A Drunken Rhett Threatens Scarlett

On Monday, May 29, 1939, Victor Fleming finished directing Rhett’s drunken clash with Scarlett in the dining room of their Atlanta home, hours after she returned from Ashley’s birthday party.   Rhett’s smoldering rage — “Observe my hands, my dear. I could tear...

Rhett Prefers to Take the Stairs

On Saturday, May 27, 1939, director Victor Fleming gathered his cast on the set of Scarlett’s Atlanta house for the second day of work on the “Row and Rape” sequence. With cameras rolling, Clark Gable seized and kissed Vivien Leigh violently at the foot of the...

Paddock Scene Do Over Doesn’t Do It

On Thursday, May 25, 1939, Victor Fleming, Vivien Leigh and Leslie Howard regrouped for a reshoot of the paddock scene. Howard muddled his way through the dialogue, and Leigh stumbled through hers. She cursed herself this time. Howard yielded to discretion and uttered...

Leigh and Howard Clash in Paddock Scene

On Wednesday, May 24, 1939, Victor Fleming directed Vivien Leigh and Leslie Howard in the pivotal paddock scene. Needing $300 to pay the taxes on Tara, Scarlett seeks advice from Ashley, whom she finds splitting rails in the paddock area. He has no help to give and...

Care for Another Radish, Miss Leigh?

At 2 a.m. on Tuesday, May 23, 1939, Victor Fleming, Vivien Leigh and crew traveled from the Selznick studio to the Lasky Mesa in the San Fernando Valley to film the stirring scene of Scarlett vowing to “never be hungry again.” According to the script, an...