I have always loved Marilyn Monroe. She was unquestionably one of the greatest comedic actresses of all time but more than that, Marilyn Monroe was (and is) the perfect representation of the female spirit. She was beautiful and mysterious and elusive and seductive – but she was also deeply wounded, afraid, and terribly insecure about her many gifts. I think it is this contradiction of incredible talent and beauty juxtaposed with terrible insecurities and sadness that makes her so relatable and relevant to generation after generation. She died before I was born but I can only imagine that when the world lost her, it lost a part of itself.
I watched one of her last films, “the misfits,” a few nights ago. I was interested to watch it because I knew that her playwright husband Arthur Miller had written the screen play and designed her character especially for her. Marilyn plays “Roslyn,” a beautiful but naive divorcee who travels to Nevada to finalize her divorce and to enjoy the company of a handsome ranch owner (Clarke Gable). Some say that Arthur Miller may have hit a little too close to home with his creation of Roslyn as it seems that through most of the film she is swinging around a glass of wine! To me, though, this film is a stand out because of it’s powerful animal welfare message.
Scattered throughout the film are subtle calls for compassion to animals as Marilyn’s character comes into contact with various animals on the ranch. She is not a hardened country girl and hates to see any animal suffer, be it a “pest” or otherwise. Knowing the character of Roslyn was based on the actual personality traits of Marilyn Monroe, I decided to investigate Marilyn Monroe’s love of animals. It turns out that she owned many animals over the course of her life including three with Arthur Miller – a dog, a bird, and a riding horse. She was even given a dog by Frank Sinatra, a Maltese Terrior (pictured above) she named “Maf” after Frank’s mafia connections. As someone who was often disappointed by love, it is unsurprising that Marilyn would have developed a strong connection to the animal kingdom. She was once quoted as saying “dogs never bite me, just humans”- a sentiment I have often felt myself. I have been bitten hard and deep far more often by humans than by the wild and dangerous animals who, to me, have never seemed wild and dangerous.
The film comes to a head when in the final scene Roslyn is taken out with her partner and a few of his friends to round up a group of wild horses. She is under the impression that the horses are to be sold privately for riding but discovers that they are actually to be harvested for the dog food industry (a topic that hits very close to home for me with Australia’s mass annual harvest of kangaroos for the dog food industry). Roslyn tries to talk the men out of the whole idea, asking even if it would be possible for her to buy the horses from them at the price that they would otherwise be receiving from the pet food people. This, though, only wounds their egos and in the end there is nothing for her to do but sit in the truck and witness the unfolding horror as all six horses are roped up and forced to the ground.
I found this part of the film extremely difficult to watch and was about to turn it off but luckily, right as I was feeling that I couldn’t take it anymore, so it turns out was Roslyn. Just as the final horse is roped up and forced to the ground, Roslyn jumps out from the truck and starts screaming in a high pitched panic “Murderers! Murderers!” The men are so shocked by the outpouring of intensity from this very shy and innocent-seeming young woman that they agree to untie and set free the horses. This scene is probably the most effective animal welfare message I have ever witnessed in a motion picture and the fact that it was filmed in 1960, before even the civil rights act had been signed, is incredible and way ahead of it’s time. For anyone with a love of Marilyn Monroe, classic films, or animals, I really hope that you’ll check this one out!
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