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Gone With The Wind
~Script~
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Introduction
Gone With the Wind, an
all-time best-seller by
Margaret
Mitchell, is a legendary recollection of
the last brilliance of the Old
South. The writer's debut novel was an instant success. And the
story has been bestowed an even further reaching popularity since
Vivian Leigh presented a vivid translation to the screen of Katie
Scarlett O'Hara, a southern belle raised in her father's
white-pillared plantation Tara. A climax of Hollywood, from Director
Victor Fleming for MGM, Gone with the Wind is more than a
vicissitude, it is also an old, lost culture revisited. It is Old
South, which today is no more than a dream remembered. People were
once there, living with the high strong slaves' songs in the
quarters, in security, peace and eternity. Here, Scarlett spends her
young maiden years. She is well disciplined by her mother, but her
blazing green eyes always betray her covert capricious self; the one
who enjoys parties and the surrounding of beaus. She dreams to marry
the noble Ashley Wilkes. The impending war shatters the golden peace
of the South, and leaves many lives permanently changed.
Plantations, treasures, and honor are ruined. Scarlett is made a
most peculiar widow by the war, and then compelled into a second
marriage in continuation of her struggle for the salvation of Tara.
And her third marriage to Rhett Butler is also jeopardized because
of her secret, stubborn ardency for Ashley. In the end of the movie,
Scarlett is left only with her
Tara,
a plantation which symbolizes the culture of the Old South, a place
where she could ever gather her strength.
Chapter 1 Scarlett's Jealousy
(Tara is the beautiful
homeland of Scarlett, who is now talking with the twins, Brent and
Stew, at the door step.)
BRENT: What do we
care if we were expelled from college,
Scarlett. The war is going to start any day now so we would have
left college anyhow.
STEW: Oh, isn't it exciting,
Scarlett? You know those poor Yankees actually want a war? BRENT:
We'll show'em.
SCARLETT: Fiddle-dee-dee.
War, war, war. This war talk is
spoiling all the fun at every party this spring. I get so bored I
could
scream. Besides, there isn't going to be
any war.
BRENT: Not going to be any
war?
STEW: Ah, buddy, of course
there's going to be a war.
SCARLETT: If either of you
boys says "war" just once again, I'll go in the house and slam the
door. BRENT: But Scarlett honey..
STEW: Don't you want us to
have a war? BRENT: Wait a minute,
Scarlett...
STEW: We'll talk about
this... BRENT: No please, we'll do anything
you say...
SCARLETT: Well-but remember I
warned you. BRENT: I've got an
idea. We'll talk about the barbecue the Wilkes are giving over at
Twelve Oaks tomorrow.
STEW: That's a good idea.
You're eating barbecue with us, aren't
you, Scarlett?
SCARLETT: Well, I hadn't
thought about that yet, I'll...I'll think about
that tomorrow.
STEW: And we want all your
waltzes, there's first Brent, then me,
then Brent, then me again, then Saul. Promise?
SCARLETT: I' just
love to.
STEW: Yahoo!
SCARLETT: If only ..if only I
didn't have every one of them taken
already.
BRENT: Honey, you can't do
that to us.
STEW: How about if we tell
you a secret?
SCARLETT: Secret? Who by?
BRENT: Well, you know Miss
Melanie Hamilton, from
Atlanta?
STEW: Ashley Wilkes' cousin?
Well she's visiting the Wilkes at
Twelve Oaks.
SCARLETT: Melanie Hamilton,
that goody-goody. Who wants no
secret about her. BRENT: Well, anyway we heard...
STEW: That is,
they say.. BRENT: Ashley Wilkes is going
to marry her.
STEW: You know the Wilkes
always marry their cousins. BRENT:
Now do we get those waltzes?
SCARLETT: Of course. BRENT:
Yahoo!
SCARLETT: It can't be
true...Ashley loves me.
STEW: Scarlett!
(Scarlett couldn't accept the
fact of Ashley's marriage, she rushes to
find her father. Mr. O'Hara
is just back from a ride.)
Mr. O'HARA: (To his horse)
There's none in the county can touch
you, and none in the state.
SCARLETT: Paw? How proud of
yourself you are!
Mr. O'HARA: Well, it is
Scarlett O'Hara. So, you've been spying on
me. And like your sister Sue
Ellen, you'll be telling your mother on
me, that I was jumping again.
SCARLETT: Oh, Paw, you know
I'm no 'tattle like Sue Ellen. But it
does seem to me that after
you broke your knee last year jumping that
same fence......
Mr. O'HARA: I'll not have me
own daughter telling me what I shall
jump and not jump. It's my
own neck, so it is.
SCARLETT: All right Paw, you
jump what you please. How are they
all over at Twelve Oaks?
Mr. O'HARA: The Wilkes? Oh,
what you expect, with the barbecue
tomorrow and talking, nothing
but war...
SCARLETT: Oh bother the
war....was there, was there anyone else
there?
Mr. O'HARA: Oh, their cousin
Melanie Hamilton from
Atlanta.
And
her brother Charles.
SCARLETT: Melanie Hamilton.
She's a pale-faced mealy-mouthed
ninny and I hate her.
Mr. O'HARA: Ashley Wilkes
doesn't think so.
SCARLETT: Ashley Wilkes
couldn't like anyone like her.
Mr. O'HARA: What's your
interest in Ashley and Miss Melanie?
SCARLETT: It's...it's
nothing. Let's go into the house, Paw.
Mr. O'HARA: Has he been
trifling with you? Has he asked
you to marry him?
SCARLETT No.
Mr. O'HARA: No, nor will he.
I have it in strictest
confidence from John Wilkes
this afternoon, Ashley is
going to marry Miss Melanie.
It'll be announced tomorrow
night at the ball.
SCARLETT: I don't believe it!
Mr. O'HARA: Here, here what
are you after? Scarlett!
What are you about? Have you
been making a spectacle
of yourself running about
after a man who's not in love
with you? When you might have
any of the bucks in the county?
SCARLETT: I haven't been
running after him, it's...it's
just a surprise that's all.
