Facts > Films > Gone with the Wind
Gone with the Wind (1939) Facts
| Director(s) | Victor Fleming, George Cukor (uncredited), Sam Wood (uncredited) |
| Producer(s) | David O. Selznick |
| Featured Cast | Clark Gable, Vivien Leigh, Thomas Mitchell, Evelyn Keyes, Ann Rutherford |
| Total Facts | 150 |
Although Olivia de Havilland was always front-runner to play Melanie, Janet Gaynor and Andrea Leeds were also considered.
Although he played Brent Tarleton in the film, the screen credits mistakenly list Fred Crane as playing Stuart Tarleton.
Although he was dismissed from the production, George Cukor continued to privately coach both Vivien Leigh and Olivia de Havilland at their request on weekends.
Among the many famous actress considered for the part of Scarlett were Jean Arthur, Lucille Ball, Tallulah Bankhead, Bette Davis, Claudette Colbert, Joan Crawford, Paulette Goddard, Katharine Hepburn, Olivia de Havilland, Carole Lombard, Norma Shearer, Barbara Stanwyck, and Margaret Sullavan. Bankhead (an authentic "Southern Belle" from Alabama) was the clear front-runner, but her unsavory personal life made producers reluctant to hire her.
At nearly four hours long, this is longest running of all movies to win the Best Picture Academy Award.
At one point, five film units were shooting scenes. Directors involved were Sam Wood, Sidney Franklin and stunt coordinator Yakima Canutt.
Before casting had actually started, Margaret Mitchell was asked (during an interview) who, she felt, should play Rhett Butler. She replied, "Groucho Marx." This was obviously a joke, and Margaret Mitchell's way of reiterating that she wanted nothing to do with the making of the film.
Came first in the UK's Ultimate Film, in which films were placed in order of how many seats they sold at cinemas, with an estimated two-thirds of the UK's population going to see it
Cinematographer Lee Garmes was fired a month into production because his footage was deemed to be too dark. He was replaced by Ernest Haller and Ray Rennahan.
Contrary to popular belief, this is not the first film to use the word "damn". The expletive was used in numerous silent intertitles and in several talkies, including Cavalcade and Pygmalion.
During filming Vivien Leigh reportedly smoked four packets of cigarettes a day. Clark Gable smoked three packs a day throughout his career.
During the casting, Erin O'Brien-Moore was suggested for the role of Scarlett, although she was ultimately never auditioned or given a screen test.
Female costumes were made complete with petticoats, although they wouldn't have been missed had they not been there.
First color film to win the Best Picture Oscar.
For the premiere in Atlanta in December 15, 1939, the governor declared a state holiday. Ticket prices for the premiere were 40 times the usual going rate.
For the premiere in Atlanta in December 15, 1939, the governor declared a state holiday. Ticket prices for the premiere were 40 times the usual going rate.
For the premiere in Atlanta in December 15, 1939, the governor declared a state holiday. Ticket prices for the premiere were 40 times the usual going rate.
For the scene in which Scarlett escapes the burning of the Atlanta Depot, a horse was needed to play woebegone, an 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.
Half a million feet of film were shot. This was all edited down to 20,000 feet.
If box office receipts for the movie were adjusted for inflation, it would be the top grossing movie of all time; Star Wars would only be the second most successful movie of all time. According to the Guinness World Records homepage the total gross in 2005 figures would be $3,785,107,801.
If the number of total admissions are calculated, this is the most popular movie of all time in the US with over 200 million tickets sold. While having the advantage of being released several times in theaters, there were half as many Americans alive when it was released, compared with other films that set the domestic box office record: Avatar, Titanic, E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial, Star Wars and Jaws. (However subsequent films also had to compete with television and later the internet for audiences, and the emergence of home video formats in the 1980s reduced the demand to see all films theatrically.)
