Classic 30s Movie: “Gone With the Wind”

May is classic 30s movie month. Today’s guest post comes from W. H. Morris.

Title: Gone With The Wind

Year: 1939

Writers: Screenplay by Sidney Howard, Oliver H.O. Garrett and Jo Swerling (uncredited), Ben Hecht (uncredited), novel by Margaret Mitchell

Lead Actors: Clark Gable, Vivian Leigh, Leslie Howard, Olivia de Havilland

Directors: George Cukor, Victor Fleming

Plot Summary: Epic Civil War drama focuses on the life of petulant southern belle Scarlett O’Hara (Vivien Leigh). Starting with her idyllic on a sprawling plantation, the film traces her survival through the tragic history of the South during the Civil War and Reconstruction, and her tangled love affairs with Ashley Wilkes (Leslie Howard) and Rhett Butler (Clark Gable).

Why I Think This Is A Classic 30s Movie:

Since the overwhelming success of D.W. Griffith’s landmark Birth of a Nation Hollywood had produced numerous successful historical spectacles.

The nineteen thirties are known as the Golden Age of the studio system. 1939 is considered the peak year for the film industry which was The Hollywood Studio System. Despite the credits at the end of any film every film was finally the vision of the man at the top of the studio, who were usually called moguls. Jack Warner at Warner Brothers, Daryll Zanuck at Fox, Harry Cohn at Columbia Studios and the mogul of all moguls, Louis B. Mayer at MGM.

David O. Selznick was the son of silent film producer, Lewis Selznick. His older brother Myron was an agent and he was married to Mayer’s daughter. Irene. He had been a producer at his father-in-law’s studio where he had success with several films including Dinner at Eight and A Tale of Two Cities. He left MGM in 1935 to form his own independent studio, David O. Selznick Productions.

Selznick was looking for a civil war story with a different angle. When Gone With The Wind became a best seller he bought the rights for 50,000 dollars.

Selznick was as driven as any studio mogul of the era but he did not have the resources of a major studio. The cost of production to make Gone With The Wind the genuine spectacle it deserved to be would have been prohibitive for a small studio like Selznick’s. He solved this by trading the film to MGM for its leading male star, Clark Gable. With Gable signed and the backing of MGM he had the resources to bring Gone With The Wind to the screen on the scale the story deserved.

Then Selznick, an obsessive perfectionist, commenced laboring ceaselessly to bring his vision of Gone With The Wind to the screen.

He insisted on using the newly developed Technicolor process because he felt it was the only filming process available which could bring the rich colors the story required to the screen.

Selsznick worked tirelessly, nearly round-the-clock, viewing and reviewing scenes and demanding retakes when they did not match his vision precisely. When enough guild extras could not be found for the Confederate wounded scene he had dummies dressed in Confederate uniforms placed in the rear of the set to give the shot the depth he felt it required.

When shooting was completed he personally supervised cutting 800,000 feet of film into four hours of unprecedented cinematic story telling.

Acting as a one movie mogul Selznick marshalled the forces of MGM and produced a film which with sweep, grandeur, valor and heartbreak, wove petty jealousies and noble sacrifices into a one of a kind four hour cinema spectacle. Nearly eighty years later Selznick’s tale of the silly self absorbed sixteen year old girl who becomes the valiant resolute woman Scarlet O’Hara becomes still moves hearts and thrills viewers.

Box office for its first release was twenty two million dollars. Since that time the gross revenue for GONE WITH THE WIND has become well over a billion dollars. MGM has since staged regular re-releases of the film and this strategy helped MGM stay in the black during some very lean times.

That is why I think Gone With The Wind is not only a classic 30s film it is the classic film of 20th Century Hollywood.

Awards: Oscars went to Vivian Leigh Best Actress, Hattie McDaniel Best Supporting Actress, Victor Fleming Best Director and David O. Selznick Best Picture. Writer Sydney Howard who died early in 1940 received a posthumous Oscar for best screenplay.