Mr. O'HARA: Now, don't be
jerking your chin at me. If
Ashley wanted to marry you,
it would be with misgivings,
I'd say yes. I want my girl
to be happy. You'd not be happy with him.
SCARLETT: I would, I would.
Mr. O'HARA: What difference
does it make whom you
marry? So long as he's a
Southerner and thinks like you.
And when I'm gone, I leave
Tara to you.
SCARLETT: I don't want Tara,
plantations don't mean anything when...
Mr. O'HARA: Do you mean to
toll me Katie Scarlett O'Hara
that
Tara, that land doesn't mean anything to you? Why,
land is the only thing in the
world worth working for.
Worth fighting for, worth
dying for. Because it's the only thing that lasts.
SCARLETT: Oh, Paw, you talk
like an Irishman.
Mr. O'HARA: It's proud I am
that I'm Irish. And don't you
be forgetting, Missy, that
you're half-Irish too. And to
anyone with a drop of Irish
blood in them, why the land
they live on is like their
mother. Oh, but there, there, now,
you're just a child. It'll
come to you, this love of the land.
There's no getting away from
it if you're Irish.
(Next day, the O’Hara’s drive
to Twelve Oaks for the barbeque there.)
Mr. O'HARA:: Well, John
Wilkes. It's a grand day you'll
be having for the barbecue.
JOHN WILKES: So it seems,
Gerald. Why isn't Mrs. 0'Hara with you?
Mr. O'HARA: She's after
settling accounts with the
overseer, but she'll be along
for the ball tonight.
INDIA: Welcome to Twelve Oaks, Mr. O'Hara.
Mr. O'HARA: : Thank you
kindly,
India. Your daughter is
getting prettier everyday,
John.
JOHN WILKES: Oh, India, here
are the O'Hara girls, we must greet them.
INDIA: Can't stand that Scarlett. If you'd see the way
she throws herself at Ashley.
JOHN WILKES: Now, now, that's
your brother's business.
You must remember your duties
as hostess. Good morning,
girls! You look lovely. Good
morning, Scarlett.
SCARLETT:
India Wilkes. What a lovely dress. I just can't
take my eyes off it.
(Scarlett enters the hall
with her family.)
MAN1: Good morning, Miss
Scarlett.
SCARLETT: Morning.
MAN2: Look mighty fine this
morning, Miss Scarlett.
SCARLETT: Thank you.
MANS: Morning Miss Scarlett.
SCARLETT: Good Morning.
MAN4: Pleasure to see you,
Miss Scarlett.
MANS: Howdy, Miss Scarlett.
SCARLETT: Ashley!
ASHLEY: Scarlett! My dear!
SCARLETT: I've been looking
for you everywhere. I've
got something I must tell
you. Can't we go some place where it's quiet?
ASHLEY: Yes I'd like to,
but... I've something to tell you,
too. Something I...I hope
you'll be glad to hear. Now come
and say hello to my cousin,
Melanie Wilkes.
SCARLETT: Oh, do we have to?
ASHLEY: She's been looking
forward to seeing you again.
Melanie! Here's Scarlett.
MELANIE: Scarlett. I'm so
glad to see you again.
SCARLETT: Melanie Hamilton,
what a surprise to run
into you here. I hope you're
going to stay with us a few
days at least.
MELANIE: I hope I shall stay
long enough for us to become
real friends, Scarlett. I do
so want us to be.
ASHLEY: We'll keep her here,
won't we, Scarlett?
SCARLETT: Oh, we'll just have
to make the biggest fuss
over her, won't we, Ashley?
And if there's anybody who
knows how to give a girl a
good time, it's Ashley. Though
I expect our good times must
seem terribly silly to you because you're so serious.
MELANIE: Oh, Scarlett. You
have so much life. I've always
admired you so, I wish I
could be more like you.
SCARLETT: You mustn't flatter
me, Melanie, and say
things you don't mean.
ASHLEY: Nobody could accuse
Melanie of being insincere.
Could they, my dear?
SCARLETT: Oh, well then,
she's not like you. Is she,
Ashley? Ashley never means a
word he says to any girl.
Oh, why Charles Hamilton, you
handsome old thing, you.
CHARLES HAMILTON: But, oh.
Miss O'Hara...
SCARLETT: Do you think that
was kind to bring your
good-looking brother down
here just to break my poor,
simple country-girl's heart?
(India
and Sue Ellen are watching Scarlett in distance)
ELLEN: Look at Scarlett,
she's never even noticed Charles
before, now just because he's
your beau, she's after him
like a ^hornet!
SCARLETT: Charles Hamilton, I
want to eat barbecue
with you. And mind you don't
go ^philandering with any
other girl because I'm mighty
jealous.
CHARLES HAMILTON: I won't,
Miss O'Hara. I couldn't!
SCARLETT: I do declare, Frank
Kelly, you don't look dashing with
that new set of whiskers.
FRANK: Oh, thank you, thank
you, Miss Scarlett.
SCARLETT: You know Charles
Hamilton and Ray Kelvert asked me
to eat barbecue with them,
but I told them I couldn't because I\'d
promised you.
INDIA: You needn't be so amused, look at her. She's
after your beau now.
FRANK: Oh, that's mighty
flattering of you, Miss Scarlett. I'll see
what I can do, Miss Scarlett.
KATHLEEN: What's your sister
so mad about, Scarlett, you sparking
her beau?
SCARLETT: As if I couldn't
get a better beau than that old maid in
britches. Brent and Stew, do
talk, you handsome old thing, you...oh,
no, you're not, I don't mean
to say that I'm mad at you. BRENT: Why
Scarlett honey...
SCARLETT: You haven't been
near me all day and I wore this old
dress just because I thought
you liked it. I was counting on eating
barbecue with you two. BRENT:
Well, you are, Scarlett...
STEW: Of course you are,
honey.
SCARLETT: Oh, I never can
make up my mind which of you two's
handsomer. I was awake all
last night trying to figure it out. Kathleen, who's that?
KATHLEEN: Who?
SCARLETT: That man looking at
us and smiling. A nasty dog.