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 presented a serious problem. 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." Although legend persists that the Hays Office fined Selznick $5,000 for using the word "damn", in fact the Motion Picture Association board passed an amendment to the Production Code on November 1, 1939, to insure that Selznick would be in compliance with the code. Henceforth, the words "hell" and "damn" would be banned except when their use "shall be essential and required for portrayal, in proper historical context, of any scene or dialogue based upon historical fact or folklore ... or a quotation from a literary work, provided that no such use shall be permitted which is intrinsically objectionable or offends good taste." With that amendment, the Production Code Administration had no further objection to Rhett's closing line, "Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn."
In 1994, Judy Lewis went public with the information that she is indeed the love child of Clark Gable and Loretta Young, which had been the subject of speculation in Hollywood for years. (Loretta Young always claimed she went away for a while, found the girl, and adopted her.) Thus, in an interesting coincidence, Clark Gable's real life daughter Judy Lewis is a close friend of Gable's on-screen daughter in this film, Cammie King Conlon (Bonnie Blue Butler).
In 2004, the movie was completely restored from the original three Technicolor negatives. This time, digital technology was employed to create results impossible to achieve with traditional methods. The negatives were scanned in at 2K resolution and digitally combined to remove all previous alignment problems and achieve perfect registration despite different amounts of shrinkage in the masters. The resulting digital master is of higher quality than any prints available so far - including the original prints from 1939. The color was timed to be identical to that of the surviving answer print of David O. Selznick, which is the color reference for the film. Reportedly, Selznick's original answer print was lost but it turned up five weeks into the 2004 digital restoration process. The color timing of the new digital master was subsequently stopped and started all over again from scratch. This 2004 digitally restored version looks truly astonishing, particularly when projected with a digital projector. An improved version, this time working at 4K resolution is already approved and should be finished in 2005. The 2009 Blu Ray Release comes from a new improved version 8K resolution scan and that is maximum possible limit for 70mm format.
In 2007, the American Film Institute ranked this as the #6 Greatest Movie of All Time.
In a March 1939 newspaper article, David O. Selznick was reported to be considering producing Gone with the Wind as two films, as it was felt that the novel was far too long and complex to be successfully made into a single motion picture for the time.
In the scene after Scarlett returns to a decimated Tara, digs up a radish in the garden, then retches and gives her famous "As God is my witness... " line, the vomiting sounds were actually looped by Olivia de Havilland. One version of the story is that Vivien Leigh "could not" produce a convincing enough retching sound. Another version of the story is that Vivien Leigh "would not" make the retching sound because "it simply was not lady-like".
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.
In the scene where Scarlett searches for Dr. Meade, making her way among 1,600 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.
June 2008 Ranked #4 on the American Film Institute's list of the 10 greatest films in the genre "Epic".
Neither Clark Gable or Leslie Howard wanted to be in the film. Howard didn't even bother to read the original novel.
None of the interior sets had ceilings. These, and the upper parts of many exteriors, were optically added or modified with matte paintings. This is most noticeable to the modern discerning eye in the last shot of the scene showing the many dead and wounded Confederate soldiers. The tattered Confederate flag, previously seen in the astonishing pullback crane shot blowing in the breeze, is now represented by a matte painting, hanging limp.
Nothing in the internal memos of David O. Selznick indicates or suggests that Clark Gable played any role in the dismissal of director George Cukor. Rather, they show Selznick's mounting dissatisfaction with Cukor's slow pace and quality of work. Almost half of Cukor's scenes were scrapped or later re-shot by others. From a private letter from journalist Susan Myrick to Margaret Mitchell in February 1939: "George Cukor finally told me all about it. He hated leaving the production very much he said but he could not do otherwise. In effect he said he is an honest craftsman and he cannot do a job unless he knows it is a good job and he feels the present job is not right. For days, he told me he has looked at the rushes and felt he was failing... the things did not click as it should. Gradually he became convinced that the script was the trouble... So George just told David he would not work any longer if the script was not better and he wanted the Sidney Howard script back... he would not let his name go out over a lousy picture... And bull-headed David said 'OK get out!'" Selznick had already been unhappy with Cukor ("a very expensive luxury") for not being more receptive
Of all the actresses considered for the role, Louise Platt, Tallulah Bankhead, Linda Watkins, Adele Longmire, Haila Stoddard, Susan Hayward (at the time using the name Edythe Marriner), Dorothy Mathews, Brenda Marshall, Paulette Goddard, Anita Louise, Margaret Tallichet, Frances Dee, Nancy Coleman, Marcella Martin, Lana Turner, Diana Barrymore, Jean Arthur, Joan Bennett and Vivien Leigh were given actual screen tests for the role of Scarlett O'Hara.
