Gone with the Wind (film)

Gone with the Wind
File:Gonewiththewind1.jpg Original 1939 film poster
Directed by	Victor Fleming Uncredited: George Cukor Sam Wood
Written by	Novel: Margaret Mitchell Screenplay: Sidney Howard Uncredited: Ben Hecht David O. Selznick Jo Swerling John Van Druten
Produced by	David O. Selznick
Starring	Clark Gable Vivien Leigh Leslie Howard Olivia de Havilland Hattie McDaniel
Cinematography	Ernest Haller
Music by	Max Steiner
Distributed by	Selznick International Pictures (1939 theatrical release) Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (1939 theatrical release; film rights from 1944 to 1986) Turner Entertainment (film rights from 1986 to present) New Line Cinema (1998 re-release) Warner Home Video (video distribution from 1998 to present)
Release dates	December 15, 1939
Running time	222 min; 233 with overture, entr'acte, & exit music
Language	English
Budget	$3,900,000 (estimated)
Box office	$390,500,000

Gone with the Wind is a 1939 film adapted from Margaret Mitchell's 1936 novel of the same name. The epic, set in the American South in and around the time of the Civil War, starred Vivien Leigh, Clark Gable, Leslie Howard and Olivia de Havilland. It told a story of the Civil War and its aftermath from a white Southern point of view.

It was awarded ten Academy Awards, a record that would stand for years. It has been named by the American Film Institute as number four among the top 100 American films of all time. It has sold more tickets than any other film in history. Today it is considered one of the most popular films of all time, and one of the most enduring symbols of the golden age of Hollywood. Adjusting for inflation, the film is the highest grossing of all time.

Story

The story opens on a large cotton plantation named Tara in rural Georgia in 1861, on the eve of the American Civil War. Scarlett O'Hara is the eldest of three daughters of Irish immigrant Gerald O’Hara and his wife, Ellen. She is seemingly sought after by every young man in the county, except the refined Ashley Wilkes, for whom Scarlett longs. She is upset to hear of Ashley’s imminent engagement to his cousin Melanie Hamilton, to be announced the next day at a barbecue at his family’s home, the nearby plantation Twelve Oaks.

File:GABLE01.jpg

Clark Gable in Gone with the Wind. Photo: Howard Frank Archives

At Twelve Oaks, she notices she is being admired by a handsome but roguish visitor, Rhett Butler, who had been disowned by his Charleston family. Rhett finds himself in further disfavor among the male guests when, during a discussion of the probability of war, he states that the South has no chance against the superior numbers and industrial might of the North.

When Scarlett is alone with Ashley, she confesses her love for him. He admits he finds Scarlett attractive, but says that he and the gentle Melanie are more compatible. She accuses Ashley of misleading her and slaps him in anger, which is heightened when she realizes that Rhett has overheard the whole conversation. “Sir, you are no gentleman!” she protests, to which he replies, “And you, miss, are no lady!”

The barbecue is disrupted by the announcement that war has broken out, and the men rush to enlist. As Scarlett watches Ashley kiss Melanie goodbye, Melanie’s shy young brother Charles Hamilton, with whom Scarlett had been innocently flirting, asks for her hand in marriage before he goes. She consents, they are married, and she is just as quickly widowed when Charles dies not in battle, but of pneumonia.

Scarlett's mother sends her to the Hamilton home in Atlanta to cheer her up, although the O’Haras' outspoken housemaid Mammy tells Scarlett she knows she is going there “like a spider”, to wait for Ashley’s return. Scarlett and Melanie attend a charity ball in Atlanta, where Rhett makes a surprise appearance. Now he is a heroic blockade runner for the Confederacy. Scarlett shocks Atlanta society by accepting his bid for a dance, even though she is still in mourning. While they dance, Rhett tells her of his intention to win her, which she says will never happen.

