http://www.franklymydear.com/history/time-1936f.html
http://us.imdb.com/TUrls?MSC+0031381
Add pictures of Margaret's house!
Directed by: George Cukor and (uncredited) Victor Fleming &
Sam Wood
Written by: Margaret Mitchell
Music by: Max Steiner
Filming Dates: December 10, 1938 to November 11, 1939
Filming Locations:
Released on: Decembre 15, 1939
Running Time: 234 minutes
Budget: $3.9 million
Box-Office: $191.749 million in the U.S., $79.375 million in
rental in the U.S.
Along with every other female star in the world, Katharine Hepburn coveted
the role of Scarlett O'Hara. David O. Selznick terminated their interview
quickly, telling the angular star: "I can't imagine Clark Gable chasing
you for 10 years!"
After David O. Selznick had announced that he must find an unknown to play Scarlett O'Hara, an unprecedented talent search got under wat. One actress, after she had been rejected during a New York audition, followed George Cukor to Atlanta, where she boarded the train and tore through every carriage in search of the elusive director. Cukor had been warned and while the woman was forcibly held on the platform he clambered on to the coal wagon.
Meanwhile back at Selznick-International, a huge packing case was delivered, with a notice: "Open at once." As the secretary followed the instruction, a young beauty sprang out and ran into Selznick's office, where she began to strip while trying to recite lines in the character of Scarlett.
Irene Mayer Selznick, married at the time to David Selznick, recalls
a truck bringing another large package to their Beverly Hills home on a
Sunday morning. Inside, a giant facsimile volume of the cover of Gone With
The Wind revealed yet another hopeful in period costume: "Merry Christmas
Mr. Selznick," she announced. "I am your Scarlett O'Hara."
The first writer David O. Selznick hired to write a screenplay for Gone With the Wind was the Pulitzer-winning playwright Sidney Howard. His drafts would have played five and a half hours. After Howard quit, Selznick worked over two years with a dozen writers, including Charlie MacArthur, John Van Druten, and F. Scott Fitzgerald. In a letter to his daughter, Scottie, the novelist called the book "not very original... but interesting, surprisingly honest, consistent and workmanlike throughout, and I felt no contempt for it but only a certain pity for those who consider it the supreme achievement of the human kind."
Fitzgerald and his mistress Sheilah Graham had some fun acting out key
scenes between Rhett Butler and Scarlett, but this came to a grinding halt,
when the writer was terminated after two weeks for using words other than
those of Margaret Mitchell's, "as if it were Scripture."
Atlanta and the original director George Cukor had both been fired when Victor Felming, the replacement director, demanded -as replacement directors tend to- a complete rewrite. Every idle day was costing David Selznick a fortune, and in desperation he offered Ben Hecht $15,000 if he could do it in a week. It was then that Selznick was appaled to learn that Hecht had not read the most admired novel of the decade, and given the time constraint, he had no intention of doing so. ("It would only have confused me," Hecht told his agent, Leland Hayward.)
Instead, in a bizarre plot-reversal, the writer made the producer tell
him the entire story. After an hour of Selznick's recitation, Hecht had
enough. "That's the most involved plot I've ever heard," said the doctor
to the patient. "Can't you just throw it away and I write a new one?"
After casting Vivien Leigh in Gone With the Wind, producer David Selznick
began to worry about the smallness of her breasts, as they would (not)
be revealed by some of the low-cut gowns being designed for the picture.
He suggested that she should wear fuller bras. Vivien Leigh dispatched
her personal assistant Sonny Alexander, who came back with half a dozen
samples. After trying a few in front of the mirror, the future Scarlet
O'Hara inspected her equipment: "Fiddle-dee-dee, I'm not going to wear
these silly props, when I have perfectly good ones on my own!" And she
didn't. But the next time Selznick welcomed her to the set, he looked and
said: "You see how much better you look now!"
Bette Davis won the Best Actress Academy Award for "Dangerous" and "Jezebel" and fought unsuccessfully with Warner Brothers to break her contract because she felt she wasn't receiving the top roles an Oscar winning actress deserved. When she came back after the lawsuit her roles improved dramatically. The only role she didn't get that she wanted in 1939 was Scarlett O'Hara in "Gone With the Wind." Warners wouldn't loan her to David O. Selznick unless he hired Errol Flynn to play Rhett Butler, which both Selznick and Davis thought was a terrible choice.
Mitchell, Margaret wrote her novel between 1926 and 1929. In her early drafts, the main character was named "Pansy O'Hara" and the O'Hara plantation we know as Tara was called "Fountenoy Hall."
A few of Mitchell's working titles for the novel included "Tomorrow is Another Day," "Not in Our Stars," "Bugles Sang True" and "Tote the Weary Load."
One month after the book was published, film producer David O. Selznick purchased the movie rights from Mitchell for an unprecedented $50,000. At the time, this was the highest sum that had ever been paid for an author's first novel.
In 1939, the Hollywood Production Code dictated what could and could not be shown or said on screen, and Rhett Butler's memorable last line raised red flags. A few of the suggested alternatives were "Frankly my dear... I just don't care," "...it makes my gorge rise," "...my indifference is boundless," "...I don't give a hoot," and "...nothing could interest me less." Fortunately, producer Selznick elected to pay a $5,000 fine and keep the original, "Frankly my dear, I don't give a damn."
For the scene in which Scarlett escapes the fires of Atlanta, a horse was needed to play Woebegone, and old nag on the verge of collapse. A suitable candidate was finally found, but weeks later, when the horse was brought to the set, it had gained weight and its ribs were no longer visible. There was no time to find a replacement, so the makeup department painted dark shadows on its ribs to give the appearance of malnourishment.
