For a column intended to highlight films of Savannah and or all of Georgia, what could be a better subject than Gone With The Wind (GWTW hereafter)?
This classic movie retold the fall of the Confederacy and the havoc that that loss wrought with the world it left behind – the “Old South” with Atlanta at its heart.There is lots to praise in GWTW, including some fine performances, led by the young British actress Vivien Leigh, the handsome Clark Gable, Hattie MacDaniel as the bustling, wise enslaved person who shaped her owners’ lives (and won an Oscar for it, one of eight the picture won in 1939), and England’s Leslie Howard in the milk-toast role of Ashley Wilkes.
There are plenty of surprises behind GWTW, which portrayed life in Georgia, before, during and after the Civil War. The first surprise: nary a frame was shot in the state. All was filmed in California. The only thing Georgian about GWTW was its three-day, 1939 premiere which brought Atlanta pretty much to a standstill. See more here.
