but he, like the rest of them, had a difficult time shooting the film. He was the victim of a practical joke from the crew, who sprayed black oil in his face instead of motor oil as was scripted and suggested [[Film/TheJazzSinger he sing "Mammy"]]; one DeathGlare from Eli and no one dared to cross him again. Though he tried to stay friends with Creator/MarilynMonroe, they competed with each other on set, and their friendship falling apart. When he took his children, whom she used to babysit, to see her, she took one look at him and his family and shut the door on him. After Monroe had an argument with Arthur Miller, she ran into Wallach at the hotel, and the last words she ever said to him were, "Oh, you Jewish men!"

** Creator/EliWallach, unlike the rest of the cast, had no health problems, but he, like the rest of them, had a difficult time shooting the film. He received a verbal jab from the cinematographer about him not having a career. He was the victim of a practical joke from the crew, who sprayed black oil in his face instead of motor oil as was scripted and suggested [[Film/TheJazzSinger he sing "Mammy"]]; one DeathGlare from Eli and no one dared to cross him again. His friendship with Monroe was falling apart. When he took his children, whom she used to babysit, to see her, she took one look at him and his family and shut the door on him. After Monroe had an argument with Arthur Miller, she ran into Wallach at the hotel, and the last words she ever said to him were, "Oh, you Jewish men!"

** At first, Wallach and Creator/ClarkGable didn't get on.They were so uncomfortable with each other that at first they had trouble remembering lines in their scenes together. Eventually, they developed a grudging respect, though each kidded the other relentlessly. Wallach would jokingly ask, "Hey, King, can you lower my taxes?", while Gable once quipped that they were having boiled ham for lunch in Wallach's honor.

* WagTheDirector: Creator/MarilynMonroe reputedly nagged Creator/ArthurMiller to cut scenes featuring Creator/EliWallach's character, Guido, for fear that [[AlwaysSomeoneBetter he would upstage her own performance]]. He arguably ended up doing so anyway.

* WagTheDirector: Creator/MarilynMonroe reputedly nagged Creator/ArthurMiller to cut scenes featuring Creator/EliWallach's character, Guido, for fear that he would upstage her own performance. He arguably ended up doing so anyway.

* BillingDisplacement: Creator/EliWallach's role in the movie is second in importance to Creator/ClarkGable's, yet he's one of the last to be billed in the opening credits and is hardly billed at all on the poster.

* CreatorBreakdown: Creator/MarilynMonroe's marriage to Creator/ArthurMiller disintegrated during production. Both she and Creator/MontgomeryClift were battling substance abuse issues.

** The only problem Gable had with Creator/MontgomeryClift occurred while filming a scene driving to the rodeo. In his excitement, Clift hammered on Gable's back, and the King asked him not to do it again, as he had back problems. Even when Gable showed Clift the black and blue marks his blows were causing, it didn't seem to matter. The next time Clift hit him on the back, Gable yelled, "I'm going to hang one on you, you little bastard, if you do that again!" Clift burst into tears.

* HostilityOnTheSet: Eli Wallach, unlike the rest of the cast, had no health problems, but he, like the rest of them, had a difficult time shooting the film. He received a verbal jab from the cinematographer about him not having a career. He was the victim of a practical joke from the crew, who sprayed black oil in his face instead of motor oil as was scripted and suggested [[Film/TheJazzSinger he sing "Mammy"]]; one DeathGlare from Eli and no one dared to cross him again. His friendship with Monroe was falling apart. When he took his children, whom she used to babysit, to see her, she took one look at him and his family and shut the door on him. After Monroe had an argument with Arthur Miller, she ran into Wallach at the hotel, and the last words she ever said to him were, "Oh, you Jewish men!"
** After Gable's funeral in November 1960, Huston, Miller, and producer Frank Taylor wante