KATHLEEN: My dear, don't you
know? That's Rhett
Butler. He's from Charleston. He has the most terrible
reputation.
SCARLETT: He looks as if, as
if he knows what I looked like without my shimmy.
KATHLEEN: How? But my dear,
he isn't received. He's
had to spend most of his time
up North because his folks
in
Charleston won't even speak to him. He was expelled
from
West Point, he's so fast. And then there's that
business about that girl he
wouldn't marry...
SCARLETT: Tell, tell...
KATHLEEN: Well, he took her
out in a buggy riding in
the late afternoon without a
chaperone and then, and then
he refused to marry her!
SCARLETT: (whisper)...
KATHLEEN: No, but she was
ruined just the same.
(Ashley and Melanie, on the
balcony open to the garden.)
MELANIE: Ashley..
ASHLEY: Happy?
MELANIE: So happy
ASHLEY: You seem to belong
here. As if it had all been
imagined for you.
MELANIE: I like to feel that
I belong to the things you love.
ASHLEY: You love Twelve Oaks
as I do.
MELANIE: Yes, Ashley. I love
it as, as more than a house.
It's a whole world that wants
only to be graceful and beautiful.
ASHLEY: And so unaware that
it may not last, forever.
MELANIE: You're afraid of
what may happen when the war conies,
aren't you? Well, we don't
have to be afraid. For us. No war can come
into our world Ashley.
Whatever comes, I'll love you, just as I do now. Until I die.
Chapter 2
Scarlett Meeting
Butler
(Noon time, the gentlemen are
gathering in the down stair hall,
talking about the war.)
Mr. O'HARA: We've borne
enough insults from the "meddling
Yankees. It's time we made
them understand we keep our slaves with
or without their approval.
Who's to stop them right from the state of
Georgia to ^secede from the
Union.
MAN: That's right.
Mr. O'HARA: The South must
assert ourselves by force of arms.
After we fired on the Yankee
rascals at
Fort
Sumter, we've got to fight.
There's no other way.
MAN1: Fight, that's right,
fight!
MAN2: Let the
Yankee's be the ones to ask
for peace.
Mr. O'HARA: The situation is
very simple. The Yankees can't fight
and we can. CHORUS: You're
right!
MANS: That's what I'll think!
They'll just turn and run
every time.
MAN1: One Southerner can lick
twenty Yankees.
MAN2: We'll finish them in
one battle. Gentlemen can always fight
better than rattle. MANS:
Yes, gentlemen always fight better than rattle.
Mr. O'HARA: And what does the
captain of our troop say?
ASHLEY: Well, gentlemen...if
Georgia fights, I go with her. But like
my father I hope that the
Yankees let us leave the
Union
in peace.
MAN1: But Ashley... MAN2:
Ashley, they've insulted us.
MANS: You can't mean that you
don't want war.
ASHLEY: Most of the miseries
of the world were caused by wars.
And when the wars were over,
no one ever knew what they were about.
Mr. O'HARA: Now gentlemen,
Mr. Butler has been up North I hear.
Don't you agree with us, Mr.
Butler?
RHETT BUTLER : I think it's
hard winning a war with words, gentlemen.
CHARLES: What do you mean,
sir?
RHETT: I mean, Mr. Hamilton,
there's not a cannon factory in the whole South.
MAN: What difference does
that make, sir, to a gentleman?
RHETT: I'm afraid it's going
to make a great deal of difference to a
great many gentlemen, sir.
CHARLES: Are you hinting, Mr.
Butler,
that the Yankees can lick us?
RHETT: No, I'm not hinting.
I'm saying very plainly that the Yankees
are better equipped than we.
They've got
factories, shipyards,
coalmines... and a fleet to bottle up
our harbors and starve us to
death. All we've got is cotton,
and slaves and ...arrogance.
MAN: That's treacherous!
CHARLES: I refuse to listen
to any renegade talk!
RHETT: Well, I'm sorry if the
truth offends you.
CHARLES: Apologies aren't
enough sir. I hear you were
turned out of
West Point Mr. Rhett Butler. And that you
aren't received in an decent
family in
Charleston.
Not even
your own.
RHETT: I apologize again for
all my shortcomings. Mr.
Wilkes, Perhaps you won't
mind if I walk about and look
over your place. I seem to be
spoiling everybody's brandy
and cigars and...dreams of
victory.
(Rhett Butler leaves the
hall.)
MAN: Well, that's just about
what you could expect from somebody like Rhett Butler.
Mr. O'HARA: You did
everything but call him out.
CHARLES: He refused to fight.
ASHLEY: Not quite that
Charles. He just refused to take advantage of you.
CHARLES: Take advantage of
me?
ASHLEY: Yes, he's one of the
best shots the country, he's
proved a number of times,
against steadier hands and cooler heads than yours.
CHARLES: Well, I'll show him.
ASHLEY: No, no no, please,
don't go tweaking his nose
anymore. You may be needed
for more important fighting, Charles.
Now if you'll excuse me, Mr.
Butler's our guest... I think I'll just show
him around. (Ashley leaves
the hall with intention of walking
Butler
around the house. But before
he can do this, Scarlett calls him into a detached room.)
SCARLETT: Ashley!
ASHLEY: Scarlett...who are
you hiding from here?...What are you
up to? Why aren't you
upstairs resting with the other girls? What is this, Scarlett? A
secret?
SCARLETT: Well, Ashley,
Ashley...! I love you.
ASHLEY: Scarlett...
SCARLETT: I love you, I do.
ASHLEY: Well, isn't it enough
that you gathered every other man's heart today? You always had
mine. You cut your teeth on it.
SCARLETT: Oh, don't tease me
now. Have I your heart my darling? I love you, I love you...
ASHLEY: You mustn't say such
things. You'll hate me for hearing them.
SCARLETT: Oh, I could never
hate you and, and I know you must care about me. Oh, you do care,
don't you?
ASHLEY: Yes, I care. Oh can't
we go away and forget we ever said these things?
SCARLETT: But how can we do
that? Don't you, don't you want to marry me?