The tide of war turns against the Confederacy. Scarlett makes another unsuccessful appeal to Ashley’s heart while he is visiting on Christmas furlough. Eight months later, as the city is being besieged by the Union Army in the Battle of Atlanta, Melanie goes into a premature and difficult labor. Scarlett must deliver the child herself. Rhett appears with a horse and wagon to take them out of the city on a perilous journey through the burning depot and warehouse district. He leaves her with a kiss on the road to Tara. She repays him with a slap, to his bemusement, as he goes off to fight with the Confederate Army.

On her journey back home, Scarlett finds Twelve Oaks burned out and deserted. She is relieved to find Tara still standing, but learns that her mother has just died, and her father's mind has begun to crumble under the strain. With Tara pillaged by Union troops, and the fields untended, Scarlett vows she will do anything for the survival of her family and herself: “As God is my witness, I’ll never be hungry again!”

Intermission

Scarlett sets her family and servants to picking the cotton fields. She also fatally shoots a Union deserter who threatens her during a burglary, and finds gold coins in his haversack. With the defeat of the Confederacy and war's end, Ashley returns from being a prisoner of war. Mammy restrains Scarlett from running to him when he reunites with Melanie. The dispirited Ashley finds he is of little help to Tara, and when Scarlett begs him to run away with her, he confesses his desire for her and kisses her passionately, but says he cannot leave Melanie.

Gerald O'Hara dies after he is thrown from his horse while chasing a Yankee carpetbagger off his property. Scarlett is left to care for the family, and realizes she cannot pay the taxes on Tara. She knows that Rhett is in Atlanta. Believing he is still rich, she has Mammy make an elaborate gown for her from her mother’s drapes. However, upon her visit, Rhett tells her his foreign bank accounts have been blocked, and that her attempt to get his money has been in vain. However, as she departs, she encounters her sister’s fiancé, the middle-aged Frank Kennedy, who now owns a successful general store and lumber mill.

Soon Scarlett is Mrs. Frank Kennedy. She becomes a hardheaded businesswoman, willing to trade with the despised Yankees and use convict laborers in her mill. When Ashley is about to take a job offer with a bank in the north, Scarlett preys on his weakness by weeping that she needs him to help run the mill; pressured by the sympathetic Melanie, he relents. One day, after Scarlett is attacked while driving alone through a nearby shantytown, Frank, Ashley, and others make a night raid on the shantytown. Ashley is wounded in a melee with Union troops, and Frank is killed.

With Frank’s funeral barely over, Rhett visits Scarlett and proposes marriage. Scarlett is aghast at his poor taste, but takes him up on his offer. After a honeymoon in New Orleans, Rhett promises to restore Tara, while Scarlett builds the biggest and most crassly opulent mansion in Atlanta. A daughter, Bonnie, is born. Rhett adores her as a less spoiled version of her mother, and does everything to win the good opinion of Atlanta society for his daughter’s sake. Scarlett, still pining for Ashley, lets Rhett know that she wants no more children. In anger, he kicks open the door that separates their bedrooms to show her that he will decide that.

When visiting the mill one day, Scarlett listens to a nostalgic Ashley wish for the simpler days of old that are now gone, and when she consoles him with an embrace, they are spied by two gossips — including Ashley's sister India Wilkes, who has always held a grudge against Scarlett. Scarlett’s reputation is again sullied, but Melanie refuses to believe in the rumors, and invites her to Ashley’s birthday party. Afterwards, a drunken Rhett tells her he will make her forget Ashley, and sweeps her up the stairs in his arms, telling her, "This is one night you're not turning me out." She awakens the next morning with the look of guilty pleasure, but Rhett returns to apologize for his behavior and offer a divorce. When he returns from a visit to London with Bonnie, Scarlett tells him resentfully that she is pregnant again. After Rhett tells her to "cheer up. Maybe you'll have an 'accident,'" Scarlett lunges at him and, when he steps out of the way, falls down the grand staircase of their home and miscarries.

As Scarlett recovers, and Rhett attempts reconciliation, young Bonnie, as impulsive as her grandfather, dies in a fall from her pony when she attempts to jump a fence. Scarlett and Rhett are devastated and exchange recriminations over her death. Melanie visits to comfort them, but then collapses in labor from a pregnancy she was warned could kill her. On her deathbed, she asks Scarlett to look after Ashley for her, as Scarlett had looked after her for Ashley. With her dying breath, Melanie also tells Scarlett to be kind to Rhett, that he loves her. Outside, Ashley collapses in tears, helpless without his wife. Only then does Scarlett realize that she never could have meant anything to him, and that she had loved something that never really existed.

