A financial failure on its initial release, Arthur Miller and John Huston's perceptive fable of unresolved lives has acquired its own melancholy legend thanks to it being the last film of both Marilyn Monroe (who was married to Miller at the time) and Clark Gable. An anti-Western of sorts, it centres on an ageing cowboy (Gable) who drifts into the company of three other misfits - rodeo rider Perce (Montgomery Clift), former World War II aviator Guido (Eli Wallach), and former showgirl Roslyn (Monroe), each in search of meaning to their lives.

When the unlikely foursome strike up a business capturing wild horses, it's too good to be true - until Monroe's beautiful divorcee realises that the horses are destined to become pet food. A classic in its own right now, this Reno-set story of drifters, divorcees and old cowboys is an elegy to the Old West that demands to be enjoyed again.

Want more of Marilyn? Don't miss our accompanying Sunday brunch season Screen Icons: Dean & Monroe

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