On March 10, 1939, Victor Fleming, cast and crew worked on “The Arrival at Twelve Oaks” sequence. Fleming directed Vivien Leigh entering Twelve Oaks and returning the greetings of the young men gathered in the hall. The camera even captured her flirtations with Tony Fontaine, Rafe Calvert and Cade Calvert, but this footage was eventually scrapped.
Remaining in the scene was a line of dialogue that should have been cut: “I wore this old dress just because I thought you liked it.” Scarlett’s remark to the Tarletons leaves movie goers scratching their heads. When had Brent and Stuart previously seen her in the green sprig silk muslin dress?
The opening scene of the film — the Porch Scene — was shot for the first time in January 1939 and showed Scarlett in this very same gown flirting with the Tarletons. But, by June 1939, producer David O. Selznick decided to reshoot the Porch Scene and have Scarlett wear the white gown she wears during Evening Prayers. So since the dress she wore to the barbecue was not the one Brent and Stuart had seen her wearing the afternoon before, her line to them lost all its meaning.
Happy 75th anniversary, Gone With the Wind!
Blog Bio: Pauline Bartel is the author of The Complete GONE WITH THE WIND Trivia Book (2nd edition), which will be published in spring 2014, and an expert on the film and its history. Visit the website (www.paulinebartel.com/resources/books/books-available) for further information. Follow her on Twitter @PaulineBartel and “like” her on Facebook (www.facebook.com/TheCompleteGWTWTriviaBook)