ASHLEY: I'm going to marry
Melanie.
SCARLETT: But you can't, not
if you care for me.
ASHLEY: Oh my dear, why must
you make me say things that will hurt you? How can I make you
understand? You're so young and I'm thinking, you don't know what
marriage means.
SCARLETT: I know I love you
and I want to be your wife. You don't love Melanie.
ASHLEY: She's like me,
Scarlett. She's part of my blood, we understand each other.
SCARLETT: But you love me!
ASHLEY: How could I help
loving you? You have all the passion for life that I lack. But that
kind of love isn't enough to make a successful marriage for two
people who are as different as we are.
SCARLETT: Why don't you say
it, you coward? You're afraid to marry me. You'd rather live with
that silly little fool who can't open her mouth except to say "yes",
"no", and raise a houseful of mealy-mouthed brats just like her!
ASHLEY: You mustn't say
things like that about Melanie.
SCARLETT: Who are you to tell
me I mustn't? You led me on, you made me believe you wanted to marry
me!
ASHLEY: Now Scarlett, be
fair. I never at any time...
SCARLETT: You did, it's true,
you did! I'll hate you till I die! I can't think of anything bad
enough to call you... (Ashley leaves. Scarlett throws a vase to the
wall in anger. The crashing of the vase startles
Rhett Butler. He rises up
from the couch in a dark corner of the room.)
RHETT: Has the war started?
SCARLETT: Sir, you...you
should have made your presence known.
RHETT: In the middle of that
beautiful love scene? That wouldn't have been very tactful, would
it? But don't worry. Your secret is safe with me.
SCARLETT: Sir, you are no
gentleman.
RHETT: And you miss are no
lady. Don't think that I hold that against you. Ladies have never
held any charm for me.
SCARLETT: First you take a
low, common advantage of me, then you insult me!
RHETT: I meant it as a
compliment. And I hope to see more of you when you're free of the
spell of the elegant Mr. Wilkes. He doesn't strike me as half good
enough for a girl of your...what was it...your passion for living?
SCARLETT How dare you! You
aren't fit to wipe his boot!
RHETT: And you were going to
hate him for the rest of your life.
Chapter 3
Scarlett Marrying
Charles
(Outside, there's chaos.
Gentlemen, including Ashley, are
leaving for the call of war.)
CHARLES: Miss 0' Hara! Miss
0' Hara, isn't it thrilling?
Mr. Lincoln has called the
soldiers, volunteers to fight
against us.
SCARLETT: Oh, fiddle-dee-dee.
Don't you men ever think
about anything important?
CHARLES: But it's war, Miss
O'Hara! And everybody's
going off to enlist, they're
going right away. I'm going,
too!
SCARLETT: Everybody?
CHARLES: Oh, Miss O'Hara,
will you be sorry? To see us
go, I mean.
SCARLETT: I'll cry to my
pillow every night.
CHARLES: Oh, Miss O'Hara,
I've told you I loved you. I
think you're the most
beautiful girl in the world. And the
sweetest, the dearest. I know
that I couldn't hope that
you could love me, so "clumsy
and stupid, not nearly good
enough for you. But if you
could, if you could think of
marrying me, I'd do anything
in the world for you, just
anything, I promise!
SCARLETT: Oh, what did you
say?
CHARLES: Miss O'Hara, I said,
would you marry me?
SCARLETT: Yes, Mr. Hamilton,
I will.
CHARLES: You will, you'll
marry me? You'll wait for me?
SCARLETT: Well, I don't think
I'd want to wait.
CHARLES: You mean you'll
marry me before I go? Oh,
Miss O'Hara...Scarlett...when
may I speak to your father?
SCARLETT: The sooner, the
better.
CHARLES: I'll go now, I can't
wait. Will you excuse me?
Dear?
(The day after Melanie and
Ashley's wedding, Scarlett
marries Charles Hamilton.)
MELANIE: Scarlett. I thought
of you at our wedding
yesterday and I hope that
yours would be as beautiful.
And it was.
SCARLETT: Was it?
MELANIE: Now we're really and
truly sisters. Charles.
CHARLES: Don't cry darling.
The war will be over in a
few weeks and I'll be coming
back to you.
Chapter 4 Scarlett's
Second Contact with
Butler
( Charles died at the front,
but Scarlett is not at all sad. She goes to
the donation party with
Melanie, wearing black.)
DR. MEADE: Ladies and
gentlemen. I have important news,
glorious news. Another
triumph for our magnificent men in arms.
General Lee has completely
whipped the enemy and swept the
Yankee army northward from
Virginia! And now, a happy surprise
for all of us! We have with
us tonight that most daring of all
blockade runners, whose fleet
"schooners slipping past the Yankee
guns have brought us here the
very woolens and laces we wear
tonight. I refer, ladies and
gentlemen, to that will oath wisp of the
bounding main, none other
than our friend from
Charleston,
Captain
Rhett Butler!
MELANIE: Captain Butler, such
a pleasure to see you again. I met
you last at my husband's
home.
RHETT: That's kind of you to
remember, Mrs. Wilkes.
MELANIE: Did you meet Captain
Butler at Twelve Oaks, Scarlett?
SCARLETT: Yes I, I think so.
RHETT: Only for a moment,
Mrs. Hamilton, it was in the library.
You, uh, had broken
something.
SCARLETT: Yes, Captain
Butler, I remember you. MAN: Ladies,
the Confederacy asks for your
jewelry on behalf of our noble cause.
SCARLETT: We aren't wearing
any, we're in mourning.
RHETT: Wait. On behalf of
Mrs. Wilkes and Mrs. Hamilton,.
MAN: Thank you, Captain
Butler.
MELANIE: Just a moment,
please. MAN: But, it's your wedding ring,
ma'am.
MELANIE: It may help my
husband more, off my finger.
MAN: Thank you.
RHETT: It was a very
beautiful thing to do, Mrs. Wilkes.
SCARLETT: Here, you can have
mine, too. For the cause.
RHETT: And you Mrs. Hamilton.
I know just how much that means
to you.
