The filming of Gone With the Wind, as everyone well knows, had its ups and downs. The Leigh/Gable hatred and other factors made the 'road to Tara' a bumpy one indeed. Here are a few scenes with their initial problems. On other pages, I am sure, you can find lists of bloopers. As I enjoy hearing about them but not discovering them, I will leave those fortunate others who have sharper eyes than I to give them to you. =)

OPENING SCENE:

This was the first scene shot (besides the 'Burning of Atlanta' scene), and it had to be re-shot and re-shot! The hair of the Tarleton twins was such an unnatural shade of red it would have blinded the audience. Scarlett's dress was a horrid green colour instead of the virginal white she was given later. The lawn of Tara looked false, and the facade of Tara looked no better. It had to look good, since this scene launched the epic film, and so it was shot over and over . . .

GERALD'S WALK WITH SCARLETT:

Selznick soon began to regret not shooting his movie on location when he saw the result of the scene -- the landscaping was false and skimpy, and he remarked that "Tara looks like the backyard of a suburban home!" And with Gerald going on about how he loves his land and it was the only thing that matters, it was funny that he should love such a pathetic piece of the earth. The scene was eventually re-shot in Malibu.

BARBEQUE SCENE:

Only a week before the filming began, Selznick was still struggling with a lengthy script and was debating the cut of some scenes. Unfortunately, some of those scenes that he was preparing to cut were some of the most memorable ones in the novel, such as the Barbeque Scene. This helped portray to the audience Scarlett's flirtatiousness and anger when she hears the news of Ashley's engagement to his cousin Melanie Hamilton, but both these qualities (flaws?) of Scarlett's nature had been seen earlier on the porch of Tara and when she walked with her father. The Barbeque Scene was deemed totally unnecessary, but was left in since the readers of the novel might miss it.

THE ATLANTA EXODUS:

When this scene was filmed, hundreds of extras, some armed with horses and carriages, come hurtling down the street to abandon their city before the Yankees come. Men are marching, horses are spooked, and cannons are sounding. This had been carefully choreographed by William Cameron Menzies, and the director, Victor Fleming, was all ready to being shooting Scarlett's double running through the crowd. Unfortunately for him, Vivien Leigh refused, and decided that she would do the scene herself. Fleming was angry, and the insurance representative was nervous as Leigh calmly dodged the population of Atlanta that hurled themselves in the opposite direction to that which she wanted to go.

THE ARRIVAL OF BEAU:

Olivia de Havilland had never been a wife or mother at the time of the filming of Gone With the Wind, and so she knew little about childbirth, since it was an alien experience to her. She wished to portray it realistically, so she spent hours in a corner of a delivery room at a Los Angeles County Hospital. When she reported to Cukor that labour pains were not continuous, but came in 'waves', he gave her ankle a painful twist whenever he wished for her to have a 'contraction'.

THE BURNING OF ATLANTA:

Selznick wished to build Tara and Twelve Oaks on the back lot, but before he could do that a space had to be cleared for them. The lot was littered with sets of old movies, such as King Kong, Little Lord Fauntleroy, and so on. It would take too long to dismantle and remove them, so Selznick came up with a better idea: he would attach false fronts to the sets and burn them for the 'Burning of Atlanta' scene. And so he did, but with some complications. Some residents of Culver City, not knowing about the filming, saw the flames and assumed that Los Angeles was on fire. They ran to their cars and drove out of town!! I guess they should have been notified that there were going to be balls of fire licking at the clouds that evening.

RHETT ENLISTS:

Without a motive at all, Captain Rhett Butler, blockade runner and all-round scoundrel, suddenly decides to make an about-face and enlist. Cukor was appalled -- would the audience accept this as it was? Of course not! There had to be something to make him change his mind. So they inserted into the scene a young soldier collapse in agony. The audience is fooled into believing that this is the cause of Rhett's being ashamed of himself, living in comfort while young innocents were dying. I never connected those two events for some reason . . . I am so gullible, I just saw the movie with rose-tinted glasses and refused to see any flaws. =)

THE YANKEE DESERTER:

In the part of the Yankee deserter, who was bent on robbery and rape, Selznick cast Paul Hurst who had been playing menacing characters for more than ten years. Sidney Howard wanted to delete the scene, but Selznick wanted to leave it in, so it remained. When the scene was filmed, Paul Hurst thought that the crowd that congregated on the soundstage was due to his superb acting and the tension he created in the scene, but the reason was much simpler: it was rumoured that under her nightgown Olivia de Havilland wore nothing at all, and she had to remove this nightgown to cover the dead soldier.

PADDOCK SCENE:

This was the scene that had gotten Vivien Leigh in the part of Scarlett. She had performed it with a boldness that oozed the essence of Scarlett in her screen test, but when it came time to actually shoot the scene, it was a pale copy of the test. Leslie Howard had lost interest in the role and kept forgetting his lines. When they re-shot the scene again the next day, it was still horrible compared to the test.

RECONSTRUCTION:

When Sidney Howard was writing the script, he wished to insert several new scenes that would show the inequities of the Reconstruction period. Selznick was not for this, since they did not have enough time to use the scenes that Margaret Mitchell had written, and it was unthinkable to film other scenes that did not appear in the novel. Since the ideas behind Reconstruction needed to be shown, Selznick slipped it into existing scenes, such as the carpetbagger telling some blacks that he would give them forty acres and a mule when Scarlett comes to visit Rhett in prison.

RHETT'S PROPOSAL:

Most of the men who helped translate Gone With the Wind all saw Scarlett as a selfish [you know what]. Vivien Leigh wanted to keep some humanity in her character. When Rhett proposes to her, the script had Scarlett say "My mother brought me up to be kind and thoughtful -- and I've turned out such a disappointment." Selznick kept cutting the lines out, and Leigh kept putting them back in. Leigh won, and put a trace of humanity in her cold, heartless character.

THE ARRIVAL OF BONNIE:

When Bonnie Blue arrives, there is a scene in which Rhett pours Mammy a glass of Scotch. It was supposed to be the cold tea that is used for Scotch in movies, but in one scene Hattie McDaniel said a line, gulped the drink, froze and gasped. Everyone started to laugh, since Gable had put real Scotch in her glass.

MEASUREMENT SCENE:

Scarlett decides not to have any more children after having her spreading waistline measured by Mammy. In reality [i.e. - the novel] it wasn't just the size of her waist that brought her to this decision, but a conversation with Ashley in which the stupid fellow makes her believe that he still loves her. Since they did not include this conversation in the movie, it makes Scarlett look more shallow than she actually was, and Ashley look more noble than he was. (In my opinion, Ashley was stupid).

THE BREAKFAST TRAY:

When Scarlett awakens after being bedded by the drunken Rhett, one can see a breakfast tray on the side of the bed that is there before Mammy comes in complaining about her aches and pains. This was because before the editing, there was a short moment when Bonnie brings her the tray and leaves before Mammy arrives.

The information for this page was obtained from:

"Pictorial History of Gone With the Wind" by Gerald Gardner and Harriet Modell Gardner.