Gone With the Wind Q

Cafe Society
41

**

This is true. Mitchell never had any children of her own, and was very uncomfortable around them. She didn’t like kids very much, and was pretty vocal about it.

**

Yes, there is, actually. The book discusses how Scarlett’s stress and anguish over how her life had turned out bothered her to the extent where only the comfort of a couple of glasses of brandy in the evening could make it better. The book also discusses, IIRC, how she hid the bottles. It also says that Dr. Meade didn’t think to tell her a pregnant woman should not drink, because it never occured to him that a lady would ever drink anything more than a glass of champagne at a wedding, or a glass of wine at dinner.

42

Actually, actress Barbara O’Neil was only 28 years old when she played Ellen O’Hara — and Vivien Leigh was 25 when she played her daughter.

As for Melanie ever being involved with Rhett, hush the thought, chile! To the end, even when they were alone together, they addressed each other as Captain Butler and Mrs. Wilkes.

43

First I name the wrong movie in a thread title, now I’m stuck with an ambiguous OP.

It’s like this: The male lead in my story is a teenage guy called Ash; his given name is Ashley. I would like to have the female lead call him “Ashley” during their first (full-out) sexual experience, but not if anyone might take that for a GWTW reference. Would they, or not?

The female lead would not use a Southern accent or anything else that would connect her with Scarlett. My reasoning was that, the first time you have sex with someone you love, you use his full name. I’m not going to change his name; I like “Ash” a lot*. I’ll just avoid having her use the full name if it might be a problem.

*And it’s not an Evil Dead reference either.

44

The red dress, and the red dressing gown Scarlett wears before her night of passion with Rhett, are symbolic to show how “scarlet” she has become in the eyes of Atlanta.

The other two “scarlet” women are Belle (who dies her hair red and wears red clothing) and Mammy with her hidden red petticoat that Rhett gives her.

A good book on this subject is Helen Taylor’s “Scarlett’s Women.”

45

One little change from the book to the movie that I actually thought made it a little better was at the ball during the war. In the book Rhett steps up and he says “Mrs. Charles Hamilton, $150 in gold.” In the movie it’s the other way around, with the money mentioned first. This allows a moment of suspense. Who is he bidding for that’s worth that much?

46

She will not consider it, Sir!

47

Oh yes I will!

48

btw, is the sequel referred to in this thread called SCARLETT?
boy, did that one blow. wasn’t there another one?

49

Frankly I don’t give a damn.

50

Personally, I always thought that Rhett and Ashley were carrying on behind the backs of Scarlet and Melanie. :smiley:

I believe there was a tragic scene cut from both the book and movie that would have gone like this…

“‘Frankly my dear, I don’t give a damn’” Rhett quoted.

“You said that to her?” Ashley replied, stunned at the use of such vulgar language, especially in the presence of a lady. He paused for a moment, the bottle of scotch in his hand. Then poured another dose for himself and his “guest.” It was good to have Rhett here, especially after Melanie’s passing. Men like him were needed to console each other, especially in their time of need. He would miss Melanie deeply, but he was afraid he would miss Rhett even more, when he left for Charleston.

Rhett stood up and quickly downed the shot of scotch, savoring the flavor as his eyes fell upon the unclothed figure of Ashley Wilkes. Ashley’s skin, pale in the yellow candle light of his bedroom was in stark contrast to his own darker, animal-like body. What a strange contrast, he thought again, for the thousandth time. Ashley, so much like the old south that had faded away, pale before the aggressive power of the future could never have Scarlett now, nor would she ever want him again. And yet, she had had her chance to have him, Rhett Butler, the lionising captain who could be a real man for her, the real future she needed and yet she had thrown him away, too.

“I’ll be back, Mr. Wilkes!” Rhett said, a sparkle in his eye as he said it. “With your dear Melanie gone,” here he lowered his eyes a moment, “and my separation from Scarlett, there’ll be even more opportunity to see each other. Did Melanie ever have any idea how close we were?”

“She suspected,” Ashley said after a moment’s hesitation. “But Scarlett’s infatuation with me was more than enough to obscure any hint of impropriety between us. Our secret is safe, Rhett!”

Captain Butler quickly dressed and left the Wilke’s residence unnoticed, heading for Belle Watling’s house. He would be back to console Ashley, after all, tomorrow is another day!

51

My favorite bit of GWTW movie trivia:

There was a problem when it came time to film the scene in which Scarlett eats a radish that she’s dug up in the garden, and then falls to the ground and vomits. It turned out that Vivien Leigh was one of those ticklish-tummied people who can’t make throw-up noises or else they’ll actually do it. To save Miss Leigh the embarrassment of hurling in front of cast and crew, Olivia de Havilland stood just out of shot made the barf noises for her while Miss Leigh mimed retching.