She runs home to find Rhett packing to leave her, saying it is too late to salvage their marriage. She begs him not to leave, telling him she realizes now that she had loved him all along, that she never really loved Ashley. Rhett tells her that as long as there was Bonnie, whom he could spoil and love unconditionally, as he wished he could with Scarlett, there was a chance that they could have been happy, but now that chance was gone.

As Rhett walks out the door, she begs him, "Rhett, if you go, where shall I go? What shall I do?" He answers,

Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn.

and turns away. She sits on her stairs and weeps in despair, "What is there that matters?" She then recalls the voice of her father Gerald: "Land's the only thing that matters, it's the only thing that lasts." And Ashley: "Something you love better than me, though you may not know it. Tara." And Rhett: "It's from this you get your strength, the red earth of Tara."

Hope lights Scarlett's face: "Tara! Home. I'll go home, and I'll think of some way to get him back! After all, tomorrow is another day!" In the final scene, Scarlett stands once more, resolute, before Tara.

Behind the scenes

Producer David O. Selznick, head of Selznick International Pictures, decided that he wanted to create a film based on the novel after his story editor Kay Brown read a pre-publication copy in May 1936 and urged him to buy the film rights. A month after the book's publication in June 1936, Selznick bought the rights for $50,000, a record amount at the time. Major financing for the film was provided by Selznick business partner John Hay Whitney, a financier who later went on to become a U.S. ambassador.

The casting of the two lead roles became a complex, two-year endeavor. Many famous or soon-to-be-famous actresses were either screen-tested, auditioned, or considered for the role of Scarlett, including Katharine Hepburn, Norma Shearer, Bette Davis, Barbara Stanwyck, Joan Crawford, Lana Turner, Susan Hayward, Carole Lombard, Irene Dunne, Merle Oberon, Ida Lupino, Joan Fontaine, Loretta Young, Miriam Hopkins, Tallulah Bankhead, Frances Dee, and Lucille Ball.

Four actresses, including Jean Arthur and Joan Bennett, were still under consideration by December 1938. But only two finalists, Paulette Goddard and Vivien Leigh, were tested in Technicolor, both on December 20. Selznick had been quietly considering Vivien Leigh, a young English actress little known in America, for the role of Scarlett since February 1938, when Selznick saw her in Fire Over England and A Yank at Oxford. Leigh's American agent was the London representative of the Myron Selznick talent agency (headed by David Selznick's brother, one of the owners of Selznick International), and she had requested in February that her name be submitted for consideration as Scarlett. By summer of 1938, the Selznicks were negotiating with Alexander Korda, to whom Leigh was under contract, for her services later that year. But for publicity reasons David arranged to meet her for the first time on the night of December 10, 1938, when the burning of the Atlanta Depot was filmed. The story was invented for the press that Leigh and Laurence Olivier were just visiting the studio as guests of Myron Selznick, who was also Olivier's agent, and that Leigh was in Hollywood hoping for a part in Olivier's current movie, Wuthering Heights. In a letter to his wife two days later, Selznick admitted that Leigh was "the Scarlett dark horse", and after a series of screen tests, her casting was announced on January 13, 1939. Just before the shooting of the film, Selznick informed Ed Sullivan: "Scarlett O'Hara's parents were French and Irish. Identically, Miss Leigh's parents are French and Irish."