MAN: Melanie.-.I need your
approval as a member of the committee
with something we want to do,
that's rather shocking. Will you
excuse us, please?
RHETT: I'll say one thing.
The war makes the most peculiar widows.
SCARLETT: I wish you'd go
away. If you'd had any raising, you'd
know I never want to see you
again.
RHETT: Now, why be silly?
You've no reason for hating me. I'll
carry your guilty secret to
my grave.
SCARLETT: Oh, I guess I'd be
very unpatriotic to hate one of the
great heroes of the war. I do
declare, I was surprised that you'd turned
out to be such a noble
character.
RHETT: I can't bear to take
advantage of your little girl\'s ideas, Miss
O'Hara. I am neither noble
nor heroic.
SCARLETT: But you are a
blockade runner.
RHETT: For profit. And profit
only
SCARLETT: Are you trying to
tell me you don't believe in the
cause?
RHETT: I believe in Rhett
Butler. He's the only cause I know. The
rest doesn't mean much to me.
DR. MEADE: And now, ladies
and gentlemen. I have a startling
surprise for the benefit of
the hospital. Gentlemen, if you wish to lead
the opening real with the
lady of your choice, you must bid for her.
WOMAN: Caroline Meade, how
could you permit your husband to
conduct this, this, slave
auction?
CAROLINE MEADE: Darling Merry
Weather, how dare you
criticize me? Melanie Wilkes
told the doctor that if it's for the benefit
of the cause, it's quite all
right.
WOMAN: She did?
AUNT PITTY: Oh dear, oh dear,
where are my smelling salts? I
think I shall faint. CAROLINE
MEADE: Don't you dare faint, Lilly
Beth
Hamilton. If Melanie says it's all right, it is all right.
DR. MEADE: Come gentlemen, do
I hear your bids? Make your
offers! Don't be ^bashful,
gentlemen! MAN1: Twenty dollars! Twenty
dollars for Miss May belle
Merryweather.
MAN2: Twenty five dollars for
Miss Fanny Ossing!
DR. MEADE: Only twenty five
dollars to give.
RHETT: One hundred and fifty
dollars in gold.
DR. MEADE: For what lady,
sir?
RHETT: For Mrs. Charles
Hamilton.
DR. MEADE: For whom, sir?
RHETT: Mrs. Charles Hamilton.
DR. MEADE: Mrs. Hamilton is
in mourning, Captain Butler. But I'm
sure any of our
Atlanta belles would be proud to.
RHETT: But talk to me. I said
Mrs. Charles Hamilton.
DR. MEADE: She will not
consider it, sir. (Flame in Scarlett's eyes.)
SCARLETT: Oh, yes, I will.
(Scarlett squeezes through
the crowd to
Butler. They go dancing.)
RHETT: We've sort of shocked
the Confederacy, Scarlett.
SCARLETT: It's a little like
blockade running, isn't it?
RHETT: It's worse. But I
expect a very fancy profit out of it.
SCARLETT: I don't care what
you expect or what they think, I'm
gonna dance and dance.
Tonight I wouldn't mind
dancing with Abe Lincoln
himself.
(In the
Hamilton’s. Rhett pays a visit to Scarlett and brings
her a bonnet from
Paris.)
SCARLETT: Oh, oh, oh the
darling thing. Oh, Rhett, it's
lovely, lovely! You didn't
really bring it all the way from
Paris just for me!
RHETT: Yes. I thought it was
about time I got you out of
that fake mourning. Next trip
I'll bring you some green
silk for a frock to match it.
SCARLETT: Oh, Rhett!
RHETT: It's my duty to blade
boys at the front, to keep
our girls at home looking
pretty.
SCARLETT: It's been so long
since I had anything new.
(Scarlett tries the bonnet
on. Then she diverts it,
considering this is the right
way.)
SCARLETT: How do I look?
RHETT: Awful, just awful.
SCARLETT: Why, what's the
matter?
RHETT: This war stopped being
a joke when a girl like
you doesn't know how to wear
the latest fashion.
SCARLETT: Oh, Rhett, let me
do it. But Rhett, I don't
know how I'd dare wear it.
RHETT: You will, though. And
another thing. Those
pantalets. I don't know a
woman in
Paris wears pantalets
anymore.
SCARLETT: What do they... you
shouldn't talk about such
things.
RHETT: You little "hypocrite,
you don't mind my knowing
about them, just my talking
about them.
SCARLETT: Rhett, I really
can't go on accepting these
gifts. Though you are awfully
kind.
RHETT: I'm not kind, I'm just
tempting you. I never give
anything without expecting
something in return. I always
get paid.
SCARLETT: If you think I'll
marry you just to pay for the
bonnet, I won't.
RHETT: Don't flatter
yourself, I'm not a marrying man.
SCARLETT: Well, I won't kiss
you for it, either.
RHETT: Open your eyes and
look at me. No, I don't think
I will kiss you. Although you
need kissing badly. That's
what's wrong with you. You
should be kissed, and often,
and by someone who knows how.
SCARLETT: And I suppose that
you think that you are
the proper person.
RHETT: I might be, if the
right moment ever came.
SCARLETT: You're a conceited,
black- hearted varmint,
Rhett Butler, and I don't
know why I let you come and see
me.
RHETT: I'll tell you why,
Scarlett. Because I'm the only
man over sixteen and under
sixty who's around to show
you a good time. But cheer
up, the war can't last much
longer.
SCARLETT: Really, Rhett? Why?
RHETT: There's a little
battle going on right now that
ought to pretty well fix
things. One way or the other.
SCARLETT: Oh, Rhett, is
Ashley in it?
RHETT: So you still haven't
gotten the wooden headed
Mr. Wilkes out of your mind?
Yes, I suppose he's in it.
SCARLETT: Oh, tell me, Rhett,
where is it?
RHETT: Some little town in
Pennsylvania called
Gettysburg.
Chapter 5 Scarlett
Taking Care of
Melanie
(Atlanta
prayed while onward surged the triumphant Yankees...Heads
were high, but hearts were
heavy, as the wounded and the refugees
poured into unhappy
Georgia......In the hospital, Scarlett helps out as a
nurse
there, but her patience was
easily suffocated by the dying
and screaming there.)
