Gone with the Wind

GONE WITH THE WIND

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USA, 1939

Director: Victor Fleming

Production: Selznick International Pictures; Technicolor, 35mm; running time: 220 minutes; length: 20,300 feet. Released 15 December 1939 in Atlanta by MGM, some sources list the premiere date as 18 November 1939. Re-released 1947, 1954, 1967, 1969. Filmed 10 December 1938-August 1939 in RKO backlots and studios (rented to Selznick International for the film), and on location at Old Laskey Mesa, California. Cost: $4,250,000.

Producer: David O. Selznick; screenplay: Sidney Howard, with structural innovations by Jo Swerling and some dialogue by Ben Hecht and John van Druten, from the novel by Margaret Mitchell; uncredited directors: George Cukor and Sam Wood; photography: Ernest Haller; cameramen: Lee Garmes, Joseph Ruttenberg, Ray Rennahan, and Wilfred Cline; editors: Hal C. Kern and James E. Newcom; sound recordist: Frank Maher; production designer: William Cameron Menzies; art director: Lyle Wheeler; musical score: Max Steiner; special effects: Jack Cosgrove and Lee Zavitz; costume designer: Walter Plunkett, Scarlett's hats by John Frederics; consulting historian: Wilbur G. Kurtz; dance direction: Frank Floyd and Eddie Prinz.

Cast: Vivien Leigh (Scarlett O'Hara ); Clark Gable (Rhett Butler ); Leslie Howard (Ashley Wilkes ); Olivia De Havilland (Melanie Hamilton ); Hattie McDaniel (Mammy ); Thomas Mitchell (Gerald O'Hara ); Barbara O'Neil (Ellen O'Hara ); Caroll Nye (Frank Kennedy ); Laura Hope Crews (Aunt Pittypat ); Harry Davenport (Dr. Meade ); Rand Brooks (Charles Hamilton ); Ona Munson (Belle Watling ); Ann Rutherford (Careen O'Hara ); George Reeves (Stuart Tarleton ), wrongly credited on screen as Brent Tarleton; Fred Crane (Brent Tarleton ); Oscar Polk (Pork ); Butterfly McQueen (Prissy ); Evelyn Keyes (Suellen O'Hara ); Jane Darwell (Mrs. Merriweather ); Leona Roberts (Mrs. Meade ); Everett Brown (Big Sam ); Eddie Anderson (Uncle Peter ); Ward Bond (Tom, a Yankee Captain ); Cammie King (Bonnie Blue Butler ); J. M. Kerrigan (Johnny Gallagher ); Isabel Jewell (Emmy Slattery ); Alicia Rhett (India Wilkes ); Victor Jory (Jonas Wilkerson ); Howard Hickman (John Wilkes ); Mary Anderson (Maybelle Merriweather ); Paul Hurst (Yankee Looter ); Marcella Martin (Cathleen Calvert ); Mickey Kuhn (Beau Wilkes ); Zack Williams (Elijah ).

Awards: Oscars for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actress (Leigh), Best Supporting Actress (McDaniel), Best Screenplay, Best Cinematography-Color, Best Editing, Interior Decoration, 1939; Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences Special Awards to William Cameron Menzies for Color Achievement and to Don Musgrave and Selznick International Pictures for pioneering use of coordinated equipment, 1939; New York Film Critics' Award, Best Actress (Leigh), 1939.

Publications

Script:

Howard, Sidney, Gone with the Wind, edited by Richard Harwell, New York, 1980.

Books:

Thomas, Bob, Selznick, New York, 1950.

Howard, Leslie Ruth, A Quite Remarkable Father, New York, 1959.

De Havilland, Olivia, Every Frenchman Has One, New York, 1962.

Samuels, Charles, The King: A Biography of Clark Gable, New York, 1963.

Farr, Finis, Margaret Mitchell of Atlanta: The Author of Gone with the Wind, New York, 1965.

Essoe, Gabe, and Ray Lee, Gable: A Complete Gallery of His Screen Portraits, Los Angeles, 1967.

Dent, Alan, Vivien Leigh: A Bouquet, London, 1969.

Essoe, Gabe, The Films of Clark Gable, New York, 1970.

Robyns, Gwen, Vivien Leigh, New York, 1971.

Selznick, David O., Memo from David O. Selznick, edited by Rudy Behlmer, New York, 1972, 1981, 1989, 2000.

Lambert, Gavin, GWTW, Boston, 1973.

Flamini, Roland, Scarlett, Rhett, and a Cast of Thousands: The Filming of Gone with the Wind, New York, 1975.

Mitchell, Margaret, "Gone with the Wind" Letters, edited by Richard Harwell, New York, 1976.

