A strange combination of neo-realist director de Sica - who Monty had met several years earlier and pledged to work with - and American producer David O Selznick got this production up and running and the screenplay boasted contributions from, among others, Truman Capote and Carson McCullers.

In the basic style of neo-realism, Indiscretion is a simple tale of married American woman Jones and her Italian lover (Clift) and their parting of the ways in a Rome station. He longs for her to stay but she knows she must go for the sake of her family.

Perhaps it wasn't surprising that the film became a commercial disaster. The great Hollywood producer had a very different vision to his director and quite why he went for the project - other than to give wife Jones a good role - is mystifying. The net result was that he butchered de Sica's film back in Hollywood to the point where it ran little more than an hour. Longer versions were shown in Europe. Monty received mixed reviews and the film remains one of his misunderstood.

RAINTREE COUNTY (1957). Dir: Edward Dmytryk. Starring: Elizabeth Taylor, Eva Marie Saint & Rod Taylor.
Oscar nominations: Best actress (Taylor), art direction, score, costumes.

MGM's somewhat misguided attempt to resurrect the success of Gone With the Wind is chiefly remembered today as the film Monty was making when he suffered his dreadful car crash. Indeed, many who went to see the movie probably did so out of curiousity to see how he compared pre- and post-crash.

Clift plays abolitionist Shawnessy who marries the beautiful Susanna (Taylor) even though she holds radically different views and always has her slaves in tow. But all is not right with her and she grows increasingly deranged, tormented that she was the result of an affair between her father and a black woman. She disappears and Shawnessy enlists, pledging to find her.

Both Monty and Taylor realised the screenplay wasn't the best they had ever read but they were both keen to work together again - and after several years without a film Monty needed the money. Production had to close down for two months after his car accident in May 1956 and when he returned cinematographer Robert Surtees had to find ways of shooting Monty from his less damaged side.

It was during the making of this big-budget film, which was hardly a critical or commercial success, that many saw the first major signs of Monty's bizarre behaviour brought about by his growing addiction to drink and pills.

THE YOUNG LIONS (1958). Dir: Edward Dmytryk. Starring: Marlon Brando, Dean Martin & Hope Lange.
Oscar nominations: Cinematography, sound, score.

The story of three very different men whose paths converge during the course of the Second World War. Monty plays Noah Ackerman, a sensitive Jewish man who enlists after marrying a girl he meets at the home of Whiteacre (Martin) - a cowardly entertainer who fails to get the draft board to delay his entry into the military. Noah, at heart a loner, goes to war but he is persecuted and has to fight to win the respect of his fellow soldiers. Brando, meanwhile, is the German officer who gradually loses his faith in the Nazi machine.

This was one of Monty's favourite roles and he prepared hard for it, losing weight and using special make-up to build up his nose and ears. At the time of its release, he said he was genuinely proud of his performance and privately he thought it deserved an Oscar nomination. But that didn't come and he had to fight to keep the integrity of the script, which Brando had wanted changed to make his character a more heroic figure.

Clift and Brando had been touted as rivals for years and this would be the only film they made together - but such is the structure of the movie that they never shared a scene. It was Clift who stole most of the critical acclaim. The Tribune said: "Clift is superb in his inarticulate anguish as he walks with his girl's father, who has never met a jew." His performance was the "most outstanding in the movie". It was a box office hit too.

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"...and heroes don't come easy..."
Monty Got a Raw Deal, Automatic for the People, REM