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Gone with the Wind
Release date 15th December 1939
Country: USA
Running time: 220 minutes
Genre :Romance/ Drama/War
Starring Clark Gable, Vivien Leigh, Olivia de Havilland, Leslie Howard
Screenplay by Sidney Howard
Directed by Victor Fleming (George Cukor and Sam Wood)
Scarlett O'Hara has romantic adventures both before and after the Civil War. She holds a candle throughout for Ashley Wilkes but eventually discovers her true love is Rhett Butler.
Based on the number of people who actually paid to see it this is the most successful film of all time. All the actors are perfect for their roles and the production is impeccable.
The maestro behind the movie of Margaret Mitchell's novel about the passing of the Old South was producer David O. Selznick. The millions who had read the book clamoured for Clark Gable to play Rhett Butler, although Errol Flynn, Gary Cooper and Ronald Colman were seriously considered for the part.
Eventually, Selznick got Gable. He made a deal with MGM whereby the studio would put up half of the estimated $2.5 million in production expenses for the film in return for the right to distribute it and for half of the profits,on condition that Selznick could have Gable as a loan-out actor.
It was Gable, who brought about the firing of George Cukor as director of the film. Early on, Gable felt that Cukor known as a "women's director"was minimizing the male roles and skewing the general thrust of the film.He got this message to Selznick, who, after viewing many new scenes, fired Cukor and hired Gable's friend Victor Fleming.
Selznick had always had Leslie Howard in mind for the part of Ashley, but after hearing from Selznick in 1938, Howard, one of the finest screen actors of the 1930s, objected to playing yet another ineffectual character.Howard though longed to produce and direct films so Selznick offered him the position of associate producer of Intermezzo (1939) (which Selznick was then about to put into production with Howard playing opposite Ingrid Bergman) if he would play Ashley, thus satisfying Howard's behind-the-camera ambitions and adding a hefty contract with handsome six-figure payments for both films.
The part of Melanie Hamilton, the saintly lady dear to all hearts, was never in doubt with Selznick. He wanted Olivia De Havilland from the beginning. De Havilland, who wanted the role of Melanie badly,enlisted the help of Jack Warner's wife who convinced her husband to loan the actress to Selznick.
The official announcement that Vivien Leigh would be Scarlett O'Hara was the culmination of the greatest publicity campaign Hollywood would ever know. More than 150,000 feet of black-and-white film and 13,000 feet of Technicolor were used to test the hundreds of applicants, for while Europe spiraled into world war, isolationist America was utterly absorbed in the media frenzy accompanying the search for Scarlett.
Gone with the Wind opened on December 15, 1939, at the
Grand Theater in Atlanta. Every one of the theater's 2,051 seats
were sold at $10 a ticket, and the crowds outside were enormous.
Reportedly, more than a million persons clogged Atlanta's streets to
see the stars, a reaction repeated throughout the world as moviegoers
flocked to see the film.
