In the case of “Gone With The Wind,” it was both an archetypal novel written by Margaret Mitchell and a classic film. I myself have seen the movie so many times that I can tell when dialogue has been cut out of segments. A tempestuous love story set against the colorful backdrop of the American South during The Civil War, Mitchells’ characters are beautifully drawn and memorably executed both in the book and in the screen production of 1939.
In an interesting aside, the character of Ashley Wilkes (played by Leslie Howard) was actually based on the author’s cousin by marriage, John “Doc” Holliday, and Melanie Wilkes , played by Olivia de Havilland, was based on a third cousin, Mattie, “Sister Melanie” Holliday. She was Doc’s love and sort of wife. They couldn’t actually marry because they were staunch Catholics, not to mention first cousins. Supposedly, Doc left Georgia as heartbroken as Mattie and became a famous outlaw; she entered a convent and became a nun. Thus we have “Sister Melanie.”
Gary Cooper turned down the role of Rhett Butler. It couldn’t have been better suited for Clark Gable, whose bold saunter and virile good looks produced a most appealing romantic leading man. Even though Vivien Leigh as beautiful Scarlett complained that she hated kissing him because of his bad breath, women of all ages swooned with each passionate embrace.
More than 1,400 actresses tried out for the role of Scarlett even though Selznick already had his girl. For publicity’s sake he pretended the hunt was on for the right actress, but it was all a ruse. Notables who tried out for the coveted part included Susan Hayward, Bette Davis and Lucille Ball, just to name a few.
The cast is outstanding and includes Olivia De Havilland as Melanie Wilkes, Thomas Mitchell as the irrepressible Thomas O’Hara who taught his daughter, Katy Scarlett, that ” land is all that matters.”
The entire comic relief of the film was delivered brilliantly by Hattie MacDaniel who played Mammie. She won an Academy Award for her wonderful performance and yet, in the saddest of commentaries, was unable to attend the film’s Atlanta premiere because of Georgia’s strict segregation laws. So as not to force David Selznick from fighting for her right to be there, she wrote to him and said she was “unavailable.”
The film is a masterpiece and to this day is a call for romantics everywhere to unite, sit down and watch it again. Margaret Mitchell never wrote another book as she was struck and killed by a car near her Atlanta home in 1949. Her house was turned into a museum where drafts of the original novel were kept on display.
What are some of YOUR favorite moments from this momentous epic of war, love and romance?