Priest: With the Lord as my
shepherd I shall not want.
He make oath me to lie down
in green pastures. With the
sword at my soul. He lea
death me in the paths of
"righteousness for his
namesake. Yea, though I walked
through the valley at the
shadow of death, I will fear no
evil. For thou art with me.
Thy rod and thy staff, they
comfort me.
VOICE: Mrs. Hamilton, Dr.
Wilson is waiting.
SCARLETT: Let him wait, I'm
going home, I've done
enough. I don't want any more
men dying and screaming, I don't want
anymore.
(Scarlett runs out of the
hospital onto the street, where she finds the
whole city is shaking in the
flame of war. Everyone is fleeing. She is
totally at a loss what to do,
then
Butler comes with a carriage.)
RHETT: Scarlett! Whoah. Climb
into this buggy, this is no day for
walking, you'll get run over.
SCARLETT: Rhett, ride me to
where Aunt Pitty is, please.
RHETT: Panic's a pretty
sight, isn't it. Whoah, whoah. That's just
another one of General
Sherman’s calling cards. He'll be paying us a
visit soon.
SCARLETT: I've gotta get out
of here, I gotta get out of here before
the Yankees come.
RHETT: And leave your work at
the hospital? Or have you had
enough of death and lice and
men chopped up? Well I suppose you
weren't meant for sick men,
Scarlett.
SCARLETT: Don't talk to me
like that, Rhett, I'm so scared, I wish I'd
get out of here!
RHETT: Let's get out of here
together. No use staying here, letting the
South come down around your
ears. There are too many nice places to
go and visit.
Mexico, London, Paris...
SCARLETT: With you?
RHETT: Yes Ma'am. I'm the man
who understands you and admires
you for just what you are. I
figure we belong together, being the same
sort. I've been waiting for
you to grow up and get that sad-eyed
Ashley Wilkes out of your
heart. Well, I hear Mrs. Wilkes is going to
have a baby in
another month or so. It's be
hard loving a man with a
wife and baby clinging to
him. Well, here we are. Are you
going with me or are you
getting out?
SCARLETT: I hate and despise
you, Rhett Butler. And
I'll hate and despise you
till I die!
RHETT: Oh, no, you won't,
Scarlett, not that long.
(The
Hamilton’s. Scarlett is packing, preparing for
leaving.)
DR. MEADE: What is this? You
ain't planning on running
away?
SCARLETT: And don't you dare
try to stop me. I'm never
going back to that hospital,
I've had enough of smelling
death and rot and death...I'm
going home, I want my
mother. My mother needs me.
DR. MEADE: You've got to
listen to me. You must stay
here.
AUNT PITTY: Without a
chaperone, Dr. Meade, it simply
isn't done.
DR. MEADE: Good Heaven's
woman, this is war, not a
garden party. Scarlett,
you've got to stay, Melanie needs
you.
SCARLETT: Oh, bother Melanie!
DR. MEADE: She's ill already.
She shouldn't even be
having a baby. She may have a
difficult time.
SCARLETT: Can't we take her
along?
DR. MEADE: Would you want her
to take that chance?
Would you want her to be
taunted over rough roads and
have the baby ahead of time
in the buggy?
SCARLETT: It isn't my baby,
you take care of it.
DR. MEADE: Scarlett, we
haven't enough doctors, much less nurses
to look after a sick woman.
You've got to stay for Melanie.
SCARLETT: What for? I don't
know anything about babies being
borne.
PRISSY: I knows! I knows! I
knows how to do it. I've done it lots
and lots. let me doctor, let
me. I can do everything.
DR. MEADE: Good. Then I'll
rely on you to help us. PRISSY: Yes
Doctor.
DR. MEADE: Ashley's fighting
on the field. Fighting for the cause.
He may never come back. He
may die. Scarlett, we owe him a well
borne child. AUNT PITTY: If
you're coming Scarlett, hurry!
SCARLETT: I promised Ashley,
something.
DR. MEADE: Then you'll stay?
Good. Go along Miss Pitti fett.
Scarlett's staying.
SCARLETT: Prissy! Prissy!
Come here Prissy! Go pack my things
and Miss Melanie's, too.
We're to
Tara right away, the Yankees are
coming.
MELANIE: Scarlett! Scarlett!
SCARLETT: Oh, Melanie, we're
going to... Melanie.
MELANIE: I'm sorry to be such
a bother, Scarlett. It'll begin at
daybreak.
SCARLETT: But, the Yankees
are coming.
MELANIE: Poor
Scarlett...you'd be at
Tara now with your mother,
wouldn't you? If it weren't
for me...Oh, Scarlett
darling, you've been so good
to me. No sister could have
been sweeter. I've been lying
here thinking, if I should
die, will you take my baby?
SCARLETT: Oh, fiddle-dee-dee,
Melanie, aren't things bad
enough without you talking
about dying? I'll send for Dr.
Meade right away.
MELANIE: Not yet, Scarlett. I
couldn't let Dr. Meade sit
here for hours while, while
all those poor, badly wounded
boys...
SCARLETT: Prissy! Prissy come
here quick! Prissy, go
get Dr. Meade, run quick!
Don't stand there like a scared
goat, run! Hurry, Hurry! I'll
sell you South I will, I swear
I will! I'll sell you South!
(Later, Prissy comes back
alone. Scarlett has to find the
doctor herself.)
PRISSY: Is the doctor coming?
SCARLETT: No, he can't come.
PRISSY: Oh, Miss Scarlett,
Miss Melanie bad off!
SCARLETT: He can't come,
there's nobody to come. Prissy,
you've got to manage without
the doctor. I'll help you.
PRISSY: Oh, lawdsy, Miss
Scarlett!
SCARLETT: What is it?
PRISSY: Lawdsy, we've got to
have a doctor! I don't know
nothing about birthing
babies.
SCARLETT: What do you mean?
You told me you knew
everything about it!
PRISSY: I don't know how can
I tell such a lie. Ma ain't
never let me around when
folks was having them.
