The Making of a Legend: Gone with the Wind (TV 1988)

This is a documentary that revisits the making of Gone with the Wind with Archival footage, screen tests, insightful interviews and rare film footage.

Director:

David Hinton

Writer:

David Thomson

Stars:

Christopher Plummer, L. Jeffrey Selznick, David O. Selznick

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Christopher Plummer	...	Narrator (voice)
L. Jeffrey Selznick	...	David O. Selznick (voice)
David O. Selznick	...	Himself - Producer of 'Gone with the Wind' (archive footage)
Irene Mayer Selznick	...	Herself - Wife of David O. Selznick (archive footage)
William A. Wellman	...	Himself - Director of 'A Star Is Born' (archive footage) (as William Wellman)
Marcella Rabwin	...	Herself - Executive Assistant to David O. Selznick
Katherine Brown	...	Herself - Eastern Story Editor for David O. Selznick (as Kay Brown Barrett)
George Cukor	...	Himself - Starting Director of 'Gone with the Wind' (archive footage)
Margaret Mitchell	...	Herself - Author of 'Gone with the Wind' (archive footage)
Jimmy Fidler	...	Himself - Radio Broadcaster (voice) (archive footage)
Silvia Shulman Lardner	...	Herself - Secretary to David O. Selznick (as Silvia Schulman Lardner)
Tallulah Bankhead	...	Herself - Actress Testing for Scarlett (archive footage)
Susan Hayward	...	Actress in a film clip (archive footage)
Margaret Tallichet	...	Herself - Actress Testing as Scarlett (archive footage)
Frances Dee	...	Herself - Actress Testing as Scarlett (archive footage)

Storyline

This documentary on the making of GWTW focuses on the driving force behind the legendary film, producer David O. Selznick. He purchased the rights and over several years, tried to have a script developed. Several writers had their hand in the effort and in truth, the script was never properly finalized, something that dogged the production throughout its production. While the decision to cast Clark Gable as Rhett Butler was fairly straightforward, finding the right actress to play Scarlett O'Hara captured national attention with several of Hollywood's top stars vying for the part. The original director, George Cukor, left before the films completion as did his replacement, Victor Fleming. Selznick directed some of the scenes himself and was driven to get the film completed just as he wanted. From the film's initial test screening, the film-going public adored the results.

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Plot Keywords:

making of | colon in title | nine word title | atlanta georgia

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Genres:

Documentary

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Certificate:

Not Rated

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

October 1988 (USA)

Also Known As:

Der Film, der zur Legende wurde: Vom Winde verweht

Company Credits

Production Co:

Turner Entertainment, Daniel Selznick Properties, MGM/UA Home Entertainment

Technical Specs

Runtime:

124 min

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Olivia de Havilland did not take part in this documentary due to her not wishing to be involved in any of the 50th anniversary celebrations of Gone with the Wind.

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Connections

References Dinner at Eight (1933)

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Soundtracks

"For He's a Jolly Good Fellow"
(uncredited)
Traditional

User Reviews

Can a documentary about the making of a film get any better than this?

This is perhaps the best 'making of' documentary I have ever seen. This is incredibly impressive considering the gap of almost 50 years between the debut of "Gone With The Wind" and this documentary. Usually, the longer the interval between films, the less thorough the making of film is--but this is not the case here, as the film is approximately two hours long. Now most of the actors involved in making the original were either dead or declined to participate, yet this didn't hurt the film because there was so much tremendous background material that kept it all interesting from start to finish. The narration by Christopher Plummer was lovely, the few guest appearances were very nice and the gobs of wonderful hidden gems (such as showing the scenes with and without the matte paintings) make this come alive. If you love "Gone With The Wind", then you must see this film made for Turner Classic Movies---it will keep your interest from start to finish and have you marvel at how all the pieces actually came together. See this film!