Gay Langland, an ageing cowboy in Nevada, falls for a newly divorced woman — and must decide whether to keep catching wild horses, or let them go.
In The Misfits (1961), written by Arthur Miller and directed by John Huston, Clark Gable plays Gay Langland, a cowboy in Reno, Nevada, who meets Roslyn Tabor, played by Marilyn Monroe, a woman who has just divorced. Gay, with his friends Guido, played by Eli Wallach, and Perce, played by Montgomery Clift, plans to catch wild mustangs to sell, but Roslyn, who loves horses, begs him to free them.
Gable plays Gay with a quiet dignity that is very different from his earlier swagger. He is older, tired and still decent, and his scenes with Monroe, in which two lonely people find each other, are among the most moving of his career. The film was Gable’s last, and it was released after his death.
The Misfits is a sad, beautiful farewell to the old West and to its stars, and Gable’s Gay Langland is a fitting final role: a cowboy who, at the end, chooses compassion over profit.