Additional Oscars were presented for Best Cinematography, Color to Ernest Haller and Ray Rennahan, for Best Art Direction to Lyle R. Wheeler and for Best Film Editing to Hal C. Kern and James E. Newcomb.
Special Additional Oscars went to William Cameron Menzies for Outstanding Achievement In The Use of Color. Technical Achievement Award to R.D. Musgrave for pioneering in the Use of Coordinated Equipment in the production of Gone with the Wind.

My Favorite Moment in the Movie: The Burning of Atlanta. This scene characterizes better than any the cataclysmic effects of the violent transition the South is experiencing.

Key Things You Should Look For When Watching This Movie:

Visual story telling thrives on contrasts. As the story unfolds. Gone With The Wind Is rich with contrasts: black and white, wealthy leisure vs. exhausting poverty, noble idealism and petty self interest.

Listen as Max Steiner’s sweeping score perfectly captures the emotional grandeur and force of the film.
The casting in Gone With the wind is nothing short of perfect. Not only the leading characters but also the supporting actors express complex conflicted human beings struggling to make sense of their lives.

Also, pay particular attention how costuming is used to depict contrast and how it is used to support the story. For example the Confederate soldiers uniforms become tattered as their dream of a separate nation is shredded by the merciess Yankee advance.

All of the elements work together to present the raw and real emotions of the story. This is a drama not burdened by nuance or innuendo. In one scene Rhett tells Scarlett “ I want to hear you tell me what you told Ashely Wilks, that you love me.” No hidden message to decode there. In another scene Scarlet declares “ As God is my witness I shall never starve.”

This scene where Scarlett realizes that Rhett Butler has overheard her declare her love for Ashley is typically classic Gone with the wind. It contains one of the many often repeated quotes from Gone With The Wind. “Sir, you are no gentleman.”

My Favorite Dialogue In the Movie:

Much of the dialogue from Gone With The Wind has entered popular speech. Several quotes from Gone with The Wind are among The American Film Institute’s 100 Best Known Film Quotes. Here are two more well known examples.

Prissy: I don’t know nothin’ ‘bout birthin’ babies.

Prissy, as portrayed by Butterfly McQueen, proves she’s either brilliant, pretending to be completely incompetent so as not to help those who oppress her, or incredibly stupid. Either way everyone has heard or used some version of it.

Rhett Butler: Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn.

This heartbreaking line is what informs the audience that Rhett Butler is positively finished with his relationship with Scarlett. We can still see his figure disappear into the fog as he leaves her forever. And the line stands as the most memorable movie quote, ever.

Thanks, W. H.!

To show our gratitude for your guest post, here’s a dash of creative juju for you. Whoosh!

We already have a set of classic 40s movies, 5os movies, 60s Movies, 70s movies, 80s Movies and 90s Movies. This month, we’re working on 30s movies. And thanks to the GITS community, we’ve got at least 22 movies in the works and hopefully!

Those who I put in bold have already sent me their posts. If you haven’t sent yours to me, please do so as soon as you can!!!

All Quiet on the Western Front — Michael Waters
Bride of Frankenstein — Marija Nielsen
Bringing Up Baby — Melinda Mahaffey
Captain Blood — John Arends
City Girl — Adam Westbrook
Dracula — Sheila Seaclearr
Duck Soup — David Joyner
Gone With The Wind — W. H. Morris
Gunga Din — Steve Huerta
It Happened One Night — Joni Brainerd
Make Way for Tomorrow — Susan Winchell
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington — Amber Watt
Rebecca — Katha
Snow White and the Seven Dwarves — Will King
Sabotage — Jeff Xilon
Stagecoach — Thenewlight
The 39 Steps — Felicity Flesher
The Adventures of Robin Hood — Clay Mitchell
The Petrified Forest — Rachel Sheridan
The Women — Liz Clarke
Topper — Wayne Kline
Trouble in Paradise — Vincenzo
Vampyr — Megaen Kelly

I am still looking for volunteers. If there’s a 30s movie you’d like to write about, please post your suggestion in comments or contact me via email.