Frankly, Scarlett -- He DID give a damn ...

Rating: 10/10 (31 March 2015)

GONE WITH THE WIND, MGM, 1939 IMG_1251.JPG IMG_1251.JPG GONE With The Wind" is so famous, probably the most famous motion picture of all time, that the initials alone GWTW are enough to identify it, yet, how many people alive today have ever seen it, not chopped up on the boob tube, but uncxut on a full size screen — undoubtedly very few. One of the most rewarding side bars of this years 65th Berlin Film Festival was the restored Technicolor Section in cooperation with MoMA of New York City, and the Eastman Kodak Archive in Rochester, N.Y. Among the many choice offerings a totally restored print, fifteen minute musical preamble and all, with 15 minute intermission at the halfway mark, of "Gone With The Wind", the magnificent silver screen wonder of 1939 ~1940. I had seen it so long ago that I needed a refresher on the plot — Scarlett such a scheming bitch and Gable such a cool cad, Both negative characters you can't help being charmed by and rooting for both even through they are pitted against each other in a towering knock-down drag-out love-hate relationship. I had forgotten that Gable actually marries Leigh and they have a child together who gets killed in a horse jumping accident before their horrified eyes. Of course everyone remembers Gable's famous last line: "Frankly Scarlet — I don't givva Damn! "" – but how many can recall the context? ~ It was in reply to Scarlett pleading with him not to leave her, after giving him nothing but heartache and two-timings all along — claiming that now at Long Last with the death of their child she realizes that she really loves Him — (Not wimpy high-minded Ashley Wilkes) — and exclaims pitifully as he is about to walk off: "What will I do with out you!!" — to which GABLE's memorable last line finally puts her in her place. It is well worth noting that in 1939 "Damn" was regarded as a such a strong expletive that It barely got past the damn Puritannical censors of the time! ~~ Today he could say: I don't give a flying f**k" – and in our oversaturated four letter word world it wouldn't be half as shocking.
A marvelous experience to see Gone With The Wind in all its blazing glory here in Berlin. But, what struck me Most about It in retrospect was how similar the central love triangle between Gable, Vivian Leigh (The all time most beautiful and alluring silver screen bitch!)– and Leslie Howard, was — nearly a perfect parallel to: Bogart, Bergman, and Paul Henreid, in CASABLANCA — So similar, in fact, that one can't help thinking that the writers of Casablanca were simply reapplying a tried and true box-office formula just three years later, updated, of course, from the Civil War to World War II then raging in North Africa. With uncanny serendipity, only weeks after the premiere of Casablanca the big three allied leaders, Churchill, Roosevelt, and Stalin met at Casablanca to decide the postwar fate of Europe.
Come to think of It Gable as Bogart, Vivian Leigh As Bergman, and Howard as wimpy high Minded Hero Victor Laszlo, would have been almost as good a cast for the B/W Curtiz pop Masterpiece. Curiously enough actor Leslie Howard was Shot down by the Nazis on a flight from Gibraltar not far from Casablanca which was thought to be carrying Winston Churchill in June 1943 — just as the film Casablanca was becoming the box office sensation of the year back in the states.