SCARLETT: Go! Stop it! Go
light a fire on the stove. Get boiling
water in the kettle. Get me a
ball of twine, and all the clean towels you
can find, and, the scissors.
And don't come telling me you can't find
them. Go get them and get
them quick!
Chapter
6 Back to
Tara
(Panic hit the city with the
first of
Sherman shells......
Helpless and unarmed, the
populace fled from the
oncoming Juggernaut . And
desperately the gallant
"remnants of an army marched
out to face the foe. Melanie
gives birth to a child with
the help of Scarlett. Now Scarlett
sends Prissy for Rhett
Butler, she's getting ready to leave.)
RHETT: Whoah, whoah.
SCARLETT: Rhett, is that you,
Rhett?
PRISSY: He's here, Miss
Scarlett, he's here!
SCARLETT: Oh, Rhett, I knew
you'd come.
RHETT: Good evening. Nice
weather we're having. Prissy
tells me you're planning
on...
SCARLETT: If you make any
jokes now, I'll kill you!
RHETT: Don't tell me you're
frightened.
SCARLETT: I'm scared to
death, and if you had the sense
of a goat you'd be scared,
too! Oh, the Yankees!
RHETT: No, not yet, that's
what's left by our army blowing
up the ammunition, so the
Yankees won't get it.
SCARLETT: We've got to get
out of here.
RHETT: At your service,
Madame. Just where were you
figuring on going?
SCARLETT: Home, to
Tara.
RHETT:
Tara? Don't you know that they've been fighting
all day around
Tara? Do you think you can parade right
through the Yankee army with
a sick woman, a baby and
simply minded darkie? Or do
you intend leaving them
behind.
SCARLETT: They're going with
me and I'm going home
and you can't stop me!
RHETT: Don't you know it's
dangerous jouncing Mrs.
Wilkes over miles of open
country?
SCARLETT: I want my mother! I
want to go home to
Tara!
RHETT:
Tara's probably been burned to the ground. The
woods are full of ^stragglers
from both armies, the least
thing they'll do is take the
horse away from you. And even
though it isn't much of an
animal, I did have a lot of trouble
stealing it.
SCARLETT: I'm going home if I
have to walk every step
of the way! I'll kill you if
you try to stop me, I will! I will!
I will! I will!
RHETT: It's all right,
darling, it's all right. Now you shall
go home. I guess anybody who
did what you've done today
can take care of
Sherman. Stop crying. Now blow your
nose like a good little
girl...there...
SCARLETT: Prissy, what are
you doing? PRISSY: I'm packing,
Miss Scarlett.
SCARLETT: Well, stop it. Come
and get the baby PRISSY: Yes.
SCARLETT: Melanie, Melanie...
RHETT: Mrs. Wilkes. We're
taking you to
Tara.
MELANIE:
Tara...
SCARLETT: It's the only way,
Melanie.
MELANIE: No...
SCARLETT:
Sherman will bum the house over our heads if we stay.
It's all right, Melanie, it's
all right.
MELANIE: There, there....
little baby..
RHETT: Have you the strength
to put your arms around my neck?
MELANIE: I think so.
RHETT: Never mind.
MELANIE: Oh, Ashley..
Charles!
RHETT: What is it? What does
she want?
SCARLETT: Ashley's picture
and Charles' sword, she wants us to
bring them.
RHETT: Get them.
(They venture all the way. At
last they are pretty near
Tara.
Rhett
suddenly stops.)
SCARLETT: Why did you stop?
RHETT: This is the turn to
Tara. I let the horse breathe a bit. Mrs.
Wilkes...
PRISSY: Miss Melanie done
fainted way back. Captain Butler.
RHETT: She's probably better
off. She couldn't stand the
pain if she were conscious.
Scarlett, are you still determined to do
this crazy thing?
SCAELETT: Oh, yes, yes, I
know we can get
through it, I'm sure we can.
RHETT: Not we, my dear, you.
I'm leaving you here.
SCARLETT: You're what? Rhett,
where are you going?
RHETT: I'm going, my dear, to
join the army.
SCARLETT: Oh, you're joking.
I could kill you for scaring me so.
RHETT: I'm very serious,
Scarlett. I'm going to join up with our
brave lads in gray.
SCARLETT: But they're running
away.
RHETT: Oh, no, they'll turn
and make a last stand, if I know
anything about them. And when
they do, I'll be with them. I'm a little
late, but better late than...
SCARLETT: Rhett, you must be
joking.
RHETT: Selfish to the end,
aren't you? Thinking of your own
precious hide with never a
thought for the noble cause.
SCARLETT: Rhett, how could
you do this to me, and why should
you go now that, after it's
all over and I need you, why? Why?
RHETT: Why? Maybe it's
because I've always had a weakness for
lost causes, once they're
really lost. Or maybe, maybe I'm ashamed of
myself. Who knows?
SCARLETT: You should die of
shame to leave me here alone and
helpless.
RHETT: You, helpless? Heaven
help the Yankees if they
capture you. Now climb down
here. I want to say goodbye.
SCARLETT: No.
RHETT: Climb down.
SCARLETT: Oh Rhett, please
don't go. You can't leave me, please,
I'll never forgive you.
RHETT: I'm not asking you to
forgive me. I'll never understand or
forgive myself. And if a
bullet gets me, so help me, I'll laugh at
myself for being an idiot.
But there's one thing that I do know. And
that is I love you, Scarlett.
In spite of you and me and the whole silly
world going to pieces around
us, I love you. Because we're alike. Bad
lots, both of us. Selfish and
shrewd. But able to look things in the
eyes and call them by their
right names.
SCARLETT: Don't hold me like
that.
RHETT: Scarlett, look at me.
I love you more than I've ever loved
any woman. And I've waited
longer for you than I've ever waited for
any woman. (Butler
is pressing his lips onto Scarlett's.)
SCARLETT: Let me alone!
RHETT: Here's a soldier of
the South that loves you, Scarlett. Wants
to feel your arms around him,
wants to carry the memory of your
kisses into battle with him.
