The Waterbury Democrat. [volume] (Waterbury, Conn.) 1917-1946, 1940-02-05
Reviewed.

In the final analysis "Gone With
the Wind" filmed from the famous
War Of the States novel by Margaret
Mitchell, Is a work Of art. True we
were promised great things when
filming Of this picture was first
talked of. Then as time went on, and
in the matter of casting we were
given a around with this one
and that one mentioned for major
roles the general public became more
or less skeptical and figured that
GWTW would turn out to be Uncle
Toms Cabin" or Under Southern
Skies" with Clark Gable playing a
combination of Uncle Tom and a
.disputable southern gentleman.
However, there were few mistakes in
the producing of this picture, and in
the casting all was harmony, as far
as the action on the screen and as
seen at the grand opening in Water
bury.
Recalling to mind the thousand
or more pages of the novel; you
might say Director Victor Fleming
and screen artist Sidney Howard
did right by Margaret Mitchell.
The director and his vast army
of assistants caught every
characterization, and outlin d
the series Of events, begin
ming at lovely Tara in the state of
Georgia, the nearby Twelve Oaks
plantation, the bazaar in Atlanta, at
Aunt Pittypat's in Atlanta, and all
the various scenes at Atlanta includ-
ing the hospital, the sacking and the
evacuation-all these sequences came
in their proper order; the action was
like clockwork but never mechanical.
We repeat that 1t was a MASTER
piece of filming even when nearby
onlookers wept copiously, gasped or
hid their faces during the siege or
during the hospital or stretcher
bearer scenes. The Civil war was not
a pretty picture and in reproducing
the events in the Atlanta area, Sher-
mans march and the terrible sacking
and destruction along the way, the
uprooting of these vast plantations
where southern chivalry flourished,
the producers did a thorough job.
There is no need to recall or re-
tell the plot of "Gone With the
Wind" It was quite according to
Mitchell. Take your major charac-
tiers. Rhett Butler, Scarlet OHara,
Melanie Hamilton, Ashley Wilkes and
we feel that We can add to those in
big print grand old Nanny, and you
have Clark Gable, Vivien Leigh,
Olivia De Havilland, Leslie Howard,
and Hattie Mcdaniel in roles made
for them; either that or else they
were skillful enough actors to project
themselves into the roles so that one
was forced to say-no one could have
been better. Clark Gable as Rhett
was so good that he was Rhett as you
knew him in the book from his first
appearance at Twelve Oaks to the
final fadeout. AS a matter of fact the
G. p. general public AGAIN. just nat
urally picked Gable before he knew
very much about the book or had
even been given a chance to refuse
an offer to play it. His choice seems
to have been unanimous from start
to finish. Isl
But the. show should have an
American actress for Scarlet. You
heard this on all sides. But 1t didn't.
Absolutely not. It needed Miss Vivien
Leigh. Her moods were as various
and different as her gowns which
NUMBERED (was 1t forty or f1ftyO
Scarlet was character to dominate
any picture; like Rhett she was ruth
less, but she had an admirable cour-
age. AS the character develops with
Miss Leigh's skillful acting you see
her playing losing game; in the
end she has shot her bolt and she is
shown when in the throes of despair
suddenly animated again at the
thoughts of one thing left to her,
Tara, her home, as ones is reminded
that her father always told her her
own land and home were the only
things in life that really mattered.
Olivia De Havilland played the Sc