For the role of Rhett Butler, Clark Gable was an almost immediate favorite for both the public and Selznick. Nevertheless, as Selznick had no male stars under long-term contract, he needed to go through the process of negotiating to borrow an actor from another studio. Gary Cooper was thus Selznick's first choice, because Cooper's contract with Samuel Goldwyn involved a common distribution company, United Artists, with which Selznick had an eight-picture deal. However, Goldwyn remained noncommittal in negotiations. Warner Bros. offered a package of Bette Davis, Errol Flynn, and Olivia de Havilland for the lead roles in return for the distribution rights. But by then Selznick was determined to get Clark Gable, and eventually found a way to borrow him from Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Selznick's father-in-law, MGM chief Louis B. Mayer, offered in May 1938 to fund half of the movie's budget in return for a powerful package: 50% of the profits would go to MGM, the movie's distribution would be credited to MGM's parent company, Loew's, Inc., and Loew's would receive 15 percent of the movie's gross income. Selznick accepted this offer in August, and Gable was cast. Nevertheless, the arrangement to release through MGM meant delaying the start of production until Selznick International completed its eight-picture contract with United Artists.

Principal photography began January 26, 1939, and ended on June 27, 1939, with post-production work (including a fifth version of the opening scene) going to November 11, 1939. Director George Cukor, with whom Selznick had a long working relationship, and who spent almost two years in preproduction on Gone with the Wind, was replaced after less than three weeks of shooting. Victor Fleming, who had just directed The Wizard of Oz, was called in from MGM to complete the picture, although Cukor continued privately to coach Leigh's and De Havilland's performances. Another MGM director, Sam Wood, worked for two weeks in May when Fleming temporarily left the production due to exhaustion.

Cinematographer Lee Garmes began the production, but after a month of shooting what Selznick and his associates thought was "too dark" footage, was replaced with Ernest Haller, working with Technicolor cinematographer Ray Rennahan. Most of the filming was done on "the back forty" of Selznick International with all the location scenes being photographed in California, mostly in Los Angeles County or neighboring Ventura County. Estimated production costs were $3.9 million; only Ben-Hur (1925) and Hell's Angels (1930) had cost more.

Responses

First public preview

When David O. Selznick was asked by the press in early September how he felt about the film, he said: "At noon I think it's divine, at midnight I think it's lousy. Sometimes I think it's the greatest picture ever made. But if it's only a great picture, I'll still be satisfied."

On September 9, 1939, Selznick, his wife Irene Mayer Selznick, investor Jock Whitney, and film editor Hal Kern drove out to Riverside, California with all of the film reels to preview it before an audience. The film was still unfinished at this stage, missing many optical effects and most of Max Steiner's music score. They arrived at the Fox Theatre, which was playing a double feature of Hawaiian Nights and Beau Geste. Kern called for the manager and explained that they had selected his theatre for the first public screening of Gone with the Wind. He was told that after Hawaiian Nights had finished, he could make an announcement of the preview, but was forbidden to say what the film was. People were permitted to leave, but the theatre would thereafter be sealed with no re-admissions and no phone calls out. The manager was reluctant, but finally agreed. His only request was to call his wife to come to the theatre immediately. Kern stood by him as he made the call to make sure he did not reveal the name of the film to her.

When the film began, there was a buzz in the audience when Selznick's name appeared, for they had been reading about the making of the film for over two years. In an interview years later, Kern described the exact moment the audience realized what was happening:

When Margaret Mitchell's name came on the screen, you never heard such a sound in your life. They just yelled, they stood up on the seats...I had the [manually-operated sound] box. And I had that music wide open and you couldn't hear a thing. Mrs. Selznick was crying like a baby and so was David and so was I. Oh, what a thrill! And when "Gone with the Wind" came on the screen, it was thunderous!

In his seminal biography of Selznick, David Thomson wrote that the audience's response before the story had even started "was the greatest moment of his life, the greatest victory and redemption of all his failings."

After the film, there was a huge ovation. In the preview cards filled out after the screening, two-thirds of the audience had rated it excellent, an unusually high rating. Most of the audience begged that the film not be cut shorter and many suggested that instead they eliminate the newsreels, shorts and B-movie feature, which is eventually how Gone with the Wind was screened and would soon become the norm in movie theatres around the world.

1939 response

The film premiered in Atlanta, Georgia, on December 15, 1939 as the climax of three days of festivities hosted by the mayor which consisted of a parade of limousines featuring stars from the film, receptions, thousands of Confederate flags, false antebellum fronts on stores and homes, and a costume ball. The governor of Georgia declared December 15 a state holiday. President Jimmy Carter would later recall it as "the biggest event to happen in the South in my lifetime."

