# Calling all of you movie geniuses - Gone With The Wind Q **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 19, 2004, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/calling-all-of-you-movie-geniuses-gone-with-the-wind-q/240881 "2004-04-19T20:17:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Kalhoun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/3bc359/32.png) [@Kalhoun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kalhoun)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2004, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/calling-all-of-you-movie-geniuses-gone-with-the-wind-q/240881/1 "2004-04-19T20:17:16Z")
Okay. So my uncle says he heard that the railway scene, with all the bodies laying all over the place, was done with some sort of trick photography. I (and most people) assumed they just hired actors to lay there looking wounded or dead. Does anyone know if 1) they used a technique to make it look like all those people were there, and 2) what was the technique. As god as my witness, I’ll never ask this question again. ---
**Author:** ![Manatee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/50afbb/32.png) [@Manatee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Manatee)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2004, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/calling-all-of-you-movie-geniuses-gone-with-the-wind-q/240881/2 "2004-04-19T20:28:27Z")
I went to a screening about five years ago, and the guy introducing the film spent some time discussing its making. For this scene in particular, he said that it involved a lot of dummies, some of which were wired to the extras interspersed in their midst, so that when the extras moved, the limbs of various dummies would move, too. I don’t know if this was actually the case, but it’s the story that at least one “expert” was touting. ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2004, 8:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/calling-all-of-you-movie-geniuses-gone-with-the-wind-q/240881/3 "2004-04-19T20:32:09Z")
**Manatee** , that’s the story I heard on a TV documentary about the making of GWTW. ;j ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2004, 8:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/calling-all-of-you-movie-geniuses-gone-with-the-wind-q/240881/4 "2004-04-19T20:32:51Z")
It wasn’t exactly trick photography- it was done with mannequins who were “attached” with ropes and strings to live actors. It’s actually very evident when you watch the scene- you’ll notice that whenever a wounded soldier’s arm or leg goes up, there’s a soldier near him whose arm or legs move at exactly the same time. That scene was waaay overdone as far as numbers and supposedly at the premiere one of the actual Confederate vets brought into see the movie (there were more still alive than you might think) said “Goddam! If we’d a had that many men we’d have won the damned war.” There’s an excellent documentary on [The Making of GWTW](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/6301969219/qid=1082406665/sr=8-1/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i1_xgl27/103-1842708-1974214?v=glance&s=video&n=507846) that interviews one of the soldiers and has two of the mannequins as well. He demonstrates the movement. They did use a lot of painted-glass trick photography; for example, very little of the (unbelievably opulent) hallways and rooms of Twelve Oaks was actually there, and a lot of fire was “added” during editing to the Burning of the Depot scene. ---
**Author:** ![Kalhoun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/3bc359/32.png) [@Kalhoun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kalhoun)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2004, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/calling-all-of-you-movie-geniuses-gone-with-the-wind-q/240881/5 "2004-04-19T21:21:56Z")
Thanks. That all makes sense. You little brainiacs, you!!! ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2004, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/calling-all-of-you-movie-geniuses-gone-with-the-wind-q/240881/6 "2004-04-19T21:46:13Z")
That documentary is unfortunately not in DVD, but it’s actually worth the price in VHS. It’s one of the best “making ofs” ever filmed and includes goodies like screen tests from other actors (Melvyn Douglass as Ashley, Paulette Goddard [who was quite good] as Scarlett, Beula Bondi as Mammy [good, but no High-Hat Hattie], etc.) and interviews with a few of the second-tier cast members (Evelyn Keyes, Butterfly McQueen [“I hated Prissy… she should have been slapped, and often!”] etc.) and lots of really cool trivia. (Paulette Goddard didn’t get the role for two major reasons: she was openly living in sin with Charlie Chaplin at a time when good girls didn’t do that, and she lived next door to David O. Selznick, so it would have seemed odd that “after a worldwide talent search Selznick has chosen his next door neighbor”; only one person of the many many thousands to suggest actresses for the role suggested Vivien Leigh and that was a sheep farmer in New Zealand.) ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2004, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/calling-all-of-you-movie-geniuses-gone-with-the-wind-q/240881/7 "2004-04-19T21:49:38Z")
Heh-heh-heh— slight brainfart- that should have read “Ethel Waters” as Mammy (I was thinking “Beulah”, Ethel’s most famous character, and the name slipped out, though [Beulah Bondi](http://www.probertencyclopaedia.com/j/Beulah%20Bondi.jpg) most certainly **would** have been an interesting choice for Mammy.