** Among the other cast members, Clift had been struggling with drug problems ever since he had been seriously injured in a car accident in 1956, and he and Monroe required onset doctors. Monroe allegedly said of working with Clift, "It's good to meet someone who's in worse shape than I am."[[note]] Huston cast Clift in the lead role in his next film, ''Freud: The Secret Passion'', and for that film, it was Clift's drug problems that caused the shoot to go over time and over budget, rendering him uninsurable and unemployable. He only made one other film, the largely forgotten ''The Defector'', in an attempt to show that he was fit to play the male lead in Huston's ''Reflections in a Golden Eye'' opposite his close friend Creator/ElizabethTaylor; he died before filming began on the latter. His final conversation with anyone before his death came when he told his housekeeper "Absolutely ''not!''" when she asked if he wanted to watch a TV screening of ''The Misfits'' that evening.[[/note]] Thelma Ritter's health problems were much more minor, as she was rushed to hospital after suffering from exhaustion as the shoot shuddered to a close. Eli Wallach was the healthiest of the main cast members, but he, like the rest of them, had a difficult time shooting the film. He received a verbal jab from the cinematographer about him not having a career, was the victim of a practical joke from the crew, who sprayed black oil in his face instead of motor oil as was scripted [[note]]One DeathGlare from Eli and no one dared to cross him again[[/note]] and his friendship with Monroe was falling apart.
** After Gable's funeral in November 1960, Huston, Miller, and producer Frank Taylor wanted to get the film into cinemas before the end of December to make Gable eligible for a posthumous Best Actor nomination at the following year's Oscars, but post-production had only just begun, and the film did not have a musical score - composer Alex North had not even seen a rough cut of the film, so he had no idea what he was writing for. By early December, it became apparent that the film would not be ready by the end of the year, and although North finished writing and recording the score in just three weeks, the film was released in February 1961, and Huston's hopes of securing Gable a posthumous Oscar nomination were dashed.[[note]] The only nomination the film received was a Director's Guild of America nomination for Huston. He lost to Jerome Robbins, Creator/RobertWise, and Robert Relyea for ''Film/WestSideStory''.[[/note]]

* AllThereInTheManual: Guido's last name is actually Racanelli.

* CreatorBreakdown: Creator/MarilynMonroe's marriage to Creator/ArthurMiller disintegrated during production. Both she and Montgomery Clift were battling substance abuse issues.

** Creator/ClarkGable was likewise in poor health when filming began, having been a heavy smoker since his mid-teens (leading to clearly audible damage to his voice) and a heavy drinker until not long before filming began, and he had twice had severe chest pains in the previous decade which may have been heart attacks that were never diagnosed. It took two attempts for him to pass a medical insurance physical before filming began, and only because he had spent the entire week before the second physical in bed without smoking or drinking. Bored with constantly waiting for Monroe to arrive on set, he asked Huston to help him pass the time by allowing him to do some of his own stunts, including being dragged across a dry lake bed by a truck at 30 mph. He was also flummoxed by the Method acting embraced by Monroe, Montgomery Clift, and Eli Wallach (all of whom had studied acting under Lee Strasberg at the Actors Studio), which he described as like an alien religion to him.[[note]] Although he was so impressed by Clift that he frequently showed up on set on days when he was not on call just to watch Clift work. He also felt his own performance in the film was one of the best of his career; Arthur Miller said that Gable, after watching a rough cut of the film, told him "... it's the only time I've been able to act."[[/note]] When shooting wrapped, he quipped, "Christ, I'm glad this picture's finished. She damn near gave me a heart attack." The next day, he suffered a severe coronary thrombosis. He died in hospital from a heart attack just ten days later. A devastated Monroe blamed herself for his death.[[note]] For the most part, relations between Gable and Monroe on set were cordial; though he sometimes found her habitual tardiness irritating, he also quipped that he was paid the same whether she was on time or not. Columnist Louella Parsons claimed the delays Monroe's lateness caused were a contributing factor to his death, but it was most likely years of heavy smoking and drinking finally catching up with him.[[/note]]
** Among the other cast members, Montgomery Clift had been struggling with drug problems ever since he had been seriously injured in a car accident in 1956, and he and Monroe required onset doctors. Monroe allegedly said of working with Clift, "It's good to meet someone who's in worse shape than I am."[[note]] Huston cast Clift in the lead role in his next film, ''Freud: The Secret Passion'', and for that film, it was Clift's drug problems that caused the shoot to go over time and over budget, rendering him uninsurable and unemployable. He only made one other film, the largely forgotten ''The Defector'', in an attempt to show that he was fit to play the male lead in Huston's ''Reflections in a Golden Eye'' opposite his close friend Creator/ElizabethTaylor; he died before filming began on the latter. His final conversation with anyone before his death came when he told his housekeeper "Absolutely ''not!''" when she asked if he wanted to watch a TV screening of ''The Misfits'' that evening.[[/note]] Thelma Ritter's health problems were much more minor, as she was rushed to hospital after suffering from exhaustion as the shoot shuddered to a close. Eli Wallach was the healthiest of the main cast members, but he, like the rest of them, had a difficult time shooting the film. He received a verbal jab from the cinematographer about him not having a career, was the victim of a practical joke from the crew, who sprayed black oil in his face instead of motor oil as was scripted [[note]]One DeathGlare from Eli and no one dared to cross him again[[/note]] and his friendship with Monroe was falling apart.

* WrittenInInfirmity: While working a rodeo in Pocatello, Idaho, Montgomery Clift was bruised on the bridge of his nose. It was exactly the type of injury his character was supposed to have in the film.

* NamesTheSame: With the rivals of ''WesternAnimation/JemAndTheHolograms''. Not helped by [[Comic/JemAndTheHolograms the comic reboot]] in which that version of them is specifically a metal band.