From December 1939 to June 1940, the film played only advance-ticket road show engagements at a limited number of theaters, before it went into general release in 1941.

It was a sensational hit during the Blitz in London, opening in April 1940 and playing continuously for four years.

Worldwide debuts

Country	Date
Argentina	December 27, 1939
Brazil	January 1, 1940
U.K.	April 17, 1940
Australia	July 4, 1940
Sweden	October 6, 1941
Spain	April 28, 1947
Norway	December 15, 1947
Belgium, Netherlands	March 3, 1949
Hong Kong	June 16, 1949
France	May 20, 1950
Finland	September 15, 1950
Italy	November 3, 1951
Philippines	May 20, 1952
Japan	September 10, 1952
West Germany	January 15, 1953
Austria	January 30, 1953
Denmark	September 9, 1958

Racial politics

Some have criticized the film for romanticizing, sanitizing or even promoting the values of the antebellum South, in particular its reliance on slavery. For example, syndicated columnist Leonard Pitts has referred to it as "a romance set in Auschwitz."

Portrayal of Black characters

The character of Mammy, played by Hattie McDaniel, has been linked with the stock character of the "happy slave", an archetype that implicitly condones slavery. Helen Taylor, in Scarlett's Women: Gone with the Wind and Its Female Fans argued that Mammy's character is more complex than this, that her character represents someone who cared for others, despite the racism and oppression she suffered. Other writers also point out that despite her position as slave, she is not shy about upbraiding her white mistress, Scarlett; and indeed, she is yelling at Scarlett in her first scene.

But Mammy frequently derides other slaves on the plantation as "field hands", implying that as a House Servant she is above the "less-refined" blacks. Most apparent is the scene in the film where Mammy accompanies Scarlett to Atlanta, in order to convince Rhett Butler to help them pay the taxes on Tara. As they walk down the streets, Mammy passes by a Yankee carpetbagger who promises a group of ex-slaves "forty acres and a mule." The ex-slaves are excited, but Mammy glares at them disapprovingly.

Responding to the racial critiques of the film, Selznick replied that the black characters were "lovable, faithful, high-minded people who would leave no impression but a very nice one." While Mammy is generally portrayed in a positive light, other black characters in the film are not so fortunate.

The character of Prissy, a dim-witted slave girl, played by Butterfly McQueen, offended blacks and whites when played in the theatre. In one especially famous scene, as Melanie is about to give birth, Prissy bursts into tears and admits she lied to Scarlett: "Lawzy, we got to have a doctor. I don't know nothin' 'bout birthin' babies!" (In response, Scarlett slaps her). In The Autobiography of Malcolm X, the former civil rights leader recounted his experience of watching this particular scene as a small boy in Michigan: "I was the only Negro in the theater, and when Butterfly McQueen went into her act, I felt like crawling under the rug."

The role of Prissy catapulted Butterfly McQueen's film career, but within ten years, she grew tired of playing black ethnic stereotypes. When she refused to continue being typecast that way, it ended her career.

Members of the African-American community criticized many black actors for agreeing to play a role in the film. Oscar Polk, who played the role of Pork, wrote an op-ed in the Chicago Defender — a prominent newspaper in the black community — to respond to that criticism. "As a race we should be proud," he said, "that we have risen so far above the status of our enslaved ancestors and be glad to portray ourselves as we once were because in no other way can we so strikingly demonstrate how far we have come in so few years."

Unquestioned racist comments

After the Civil War, Gerald O'Hara (Scarlett's father, who owns the plantation Tara), scolds his daughter about the way she is treating Mammy and Prissy. "You must be firm to inferiors, but gentle, especially darkies", he advises her. While Scarlett was criticized for being too harsh on the house servants, Gerald's premise that black people are "inferior" never is questioned in the film at all. However, it is possible that the comment was concerning the social status of the work force, as in the way one's boss is referred to as his "superior."