Tornabene, Lyn, Long Live the King: A Biography of Clark Gable, New York, 1976.

Edwards, Anne, Vivien Leigh: A Biography, New York, 1977.

Pratt, William, Scarlett Fever, New York, 1977.

Have, Ronald, David O. Selznick's Hollywood, New York, 1980.

Fearfar, R., Clark Gable, Paris, 1981.

Harwell, Richard, editor, Gone with the Wind, As Book and Film, Columbia, South Carolina, 1983.

Bridges, Herb, Frankly My Dear: Gone with the Wind Memorabilia, Macon, Georgia, 1986.

Howard, Sidney, Gone with the Wind: The Illustrated Screenplay, New York, 1986.

Bridges, Herb, The Filming of Gone with the Wind, Macon, Georgia, 1989.

Molt, Cynthia Marylee, Gone with the Wind on Film: A Complete Reference, Jefferson, North Carolina, 1990.

Harmetz, Aljean, On the Road to Tara: The Making of Gone with the Wind, New York, 1996.

Vertrees, Alan D., Selznick's Vision: Gone with the Wind & Hollywood Filmmaking, Austin, 1997.

Bridges, Herb, Gone with the Wind: The Three-Day Premiere in Atlanta, Macon, 1999.

Articles:

Variety (New York), 20 December 1939.

Nugent, Frank S., in New York Times, 20 December 1939.

"Directed by Victor Fleming," in Lion's Roar (Los Angeles), September 1941.

Curtis, David, and Richard Goldhurst, in Film Culture (New York), May-June 1955.

Dyer, Tom, in Films in Review (New York), May 1957.

Dickens, Homer, "Leslie Howard," in Films in Review (New York), April 1959.

Clarens, Carlos, "Clark Gable," in Films in Review (New York), December 1960.

Hart, Henry, in Films in Review (New York), May 1961.

Doyle, Neil, "Olivia De Havilland," in Films in Review (New York), February 1962.

Bowers, Ronald, "Vivien Leigh," in Films in Review (New York), August-September 1965.

Sarris, Andrew, in Village Voice (New York), 26 October 1967.

Lightman, Herb A., "Creating the New 70mm Stereophonic Sound Version of Gone with the Wind," in American Cinematographer (Los Angeles), November 1967.

Reid, John Howard, "The Man Who Made Gone with the Wind," in Films and Filming (London), December 1967.

De Havilland, Olivia, "Dream That Never Died," in Look (New York), 12 December 1967.

Gow, Gordon, in Sight and Sound (London), November 1968.

Stevens, J. D., "The Black Reaction to Gone with the Wind," in Journal of Popular Film (Washington, D.C.), Fall 1973.

Pauly, T. H., "Gone with the Wind and The Grapes of Wrath as Hollywood Histories of the Depression," in Journal of Popular Culture (Bowling Green, Ohio), Summer 1974.

Finney, E., "Now Hollywood Stars Achieve Success in Spite of Themselves," in Classic Film Collector (Indiana, Pennsylvania), Fall 1976.

Sarris, Andrew, "Frankly My Dear, We Do Give a Damn," in Village Voice (New York), 29 November 1976.

Gelé, C., in Ecran (Paris), March 1978.

De Benedictis, M., "Scarlett e altro: Le stagioni di un nostro amore," in Bianco e Nero (Rome), January-February 1979.

"GWTW Quiz," in Films in Review (New York), December 1979.

Lindsey, R., in New York Times, 31 December 1979.

Behlmer, Rudy, in Magill's Survey of Cinema 2, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, 1980.

Slifer, C.W.D., "Creating Visual Effects for G.W.T.W.," in American Cinematographer (Los Angeles), August 1982.

Taylor, John Russell, in Films and Filming (London), June 1984.

Janssen, C., in Skoop (Amsterdam), December 1984-January 1985.

Valkay, S., and P. Szentmihalyi Szabo, in Filmkultura (Budapest), January 1985.

Weinberger, M., in Cinéma (Paris), May 1985.

Mancini, M., "Replantation," in American Film (Washington, D.C.), January-February 1986.

Ven de Ven, L., in Soundtrack! (Los Angeles), June 1986.

Oney, Steve, "A Second Wind," in American Film (Washington D.C.), December 1986.

Haun, H., in Films in Review (New York), vol. 42, no. 11–12, November-December 1991.

Pierpont, C. R., "A Study in Scarlett," in New Yorker, 31 August 1992.

Beken, Ludo, "The Making of a Legend," in Film en Televisie + Video (Brussels), no. 426, November 1992.

McCarver, Pat, "Gone With the Wind : The Best Movie I've Ever Seen," in Classic Images (Muscatine), no. 218, August 1993.