52

My favorite GWTW movie tidbit:

During the filming of the scence after Bonnie’s birth when Rhett and Mammy share a drink, the decanter was full of iced tea-- or so Hattie McDaniel thought. Clark Gable really liked McDaniel, and decided to play a little joke on her. As the cameras rolled, she delivered her line, and bolted the contents of the glass. She froze as tears welled up in her eyes, and then doubled over coughing. The crew burst into laughter-- Gable had put real whiskey in the decanter.

Second bit of trivia: the warehouse in the Burning of Atlanta scene was actually the gate from the original King Kong movie. The set was just taking up much needed space, and Selznick seized on the idea of setting it ablaze and filming it for the movie. The extra who played Scarlett in that scene was a man.

Third bit: The wife of the inventor of the Technicolor process was present during the filming of the entire movie. She had to personally approve every set and costume’s color before it could be filmed to ensure that the colors would show of the Technicolor process properly.

53

I thought they burned The Thief of Baghdad set.

54

As I said in an early post in this thread, my mother indoctrinated me with GWTW early on. Her favorite movie. And I learned something from her about how to look at certain situations.

Remember the scene where Scarlett has returned to a devastated Tara, and she instructs Pork to milk the cow? Pork, bewildered by all that has happened, say “But Miss Scarlett, we’s house servants.” It wasn’t his “place” to do such work. Most people in the theater laughed. But Mom pointed out to me it’s really a rather sad scene, that people’s minds can be so molded that they can’t break the chains of slavery in their mind, even if they are legally free now.

It’s something I think about every time I see the film, and something that taught me about how my mother thinks.

55

Actually, that did not happen during filming (Scarlett’s oath, which ends the first half of the movie, was filmed on location in Calabasas, California, and Olivia de Havilland was not part of that scene). It happened during “looping”, in a sound studio, where actors re-do dialogue that didn’t record well the first time.

56

One of the most common mistaken notions about GWTW is that it portrays the Burning of Atlanta. It doesn’t.

The novel and the movie portray a smaller event that happened two and a half months earlier: the burning of the Atlanta Depot. A Confederate rearguard intentionally set fire to a train load of materiél and munitions to prevent it from falling into the hands of the advancing Union Army. In the process, some nearby warehouses (one of which Scarlett is a co-owner with Melanie, through her marriage to Melanie’s brother) and a steel rolling mill also burned down, but that was the limit of the fire.

In the novel, when Frank Kennedy brings the news of the Burning of Atlanta to Scarlett at Tara, she at first is confused and asks if that is the fire she saw during her escape. Frank is quick to correct her.

In the movie, producer David Selznick cut out much Atlanta Depot fire footage that was shot to keep it from looking too much like the Burning of Atlanta. And in the pressbook for the movie, Selznick’s publicists asked publications not to mistakenly refer to the scene as the “Burning of Atlanta.”

But, to no avail.

57

Yeah, I know. I just called it that thinking that people who weren’t as familiar with the movie lore would recognize it better that way.

I have a copy of the pressbook for thed movie. The line “Please do not refer to the Burning of Atlanta as such . . .” always makes me smile for some reason. (It also cautioned them from calling the Tarelton Boys “The Tarelton Twins.”

On a slightly different note, another item that I own is one of the booklets which they handed out to theater patrons. In it, Vivien Leigh writes about the “As God is my witness . . .” scene. She must have been utterly exhauted, because she writes that the sun rose shortly after two A.M. That one always inspires a grin as well.

** carnivorousplant, ** all of my books and several documentaries I have seen agree that it was * King Kong. * One of the documentaries even superimposed the * King Kong * footage over the GWTW scene, showing the giant ape roaring between the two doors of the gate. (The image stuck in my mind for some reason.)

** Baker, ** Pork may not known * how * to milk a cow as a house worker, so I wouldn’t attribute such sentiments completely to job stratification within slavery, though I’m sure it played a part.

58

Why did the press book not want the Tarleton boys referred to as twins? My recollection from the book is that they were.

59

Because producer David Selznick decided that the two actors playing the Tarleton boys did not look enough alike to be twins, as they are in the novel. Of course, fraternal twins do not necessarily look alike, but I guess in the popular imagination, twins means lookalikes.

60

Because no amount of makeup could make the actors who played the Tareltons look enough like twins to satisfy Selznick.