Some scenes subtly undercut the apparent romanticization of Southern slavery. During the panicked evacuation of Atlanta as Union troops approach, Scarlett runs into Big Sam, the black foreman of the O'Hara plantation. Big Sam informs her that he (and a group of black field-hands who are with him) have been impressed to dig fortifications for the Confederacy. But these men are singing "Go Down Moses", a famous black spiritual that slaves would sing to call for the abolition of slavery.

The Shantytown Raid scene was changed in the film to make it less racially divisive than the book. After Scarlett is attacked in a Shantytown outside Atlanta, her husband Frank, Ashley, and others leave to raid the Shantytown that night to avenge Scarlett's honor. In the book, Scarlett's attacker was black, and those who raid the Shantytown after her attack are identified as members of the Ku Klux Klan (although Scarlett herself disdains the Klan). In the film, no mention of the Klan is made. In both the film and the book, a black man, Big Sam, saves her life during the attack.

Racial politics at Atlanta premiere

Racial politics spilled into the film's premiere in Atlanta, Georgia. As Georgia was a segregated state, Hattie McDaniel could not have attended the cinema without sitting in the "colored" section of the movie theater; to avoid troubling Selznick, she thus sent a letter saying she would not be able to attend. When Clark Gable heard that McDaniel did not want to attend because of the racial issue, he threatened to boycott the premiere unless McDaniel was able to attend; he later relented when McDaniel convinced him to go.

At the costume ball during the premiere, local promoters recruited blacks to dress up as slaves and sing in a "Negro choir" on the steps of a white-columned plantation mansion built for the event. Many black community leaders refused to participate, but prominent Atlanta preacher Martin Luther King, Sr. attended, and he brought his 10-year-old son, future civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr., who sang that night in the choir.

The film also resulted in an important moment in African-American history: Hattie McDaniel won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, the first time an African-American actor received the award.

Legacy

In an attempt to draw upon his company's profits, but to pay capital gain tax rather than a much higher personal income tax, David O. Selznick and his business partners liquidated Selznick International Pictures over a three-year period in the early 1940s. As part of the liquidation, Selznick sold his rights in Gone with the Wind to Jock Whitney and his sister, who in turn sold it to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in 1944. Today it is owned by Turner Entertainment, whose parent company Turner Broadcasting acquired MGM's film library in 1985. Turner itself is currently a subsidiary of Time Warner, which is the current parent company of Warner Bros. Entertainment.

Gone with the Wind was given theatrical re-releases in 1947, 1954, 1961, 1967 (in a widescreen version), 1971, 1989, and 1998. It made its television debut on the HBO cable network in June 1976, and its broadcast debut the following November on the NBC network, where it became at that time the highest-rated television program ever presented on a single network, watched by 47.5 percent of the households in America, and 65 percent of television viewers. Ironically, it was surpassed the following year by the mini-series Roots, a saga about slavery in America.

Gone with the Wind also holds the record as being the biggest box-office hit in the history of movies.

In 1989, Gone with the Wind was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". In 1998, the American Film Institute ranked it #4 on its "100 Greatest Movies" list.

Rhett Butler's infamous farewell line to Scarlett O'Hara, "Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn", was voted in a poll by the American Film Institute in 2005 as the most memorable line in cinema history.

In 2005, the AFI ranked Max Steiner's score for the film the second greatest of all time. The AFI also ranked the film #2 in their list of the greatest romances of all time (100 Years... 100 Passions).

After filming concluded, the set of Tara sat on the back lot of the former Selznick Studios as the Forty Acres back lot reverted to RKO Pictures and then was sold to Desilu Productions. In 1959, Southern Attractions, Inc. purchased the façade of Tara, which was dismantled and shipped to Georgia with plans to relocate it to the Atlanta area as a tourist attraction. David O. Selznick commented at the time,

Nothing in Hollywood is permanent. Once photographed, life here is ended. It is almost symbolic of Hollywood. Tara had no rooms inside. It was just a façade. So much of Hollywood is a façade.

