August 25, 1938 – Producer David O. Selznick took the first crucial step on the long road to Tara by signing Clark Gable for the role of Rhett Butler in the adaptation of Gone With the Wind (GWTW). Securing the services of the “King of Hollywood,” however, required giving Gable’s studio, MGM—the same company ruled by Selznick’s father-in-law, Louis B. Mayer—distribution rights and 50% of the profits.
Selznick’s own contract as an independent producer with United Artists required that they had the right to distribute all his films from 1938. This meant, in effect, that principal shooting for GWTW could not begin until 1939. By that time, Selznick would be shepherding three films through one stage of production or another—GWTW, Intermezzo, with the new young Scandinavian star Ingrid Bergman, and Rebecca, with the eccentric but extraordinary new director he’d just hired from England, Alfred Hitchcock.
Imagine that—three high-profile projects, all under the watchful eye of a perfectionist whose memos on every aspect of a production took forever for their recipients to read. To accomplish all of this, you could be a) a master at organization, b) filled with tremendous natural energy, and/or c) really hopped up on drugs.
I don’t think a) comes into play here – anybody who focuses on every tiny detail would not, most management consultants would say, really be well organized. But Selznick was certainly b) and c). He carried Benzedrine, his medication of choice, in his trouser pockets and even passed it around to production assistants.
All of the readers of Margaret Mitchell’s Pulitzer Prize-winning Civil War novel had definite ideas of how the book should be filled. One was silent-film “America’s Sweetheart” Mary Pickford, who, off the screen, was far shrewder than the innocent characters she once played. She urged that Selznick sign Margaret Sullivan for Scarlett and Clark Gable for Rhett.
There had been talk bruited about getting Warner Brothers' Errol Flynn for Rhett, but the choice of America’s fans was, overwhelmingly, Gable. You really have to be a habitual watcher of Turner Classic Movies, where you can get an idea of his full output, to understand the hold he had on American moviegoers in the 1930s. If you were on the set of a movie and he liked you, the impression he could set off was palpable. The max exuded sheer magnetism.
But if he didn’t take to you…Woe betide. Frank Capra nearly found this out on the set of It Happened One Night, before he got the star to relax and trust him. George Cukor, the initial director of GWTW, was not so fortunate. Within one week after Gable had arrived on the set, the star’s annoyance began to set in. When Selznick got a look at the dailies, the inevitable clash occurred, and Cukor was out. A pity, too: he and Selznick, though they had worked well together on David Copperfield, would never collaborate on another film again.
In the closing months of 1938, unable to start shooting in any meaningful way, Selznick decided to take the time to concentrate on securing the ideal Scarlett. That story of endless screen tests --and who knows how many hissy fits flying between starlets and their beleaguered agents--is one for the metaphorical tomorrow—which, as we all know by now, is another day.
Selznick’s own contract as an independent producer with United Artists required that they had the right to distribute all his films from 1938. This meant, in effect, that principal shooting for GWTW could not begin until 1939. By that time, Selznick would be shepherding three films through one stage of production or another—GWTW, Intermezzo, with the new young Scandinavian star Ingrid Bergman, and Rebecca, with the eccentric but extraordinary new director he’d just hired from England, Alfred Hitchcock.
Imagine that—three high-profile projects, all under the watchful eye of a perfectionist whose memos on every aspect of a production took forever for their recipients to read. To accomplish all of this, you could be a) a master at organization, b) filled with tremendous natural energy, and/or c) really hopped up on drugs.
I don’t think a) comes into play here – anybody who focuses on every tiny detail would not, most management consultants would say, really be well organized. But Selznick was certainly b) and c). He carried Benzedrine, his medication of choice, in his trouser pockets and even passed it around to production assistants.
All of the readers of Margaret Mitchell’s Pulitzer Prize-winning Civil War novel had definite ideas of how the book should be filled. One was silent-film “America’s Sweetheart” Mary Pickford, who, off the screen, was far shrewder than the innocent characters she once played. She urged that Selznick sign Margaret Sullivan for Scarlett and Clark Gable for Rhett.
There had been talk bruited about getting Warner Brothers' Errol Flynn for Rhett, but the choice of America’s fans was, overwhelmingly, Gable. You really have to be a habitual watcher of Turner Classic Movies, where you can get an idea of his full output, to understand the hold he had on American moviegoers in the 1930s. If you were on the set of a movie and he liked you, the impression he could set off was palpable. The max exuded sheer magnetism.
But if he didn’t take to you…Woe betide. Frank Capra nearly found this out on the set of It Happened One Night, before he got the star to relax and trust him. George Cukor, the initial director of GWTW, was not so fortunate. Within one week after Gable had arrived on the set, the star’s annoyance began to set in. When Selznick got a look at the dailies, the inevitable clash occurred, and Cukor was out. A pity, too: he and Selznick, though they had worked well together on David Copperfield, would never collaborate on another film again.
In the closing months of 1938, unable to start shooting in any meaningful way, Selznick decided to take the time to concentrate on securing the ideal Scarlett. That story of endless screen tests --and who knows how many hissy fits flying between starlets and their beleaguered agents--is one for the metaphorical tomorrow—which, as we all know by now, is another day.
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