For men of a certain age, there will never be another woman like Marilyn Monroe.
One of the sexiest actresses to ever grace the big screen, Monroe‘s career flourished at a time when nude scenes were unheard of. But for The Misfits, filmed in 1961, Monroe bared all — and in a moment of cruelty, director John Huston left the footage out of the final cut.
Charles Casillo, author of Marilyn Monore: The Private Life of a Public Icon, reportedly found the scene. It had been languishing in a locked cabinet for decades.
According to Deadline, Casillo discovered a true piece of history:
In a love scene with Clark Gable, Monroe dropped the covering bed-sheet and exposed her body. It would have been one of the first – if not the first – nude scenes by an American actress in a major production in the sound era of film if it had made it into the final version.
Huston just didn’t need the scene, apparently.
Curtice Taylor had the film, a legacy he inherited from his film producer father Frank. The Daily Mail reports Taylor said “unused takes were [often] destroyed. But Frank Taylor believed that it was so important and so ground-breaking that he saved it.”
According to Decider, the nudity was Monroe’s idea:
Casillo told the Daily Mail that it was Monroe’s idea to drop the bedsheet. “If you read [The Misfits] script, it doesn’t say anything about nudity. When she did the scene, everyone was shocked on the set,” said Casillo. “Huston sighed and said, ‘Honey, I’ve seen them before.’” Monroe’s co-stars, including Gable, fought for the scene to be left in, but Houston wouldn’t budge, and the would-be historic scene was left on the cutting-room floor.
We are grateful for Frank Taylor’s foresight, but no one knows if the scene will ever be made public. So this whole report seems kind of cruel.
Let’s keep our fingers crossed.
[Deadline]