Of all the many actresses who tested for the part of Scarlett, only Paulette Goddard and Vivien Leigh were filmed in color.
One month after the book was published, David O. Selznick purchased the movie rights from Margaret Mitchell for an unprecedented $50,000. At the time it was the highest sum that had ever been paid for an author's first novel. Realizing he had underpaid Mitchell, Selznick gave her an additional $50,000 as a bonus when he dissolved Selznick-International Pictures in 1942.
One of the few remaining scenes directed by George Cukor to survive into the final cut of the film is the birth of Melanie's baby.
One of the first promising candidates for the role of Scarlett was Adele Longmire, who was seventeen at the time. Her parents did not permit her to travel to New York for a screen test, so Longmire did not appear in a film until several years later.
One of the reasons that Clark Gable hesitated to do the film was his participation in a previous costume drama Parnell in 1937. The film was a terrible, embarrassing failure and Gable regretted accepting the role.
Perhaps because the movie had so many cooks, it accumulated an unusually large number of major scenes which occur on stairways. Scarlett first views Rhett Butler down a stairway; Butterfly McQueen is slapped on the landing of a stairway for complicating Melanie's pregnancy; Scarlett shoots a Yankee in the face on a stairway; Rhett charges up a stairway with Scarlett in his arms to force himself on her; and Scarlett falls down a stairway and miscarries.
Pictured on one of four 25¢ US commemorative postage stamps issued 23 March 1990 honoring classic films released in 1939. The stamp featured Stagecoach, Beau Geste, The Wizard of Oz, and Gone with the Wind.
Pictured on one of four 25¢ US commemorative postage stamps issued 23 March 1990 honoring classic films released in 1939. The stamp featured Stagecoach, Beau Geste, The Wizard of Oz, and Gone with the Wind.
Pictured on one of four 25¢ US commemorative postage stamps issued 23 March 1990 honoring classic films released in 1939. The stamp featured Stagecoach, Beau Geste, The Wizard of Oz, and Gone with the Wind.
Producer David O. Selznick and production designer William Cameron Menzies also directed parts of this film, uncredited.
Production began with Robert Gleckler playing Jonas Wilkerson. After a month of filming, Gleckler died. His scenes were re-shot with replacement cast member Victor Jory.
Prominent Atlanta preacher Martin Luther King, Sr. (father of Martin Luther King) was invited to the cotillion ball held in Atlanta at the film's premiere. King, Sr. had been urged to boycott the festivities by other community leaders because none of the black actors in the film were allowed to attend. A forward thinker, King, Sr. attended because he was invited - and brought along his famous son with him.
Ranks third in the Academy Award most nominated films list with 13 nominations.
Rhett was not allowed to say, on film, "Maybe you'll have a miscarriage" right before Scarlett falls down the stairs; the line is changed to "Maybe you'll have an accident."
Scarlett's son, Wade Hampton Hamilton, was in an early draft of the script, but was cut from the story before filming began. He does appear in a book of paper dolls of the film's characters that was printed before his part was eliminated from the film.
Super macho director Victor Fleming wanted Scarlett, for at least once in the film, to look like his hunting buddy Clark Gable's type of woman. So, when wearing the stunning low-cut burgundy velvet dress with rhinestones that Scarlett wears to Ashley Wilkes' birthday party in the second half of the film, to achieve the desired cleavage for Fleming, Walter Plunkett had to tape Vivien Leigh's breasts together.