In early May 1939, Sam Wood had directed “Belle Watling on the Church Steps” — twice. The first time, Ona Munson’s costume had been heavily padded to make the slim actress look like the well-endowed Belle. The costume department outdid...
Loss and grief were center stage for Gone With the Wind’s filming during the week of Monday, May 29, 1939. After Scarlett’s miscarriage, a distraught, unshaven Rhett sits alone in his room, blaming himself for what has happened. But Melanie soon brings news that...
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...
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...
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...
