Legendary assembling of, well, legends - John Huston, Arthur Miller, Clark Gable, Marilyn Monroe, Montgomery Clift... even Eli Wallach and Thelma Ritter in their own more sensible way. Imagine the talk around that commissary.
Miller writes it like a play - there's entrances and exits - but it is carried off well, long dialogue scenes, much talk about people we don't see. It still works, because Huston has cast such superb actors.
Marilyn is heartbreakingly good - a superb part, she's smart, beaten down by life, warm. Gable is terrific too as the uncomplicated but melancholic cowboy who has done a lot of living. Clift rounds out the trifecta. Of course Wallach and Ritter are fine.
I didn't realise that Wallach's part was so big - he's a love rival for Monroe. Maybe his part could've been blended with Clift's.
It's moving seeing these people who are about to die soon pal around. It's a hang out movie - like The Sun Also Rises should have been.
I will admit I felt it went too long. It needed maybe a half hour cut out or something.
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