The 1961 film "The Misfits" is about a group of people in modern-day Nevada who engage in rounding up wild horses or "mustangs" to sell to a dog food company. The film is set in the Nevada city of Reno, then famous for six-week divorces, and the desert area around Reno and Carson City. The film stars Clark Gable, Marilyn Monroe, and Montgomery Clift, three very well known actors of the period, two of whom died shortly after the film was made. Several scenes in a bar feature United States silver dollars which were in circulation at that time.

The title is an animated film showing pieces of a jigsaw puzzle join together. Roslyn Tabor is spending the required six weeks in Reno Nevada to get a divorce. She is staying with Isabelle Steers who advises women on the divorce process. The six weeks are over and Roslyn prepares for her court appearance.

Roslyn receives her divorce but cannot decide what to do next. Guido is driver for a garage and owner and pilot of a small airplane.

Some scenes of Reno in 1960 including the "Cosmo Club", now long gone. Guido is friends with Gaylord Langland, a local cowboy, and in a bar, the pair meet Roslyn and are instantly smitten. Gaylord has a dog named "Tom Dooley", the title of a popular Kingston Trio song then. Gaylord and Roslyn become a couple and Guido lends them his half-built house in the Nevada desert.

Gaylord and Roslyn fix the house up a little.

Roslyn shows Guido her room and he spots some photographs pinned to a door.

The photographs are publicity pictures of Marilyn Monroe and here she stands next to her own photographs. Roslyn explains that her ex-husband had the photographs taken and asks Guido not to look at them. Gaylord knows that the cowboy and horse business is dying "kids ride motor scooters now" and suggests that he and Guido hunt for wild horses or "mustangs" to sell to a dog food company. They need a third man and find Perce Howland, another cowboy who is a rodeo performer. At a Nevada bar, Roslyn is encouraged to play with a paddle ball device while other customers bet on how long she can keep the ball in motion.

Gaylord serves up drinks from the bar.

Behind him is an old photograph of a grinning skull.

These are real US one dollar bills as the US treasury regulation prohibiting the showing of real US currency and coins in films was repealed the previous year. Silver dollars circulated in Nevada at the time and were used in the state's casinos. Here, some of the bets on Roslyn's paddle are in coin.

Some silver dollars appear on a table next to a small boy.

The top silver dollar of the right stack is a "Peace" design, minted from 1921 to 1935. The single dollar at the bottom is a "Morgan" design, minted from 1878 to 1904 and again in 1921.

A woman soliciting funds for a "church" and an even larger pile of dollar coins.

Guido wears a medal throughout the film but it is unidentifiable but probably a religous medal. Gaylord, Perce, Guido, and Roslyn head out to the desert to hunt horses.

Gaylord and Roslyn in an intimate moment. Roslyn, an animal lover, does not know what will be done with the horses, but she soon finds out. In a modern "western", an airplane is used to round up the horses.

The men use a truck, old tires, and ropes to catch the horses, a stallion, some mares, and a colt.

When Roslyn finds out the fate of the horses she becomes real upset. Guido offers to free the horses if she will spend some time with him, an offer she rejects. After an argument and knowing where his best interests lie, Gaylord frees the horses.

Roslyn asks the direction to town and Gaylord tells her to head for the big star.

"Just head for that big star straight on. The highway is under it. It will take us right home"

In 2006 the United States issued the State Quarters (25 cents) coin for Nevada.

Obverse: President George Washington
Reverse: Wild horses (mustangs) running in desert with mountains and sun behind them

Clark Gable as Gaylord Langland
Marilyn Monroe as Roslyn Tabor
Montgomery Clift as Perce Howland
Eli Wallach as Guido
Thelma Ritter as Isabelle Steers
Director: John Huston
Writers: Arthur Miller