* BillingDisplacement: Eli Wallach's role in the movie is second in importance to Clark Gable's, yet he's one of the last to be billed in the opening credits and is hardly billed at all on the poster.
* TheCastShowoff: Eli Wallach and Marilyn Monroe show off their terrific dancing skills in one scene (though Monroe did grip Wallach's shoulder tighter than she should have while filming).

* MeanCharacterNiceActor: Clark Gable, playing the disturbed and obsessive Gay, was in real life "an inordinately shy man who enjoyed the camaraderie of his fellow actors", according to Eli Wallach.
* OlderThanHeLooks: Eli Wallach was 45 and looking fantastic.

* RealityIsUnrealistic: Eli Wallach, a notable teetotaller, once discussed in an interview how he was in a scene where Guido is drunkenly watching Roslyn dancing with Gay. Creator/JohnHuston came up to Eli, and told him that the most drunk that Huston had ever been was when he tried to stay sober on a horseback. Eli realized that Huston was giving him acting advice.
* TroubledProduction: was by all accounts an unhappy film to make:

** Among the other cast members, Montgomery Clift had been struggling with drug problems ever since he had been seriously injured in a car accident in 1956, and he and Monroe required onset doctors. Monroe allegedly said of working with Clift, "It's good to meet someone who's in worse shape than I am."[[note]] Huston cast Clift in the lead role in his next film, ''Freud: The Secret Passion'', and for that film, it was Clift's drug problems that caused the shoot to go over time and over budget, rendering him uninsurable and unemployable. He only made one other film, the largely forgotten ''The Defector'', in an attempt to show that he was fit to play the male lead in Huston's ''Reflections in a Golden Eye'' opposite his close friend Creator/ElizabethTaylor; he died before filming began on the latter. His final conversation with anyone before his death came when he told his housekeeper "Absolutely ''not!''" when she asked if he wanted to watch a TV screening of ''The Misfits'' that evening.[[/note]] Thelma Ritter's health problems were much more minor, as she was rushed to hospital after suffering from exhaustion as the shoot shuddered to a close. Eli Wallach had no health problems, but did receive a verbal jab from the cinematographer about him not having a career, was the victim of a practical joke from the crew, who sprayed black oil in his face instead of motor oil as was scripted [[note]]One DeathGlare from Eli and no one dared to cross him again[[/note]] and his friendship with Monroe was falling apart.

** Among the other cast members, Montgomery Clift had been struggling with drug problems ever since he had been seriously injured in a car accident in 1956, and he and Monroe required onset doctors. Monroe allegedly said of working with Clift, "It's good to meet someone who's in worse shape than I am."[[note]] Huston cast Clift in the lead role in his next film, ''Freud: The Secret Passion'', and for that film, it was Clift's drug problems that caused the shoot to go over time and over budget, rendering him uninsurable and unemployable. He only made one other film, the largely forgotten ''The Defector'', in an attempt to show that he was fit to play the male lead in Huston's ''Reflections in a Golden Eye'' opposite his close friend Creator/ElizabethTaylor; he died before filming began on the latter. His final conversation with anyone before his death came when he told his housekeeper "Absolutely ''not!''" when she asked if he wanted to watch a TV screening of ''The Misfits'' that evening.[[/note]] Thelma Ritter's health problems were much more minor, as she was rushed to hospital after suffering from exhaustion as the shoot shuddered to a close. Eli Wallach had no health problems, but did receive a verbal jab from the cinematographer about him not having a career.

* WagTheDirector: Creator/MarilynMonroe reputedly nagged Creator/ArthurMiller to cut scenes featuring Eli Wallach's character, Guido, for fear that he would upstage her own performance.

* WagTheDirector: Creator/MarilynMonroe reputedly nagged Creator/ArthurMiller to cut scenes featuring Eli Wallach's character, for fear that he would upstage her own performance.

** After Gable's funeral in November 1960, Huston, Miller, and producer Frank Taylor wanted to get the film into cinemas before the end of December to make Gable eligible for a posthumous Best Actor nomination at the following year's Oscars, but post-production had only just begun, and the film did not have a musical score - composer Alex North had not even seen a rough cut of the film, so he had no idea what he was writing for. By early December, it became apparent that the film would not be ready by the end of the year, and although North finished writing and recording the score in just three weeks, the film was released in February 1961, and Huston's hopes of securing Gable a posthumous Oscar nomination were dashed.[[note]] The only nomination the film received was a Director's Guild of America nomination for Huston. He lost to Jerome Robbins, Creator/RobertWise, and Robert Relyea for ''Film/WestSideStory''.[[/note]]* WagTheDirector: Creator/MarilynMonroe reputedly nagged Creator/ArthurMiller to cut scenes featuring Eli Wallach's character, for fear that he would upstage her own performance.