Lippert, R., "'You Make Me Feel Like a Natural Woman," in Frauen und Film, no. 54–55, April 1994.

Dagle, J., and Kathryn Kalinak, "The Representation of Race and Sexuality: Visual and Musical Reconstruction in Gone With the Wind," in Post Script (Commerce), vol. 8, no. 2, Winter-Spring 1994.

French, Tony, "Has Gone With the Wind Gone With the Wind? or, Can we be Intelligent About the Past?" in CineAction (Toronto), no. 40, May 1996.

Kaufman, D., "LaserPacific Restores Luster to Gone With the Wind," in American Cinematographer (Hollywood), vol. 78, September 1997.

Tonkens, S., in Film Score Monthly (Los Angeles), vol. 2, no. 3, 1997.

Lovell, Glenn, "Frankly, My Dear, This Is No Improvement," in Variety (New York), vol. 371, no. 7, 22 June 1998.

* * *

Gone with the Wind, based on Margaret Mitchell's best-selling novel about the South during the Civil War and Reconstruction, made producer David O. Selznick's name a box-office draw, made the relatively unknown Vivien Leigh an international star, and became the most popular motion picture of all time.

Soon after Selznick bought the movie rights to Mitchell's novel in July 1936, thousands of fan letters began to arrive at Selznick International Pictures, most of them demanding that Clark Gable play the role of Rhett Butler. In order to get Gable, Selznick had to make a deal with MGM and Louis B. Mayer, who held Gable's contract. In exchange for Gable's services and $1,125,000 of the film's budget, MGM would receive the distribution rights and half the profits of GWTW.

Since Selznick had a contract with United Artists to distribute all his films until the end of 1938, principal shooting on GWTW could not start before 1939. In order to maintain public interest in the film before shooting could begin, Selznick launched a nationwide talent search to find an unknown actress to play Scarlett O'Hara. In the course of the two-year search, 1400 candidates were interviewed and 90 were tested, at a total cost of $92,000. Among those considered for the part were Katharine Hepburn and Paulette Goddard. The role eventually went to Vivien Leigh, a British actress who was largely unknown to American audiences.

The production phase of GWTW began auspiciously in December 1938, with the Atlanta fire scene—the largest fire ever staged in a film up to that time. Principal shooting, which started six weeks later, was plagued by numerous problems and required seven months to complete. The main problem was the script, which despite the efforts of more than a dozen writers, remained a confusing mass of revisions, and revisions of revisions, until after shooting was completed. The disorganized condition of the script made shooting difficult and created tension among the production personnel. After only three weeks of principal shooting, Selznick replaced director George Cukor with Victor Fleming. Two months later, Fleming, upset by Selznick's handling of the script, went home and refused to work. Selznick quickly hired Sam Wood to direct and when Fleming decided to return to the film two weeks later, Selznick let the two men split the directorial chores.

When GWTW was finally completed, it turned out to be a monumental film in almost every respect. Its technical achievements included the Atlanta fire sequence, the use of matte paintings to provide distant backgrounds and to complete partially constructed sets (GWTW marked the second use in Technicolor film of the matte process in which painted backgrounds are blended with filmed scenes of live actors), and the railroad depot crane shot, in which the camera pulls back and up to reveal Scarlett O'Hara walking among thousands of wounded Confederate soldiers—about 2000 live extras and dummies. Its total cost was $4.25 million—equivalent to $50 million today. It had the longest running time (3 hours 40 minutes) of its day and the largest titles in cinema history—each word of the film's title fills the screen itself. It was also the first major film to successfully challenge the Production Code's prohibition of profanity—with Rhett Butler's final line, "Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn."

When GWTW premiered in Atlanta on December 15, 1939, over one million people poured into the city of 300,000, hoping to see Clark Gable, Vivien Leigh, and the other stars who attended the premiere. After three days of parades, celebrations, and Confederate flag-waving, a select audience of 2500 people saw the film, and they loved it. GWTW quickly became a worldwide critical and box-office success and won ten Academy Awards, a record that stood until 1959, when Ben Hur won eleven.

As of 1983, GWTW has earned $76.7 million in domestic rentals. In 1976 NBC paid $5 million for the film's television premiere. The program, aired over two nights in November, 1976, received a 47.6 Neilsen rating—the highest rating ever received by a movie on television. CBS subsequently paid $35 million for 20 airings of GWTW over a 20-year period. When appropriate adjustments for inflation are made, GWTW is the biggest box-office success in cinema history. The current critical consensus is that GWTW is the quintessential Hollywood studio system product.

—Clyde Kelly Dunagan