1,400 actresses were interviewed for the part of Scarlett O'Hara. 400 were asked to do readings.
In the scene where Scarlett searches for Dr. Meade, making her way amoung 1600 suffering and dying Confederate soldiers, to cut costs - and still comply with a union rule that dictated the use of a certain percentage of extras in the cast - 800 dummies were scattered among 800 extras.
The film sequence that is commonly referred to as "the Burning of Atlanta" was not the actual burning of the city by General Sherman in November 1864. Instead, the scene represents the night, two months earlier, when the retreating Confederate army torched its ammunition dumps to keep the Union army from capturing them.
All seven of Hollywood's then-existing Technicolor cameras were used to film the fires of Atlanta. Flames 500 feet high leaped from a set that covered 40 acres. Ten pieces of fire equipment from the Los Angeles police department, 50 studio fireman and 200 studio helpers stood ready throughout the filming of this sequence in case the fire should get out of hand. Three 5000 gallon water tanks were used to quench the flames after shooting.
In the scene where Rhett pours Mammy a drink after the birth of Bonnie, for a joke during a take, Clark Gable actually poured alcohol instead of the usual tea into the decanter without Hattie McDaniel knowing it until she took a swig.
First scene to be shot was the fires in Atlanta, filmed on December 10 1938. If there was a major mistake during the filming, the entire film might have been scrapped. What they actually burned were a whole lot of old sets on the studio backlot, including the "Great Gate" from King Kong (1933). 113 minutes of footage were shot, the cost of the blaze coming to more than $25,000. The fire was so intense that the unwarned public of Culver City jammed the telephones lines, thinking MGM was burning down. Scarlett was doubled by Eileen Goodwin and Dorothy Fargo, while Rhett was doubled by Yakima Canutt and Jay Wilsey.
When filming began, the part of Scarlett O'Hara had not yet been cast. Vivien Leigh was introduced to producer David O. Selznick by his brother Myron Selznick during filming. (The actor in the long shots during the fire scenes is a double.) Leigh wanted the role so much that she read the novel and several volumes on the Civil War.
Bette Davis turned down the role of Scarlett O'Hara, thinking that her co-star would be Errol Flynn, with whom she refused to work.
Selznick asked Alfred Hitchcock for help with the scene in which the women wait for the men from the raid on Shantytown and Melanie reads "David Copperfield". Hitchcock delivered a precise treatment, complete with descriptions of shots and camera angles. Hitchcock wanted to show Rhett, Ashley etc. outside the house, dodging the Union soldiers. He also wanted an exchange of meaning glances between Melanie and Rhett inside the house. Virtually nothing of this treatment was used.
Gable was so distressed over the requirement that he cry on film (during the scene where Melanie is comforting Rhett after Scarlett's miscarriage) that he almost quit. Olivia de Havilland convinced him to stay on the film.
Female costumes were made complete with petticoats, although they wouldn't have been missed had they not been there.
The scene where Scarlett digs up a turnip then retches and gives her "As God is my witness" line, the vomiting sounds were actually made by de Havilland since Leigh could not produce a convincing enough retch.
This film had three directors, George Cukor being the first. Victor Fleming, (who had just finished Wizard of Oz, The (1939)) was brought in, and he was replaced by interim director Sam Wood for a few weeks while recovering from exhaustion. Cukor filmed about 33 miuntes of footage, 17 of which appear in the first half of the film, the remainder were cut or reshot.
Leigh worked for 125 days and received about $25,000. Gable worked for 71 days and received over $120,000.
Hattie McDaniel wasn't allowed at the premiere in Atlanta because she was colored.
The final shooting script dated Jan. 24, 1939 now has a price tag of $25,000 (late 1999).
Production began with Robert Gleckler playing Jonas Wilkerson. After a month of filming, Gleckler died. His scenes were reshot with replacement cast member Jory, Victor.
The horse that Mitchell, Thomas rode was later Silver of Lone Ranger fame.
Hattie McDaniel became the first African-American to be nominated for
an Academy Award. She won, too, for Best Supporting Actress for her role
as Mammie.
1940 Academy Awards
| Honorary Award for outstanding achievement in the use of color for the enhancement of dramatic mood in the production of Gone with the Wind (plaque) | William Cameron Menzies | Won |
| Oscar Best Actress in a Leading Role | Vivien Leigh | Won |
| Best Actress in a Supporting Role | Hattie McDaniel | Won |
| Best Art Direction | Lyle R. Wheeler | Won |
| Best Cinematography, Color | Ernest Haller
Ray Rennahan |
Won |
| Best Director | Victor Fleming | Won |
| Best Film Editing | Hal C. Kern
James E. Newcom |
Won |
|
Best Picture |
David O. Selznick | Won |
| Best Writing, Screenplay | Sidney Howard | Won |
| Technical Achievement Award For pioneering in the use of coordinated
equipment in the production Gone with the Wind.
Nominated Oscar Best Actor in a Leading Role Clark Gable |
Musgrave, Don | Won |
| Best Actress in a Supporting Role | Olivia de Havilland | Nominated |
| Best Effects, Special Effects | Fred Albin (sound)
Jack Cosgrove (I) (photographic) Arthur Johns (sound) |
Nominated |
| Best Music, Original Score | Max Steiner | Nominated |
| Best Sound, Recording | Thomas T. Moulton (Samuel Goldwyn SSD) | Nominated |
