Gone With The Wind Is the Worst Movie Ever (characters, popular, children)
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My grandfather worked on it, doing set dressing. He was there when they were burning down the set of Ben Hur which substitued Atlanta, prior to the role of Scarlet being cast.
That is so cool.
I checked IMDb. It doesn't list Hattie as being in attendance at the preview in Riverside.
Great movie. One of my favorites. The pullback crane shot at the railroad is magnificent even today.
There are movies and there are MOVIES. The latter are those that are basically considered masterpieces, the type of films that get preserved by The Library of Congress along with a sample of Roger Ebert‘s semen of the projector reel just to let you know he gave it A Big Thumbs Up.
LOL
I'll put it this way, I liked "Gone With The Wind" in spite of the fact that the most annoying, maddening, and infuriating female character ever in the history of cinema, Scarlett O'Hara, did her very best to get me to despise this epic movie every step of the way.
By the time Butler got around to telling her off- "Frankly my dear I don't give a damn"- I think the audience would've gone mad with perverse pleasure if he had smacked her right in her purdy pouty mouth.
My grandfather worked on it, doing set dressing. He was there when they were burning down the set of Ben Hur which substitued Atlanta, prior to the role of Scarlet being cast. This was a movie they went all out on and did do it more accurately close to the book than many, given how many had read it.
I loved the charaterizations of all but poor sad Ashley Wilkes. In the book he was a weak man who couldn't cope well with his society crumbling, and he just stumbled along without trying to accept the new reality at all. He didn't have much nobility at all, and Scarlett was asked to take care of him when Melenie died because his wife knew he'd just crumble without someone to watch over him. But Leslie Howard was a name actor, major star, hero of movies like the Scarlet Pimpernel, and you just didn't have him act a role like that. So we get the sad but noble man. It is even more pathetic that Scarlett was so stuck on him as the weak one in the book.
I'm wondering. The actual first premier was not in Atlanta but in Riverside California at the Fox theater. It was not the 'offical' premier but a book was printed for it. Until it vanished somewhere my mom, who attended with the family, had one. What I'm wondering is if since this was essencially an industry affair, would Hatti McDaniel's have been there?
CD won't let me rep you again. Good post and informative. I love little inside tidbits about the makings of a movie. One of the best books I have ever read was about the making of Casablanca. What a hoot ! I guess we can try and find out if she attended the first premiere. I suspect she did. You know that Prissy ended up in Atlanta (?) or anyway in Georgia and owned a bunch of rental houses. I guess that was her retirement....
There are movies and there are MOVIES. The latter are those that are basically considered masterpieces, the type of films that get preserved by The Library of Congress along with a sample of Roger Ebert‘s semen of the projector reel just to let you know he gave it A Big Thumbs Up.
LOL
I'll put it this way, I liked "Gone With The Wind" in spite of the fact that the most annoying, maddening, and infuriating female character ever in the history of cinema, Scarlett O'Hara, did her very best to get me to despise this epic movie every step of the way.
By the time Butler got around to telling her off- "Frankly my dear I don't give a damn"- I think the audience would've gone mad with perverse pleasure if he had smacked her right in her purdy pouty mouth.
And she played the part beautifully, exactly as Margaret Mitchell intended.
She was spoiled, vain, conniving, tougher than nails, beautiful Scarlett O'Hara.
Speaking of Margaret Mitchell: when the producers of GWTW were casting the leads they had pretty well decided, early on, to cast Gable as Butler.
However, one producer got the bright idea to ask Ms. Mitchell (she was well known for her fondness of movies) if she had a certain male movie star in mind as she wrote the Rhett Butler character. What great publicity of she cited Gable!
They met with Ms. Mitchell and asked that very question. Her response:
"Yes, I had Groucho Marx in mind".
They decided to go with Clark Gable.
However, if you read the book you can sorta see Groucho. A very sarcastic person was Mr. Butler.
I checked IMDb. It doesn't list Hattie as being in attendance at the preview in Riverside.
Great movie. One of my favorites. The pullback crane shot at the railroad is magnificent even today.
Thanks. That's too bad, but not surprising. It's cool they mention the Riverside showing. Of, if ONLY I still had the book.
That shot of the railyard with all the dying men has to be one of the most pointed anti-war moments in any movie.
The one place I want to see in Riverside again if the performing arts theater they are building where the theater was, preserving the art deco decoration. The place sat virtually empty for ten years while money was raised to buy it.
Thx. I didn't read this far before posting. Sorry.
I have an inside storybook about the making of GWTW and poor old David Selznick almost killed himself making this movie. Everything had to be perfect.
And, ditto on the crane shot. It always makes my heart swell with the artistry of that shot and then I cry.....LOL.
I think because nearly everyone who was going to see it had read the book he felt it had to be perfect. It was this penaltimut book which just caught the imagination of great depression ridden America. And from what I've heard he was a perfectionist anyway.
Book sounds real interesting. I wonder if my grandfather got a mention.
My mom said they hated going to movies with him. He didn't go to see the movie but pick apart the set since he was an expert. He'd be wispering the whole movie how that lamp was twenty years to new for the time and how the style was wrong and so on. He insisted on things being accurate.
Speaking of Margaret Mitchell: when the producers of GWTW were casting the leads they had pretty well decided, early on, to cast Gable as Butler.
However, one producer got the bright idea to ask Ms. Mitchell (she was well known for her fondness of movies) if she had a certain male movie star in mind as she wrote the Rhett Butler character. What great publicity of she cited Gable!
They met with Ms. Mitchell and asked that very question. Her response:
"Yes, I had Groucho Marx in mind".
They decided to go with Clark Gable.
However, if you read the book you can sorta see Groucho. A very sarcastic person was Mr. Butler.
He would fit without the physical comedy. Gable did a wonderful job of the character in the book though. I wish Leslie Howard had played Ashley as the loser he was written to be.
It was funny about how after the book started soaring in popularity, and especially after the movie, people would look up Margaret Mitchell's phone number and call. Her longtime maid answered the phone and would start out by saying no, we don't know what happened to Miss Scarlett and Mr Rhett, Did you call for something else?
They needed someone to hurry up and invent voicemail.
Bumping this thread, bcuz I recently rewatched Gone..
I think it's a great movie.. I like the scenery (especially the silhouettes against the dramatic skies), the story line, Rhett Butler, etc. Scarlett was painfully & depressingly narcissistic, but fun to watch.
But I get what the original poster is saying.. some of the step & fetch'it type stuff is hard to watch. Taste is subjective.., I don't begrudge critics of the movie.
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