However, the Margaret Mitchell estate refused to license the novel's commercial use in connection with the façade, citing Mitchell's dismay at how little it resembled her description. In 1979 the dismantled plywood and papier-mâché set, reportedly in "terrible" condition, was purchased for $5,000 by Betty Talmadge, the ex-wife of former Georgia governor and U.S. senator Herman Talmadge. She lent the front door of Tara's set to the Margaret Mitchell House and Museum in downtown Atlanta, Georgia where it is on permanent display, featured in the Gone with the Wind film museum. Other items from the movie, such as from the set of Scarlett and Rhett's Atlanta mansion, are still stored at The Culver Studios (formerly Selznick International) including the stained glass window from the top of the staircase which was actually a painting. The famous painting of Scarlett in her blue dress, which hung in Rhett's bedroom, hung for years at the Margaret Mitchell Elementary School in Atlanta, but is now on permanent loan to the Margaret Mitchell Museum, complete with stains from the glass of sherry that Rhett Butler threw at it in anger.

Sequel

Rumors of Hollywood producing a sequel to this film persisted for decades until 1994, when a sequel was finally produced for television, based upon Alexandra Ripley's novel, Scarlett, itself a sequel to Mitchell's original. Both the book and mini-series were met with mixed reviews. In the TV version, British actors played both key roles: Welsh-born actor Timothy Dalton played Rhett while Manchester-born Joanne Whalley played Scarlett. Original plans were used for the reconstruction of a replica of the original Tara set in Charleston, South Carolina for the filming.

Trivia

• Gone with the Wind is Ted Turner's favorite movie, as such he launched the TNT network with a broadcast of this film.

• Clark Gable and Vivien Leigh spent their time between takes playing battleship as said by Olivia de Havilland during an interview called, "Melanie Remembers". They permitted de Havilland to play once and she promptly beat the both of them. She was not allowed to play again.

• Also in Olivia de Havilland's interview, she stated that when it came time to get into character she would take at least twenty minutes to fully become Melanie while Vivien Leigh could march before the camera and become Scarlett O'Hara.

• All the liquid used for alcohol was tea, but during the scene where Clark Gable and Hattie McDaniel are drinking to the birth of Bonnie Butler, Gable (as a joke) replaced the tea with real alcohol. McDaniel did not know until she took a swig. (Courtesy of IMDB).

• Olivia de Havilland's character Melanie is the only principal character to die in the movie. Ironically, de Havilland is the only member of the top four members of the cast to still be alive. Leslie Howard died in a plane crash during the war, Clark Gable died of a heart attack in 1960, and Vivien Leigh died of tuberculosis in 1967.

• Vivien Leigh reportedly stated that she did not like kissing Clark Gable citing his breath smelled foul due to his false teeth.

• During the filming of Gone with the Wind, Vivien Leigh was reported to have smoked four packs of cigarettes a day.

• Olivia de Havilland said that she had learned of George Cukor's firing on the day they were filming the Atlanta bazaar scene. She saw a distressed Vivien Leigh and asked what the trouble was. Leigh told her that Cukor had been fired. The pair went to David O. Selznick's office in full costume with their handkerchiefs and begged him to not get rid of George Cukor. Selznick apologized but refused to change his mind.

Credits

File:Gone with the wind rerelease.jpg

A promotional poster for the film's 1998 "remastered" re-release.

• Directed by
  • Victor Fleming
  • George Cukor (uncredited, left the production)
  • Sam Wood (uncredited, took over while Fleming was away)
• Writing credits
  • Margaret Mitchell (novel)
  • Sidney Howard - adapted screenplay
  • Ben Hecht (uncredited)
  • David O. Selznick (uncredited)
  • Jo Swerling (uncredited)
  • John Van Druten (uncredited)
• Produced by
  • David O. Selznick

Principal cast

	Vivien Leigh as Scarlett O'Hara
	Clark Gable as Rhett Butler
	Leslie Howard as Ashley Wilkes
	Olivia de Havilland as Melanie Hamilton

Other cast members

• Thomas Mitchell .... Gerald O'Hara
• Barbara O'Neil .... Ellen O'Hara
• Evelyn Keyes .... Suellen O'Hara
• Ann Rutherford .... Carreen O'Hara
• George Reeves .... Stuart Tarleton (miscredited on screen as Brent Tarleton)
• Fred Crane (actor) .... Brent Tarleton (miscredited on screen as Stuart Tarleton)
• Hattie McDaniel .... Mammy
• Oscar Polk .... Pork
• Butterfly McQueen .... Prissy
• Victor Jory .... Jonas Wilkerson
• Everett Brown .... Big Sam
• Howard C. Hickman .... John Wilkes
• Alicia Rhett .... India Wilkes
• Rand Brooks .... Charles Hamilton
• Carroll Nye .... Frank Kennedy
• Marcella Martin .... Cathleen Calvert
• Laura Hope Crews .... Aunt Pittypat Hamilton
• Eddie Anderson .... Uncle Peter
• Harry Davenport .... Dr. Meade
• Leona Roberts .... Mrs. Meade
• Jane Darwell .... Dolly Merriwether
• Paul Hurst .... Yankee Deserter
• Cammie King .... Bonnie Blue Butler
• Ona Munson .... Belle Watling
• Eric Linden .... Amputation case
• Cliff Edwards .... Reminiscent Soldier

Academy Awards

Winner of 10 Academy Awards. The first eight received the "Oscar" statuette:

• Best Picture - Selznick International Pictures (David O. Selznick, producer)
• Best Actress in a Leading Role - Vivien Leigh
• Best Actress in a Supporting Role - Hattie McDaniel
• Best Cinematography, Color - Ernest Haller and Ray Rennahan
• Best Director - Victor Fleming
• Best Film Editing - Hal C. Kern, and James E. Newcom
• Best Writing, Screenplay - Sidney Howard
• Best Art Direction - Lyle Wheeler
• Special Award - William Cameron Menzies - "For outstanding achievement in the use of color for the enhancement of dramatic mood in the production of Gone with the Wind." (plaque)
• Technical Achievement Award - Don Musgrave and Selznick International Pictures - "For pioneering in the use of coordinated equipment in the production Gone with the Wind." (certificate)

Five additional nominations:

• Best Actor in a Leading Role - Clark Gable
• Best Actress in a Supporting Role - Olivia de Havilland
• Best Effects, Special Effects - Fred Albin (sound), Jack Cosgrove (photographic), and Arthur Johns (sound)
• Best Music, Original Score - Max Steiner
• Best Sound, Recording - Thomas T. Moulton (Samuel Goldwyn SSD)

Also:

• David O. Selznick was given the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award for his career achievements as a producer.

Further reading

• Bridges, Herb (1998). The Filming of Gone with the Wind. Mercer University Press. ISBN 0-86554-621-5.
• Bridges, Herb (1999). Gone with the Wind: The Three-Day Premiere in Atlanta. Mercer University Press. ISBN 0-86554-672-X.
• Cameron, Judy, & Paul J. Christman (1989). The Art of Gone with the Wind: The Making of a Legend. Prentice Hall. ISBN 0-13-046740-5.
• Harmetz, Aljean (1996). On the Road to Tara: The Making of Gone with the Wind. New York: Harry N. Abrams. ISBN 0-8109-3684-4.
• Hutchinson, Ron (2004). Moonlight and Magnolias, two-act comedy featuring producer David O Selznick, play doctor Ben Hecht and director Victor Fleming, engaged in a frantic, five day re-writing of the Gone with the Wind screenplay, before filming resumed under Fleming's direction. Hutchinson's play was first staged at The Goodman Theatre, Chicago, Illinois on May 15, 2004. The playscript was published by Oberon Books, London (2007) ISBN 1840028106, to coincide with the London premiere at the Tricycle Theatre on October 1, 2007.

External links

• Gone with the Wind at IMDb

• Gone with the Wind wardrobe
• Gone with the Wind at LocateTV
• [broken link<nowiki</nowiki>], Vancouver Playhouse analysis of Ron Hutchinson's play, Moonlight and Magnolias (PDF)

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