Never mind about loving me. You're a
woman who's sending a soldier
to his death with a beautiful memory.
Scarlett, kiss me, kiss me,
once.
SCARLETT: You're a low-down,
cowardly, nasty thing, you! They
were right. Everybody was
right, you, you aren't a gentleman.
RHETT: A minor point at such
a moment. Here, if anyone
lays a hand on that nag,
shoot him. But don't make a
mistake and shoot the nag.
SCARLETT: Oh, go on. I want
you to go. I hope a
cannonball lands slap on you,
I hope you're blown into a
million pieces, I...
RHETT: Never mind the rest, I
follow your general idea.
And when I'm dead on the
order of my country, I hope
your conscience heard you.
Good-bye Scarlett.
(Scarlett drives on.)
SCARLETT: Melanie, Melanie,
we're home! We're at
Tara!
Hurry, move brute!
PRISSY: Oh, Miss Scarlett,
he's dead!
SCARLETT: I can't see the
house, is it there? I can't see
the house, have they burned
it? It's all right, it's all right,
they haven't burned it. It's
still there!
(Tara
had survived, to face the hell and famine of defeat.)
SCARLETT: Mother! Mother, I'm
home! Mother, I'm
home! Mother let me in, it's
me, Scarlett. Oh, Paw, I'm
home, I'm home... I'm home.
Mr. O'HARA: Careful, careful
Scarlett...
SCARLETT: Mammy, mammy, I'm
home.
MAMMIE: Oh, honey child...
SCARLETT: Mammy, I'm so,
so....where's mother?
MAMMIE: Why...Miss Sue Ellen,
Miss Careen, they
were sick with the typhoid.
They had it bad, but they's
doing all right now. Just
weak like little ^kittens.
SCARLETT: But, where's mother?
MAMMIE: Well, Miss Ellen, she
went down to nurse that Emmy
Sladdly, that white trash.
And she took down with it, too. Then last
night, she...
SCARLETT: Mother? Mother?
Mother! (Scarlett walks into her
mother's room faintly. There,
in dark and quietness, lies Mrs. O'Hara.
She's dead.) Mammy: Miss
Scarlett honey...
SERVANT: If there's anything
I can do, Miss Scarlett...
SCARLETT: What did you do
with Miss Melanie?
MAMMIE: Don't you worry your
pretty head about Miss Melanie,
child. I done slapped her in
bed already along with the baby.
SCARLETT: You better put that
cow I brought into the barn, Paul.
SERVANT: there ain’t no barn.
MAMMIE: Don't you worry your
pretty head about Miss Melanie,
child. I done slapped her in
bed already along with the baby.
SCARLETT: You better put that
cow I brought into the barn, Paul.
SERVANT: there ain’t a barn
any more, Miss Scarlett. The Yankees
done burned it to firewood.
MAMMIE: They used the house
for their headquarters Miss Scarlett.
SERVANT: They camped all
around the place.
SCARLETT: Yankees in
Tara?
MAMMIE: Yes'm. And they stole
almost everything they didn't burn.
All the clothes, and all the
rugs, and even
Miss Ellen's rosaries.
SCARLETT: I'm starving, Paul.
Get me something to eat.
MAMMIE: there ain’t anything
to eat honey. They took it all.
SCARLETT: All the chickens,
everything?
SERVANT: They took them the
first day. And what they didn't eat
they carried off across their
saddles.
SCARLETT: Don't tell me any
more about what they did. (Scarlett
goes into the room, finding
her father in solitude.)
SCARLETT: What's this , Paw?
Whisky?
Mr. O'HARA: Yes daughter.
Katie Scarlett, that's enough. Your not
knowing spirits, you'll make
yourself '''tipsy.
SCARLETT: I hope it makes me
drunk. I'd like to be drunk. Oh,
Paw...what are those papers?
Mr. O'HARA: Bonds. They're
all we've saved. All we have left.
Bonds.
SCARLETT: But what kind of
bonds, Paw?
Mr. O'HARA: Why, Confederate
bonds of course, darling.
SCARLETT: Confederate bonds.
What good are they to anybody?
Mr. O'HARA: I'll not have you
talking like that, Katie Scarlett.
SCARLETT: Oh, Paw, what are
we going to do with no money
and, ...and nothing to eat?
Mr. O'HARA: We must ask your
mother. That's it. We must ask Mrs.
O'Hara.
SCARLETT: Ask Mother?
Mr. O'HARA: Yes. Mrs. O'Hara
will know what's to be
done. Now don't be bothering
me. Go out for a ride. I'm
busy.
SCARLETT: Oh, Paw. Don't
worry about anything. It is
God's hope. You needn't
worry.
(Scarlett leaves the room,
closing the door behind her.)
MAMMIE: Miss Scarlett? What
are we going to do with
nothing to feed them sick
folks and that child?
SCARLETT: I don't know Mammy.
I don't know.
MAMMIE: we ain’t got anything
but radishes in the garden.
PRISSY: Miss Scarlett, Miss
Sue Ellen and Miss Corrine,
They's fusion to be sponged
off.
SCARLETT: Where are the other
servants Mammie?
MAMMIE: Miss Scarlett,
there's only just me and Paul
left. The others moved off
during the war and ran away.
PRISSY: I can't take care of
that baby and sick folks too.
I've only got two hands.
SERVANT: Who's going to milk
that cow, Miss Scarlett?
We's house workers.
(Exhausted and hungry as
Scarlett is, she goes out to the
open field, digging out the
leftover radishes in the ground,
swallowing. )
SCARLETT: As God as my
witness....as God as my witness
they're not going to lick me.
I'm going to live through this
and when it's all over, I'll
never be hungry again. No, nor
any of my folk. If I have to
lie, steal, cheat, or kill, as God
as my witness, I'll never be
hungry again.
Chapter 7 Ashley
Back Home
(Home from their lost
adventure came the lattered
Cavaliers. Grimly they came
hobbling back to the
desolation that had once been
a land of grace and plenty.
And with them came another
invader, more cruel and
vicious than any they had
fought, the Carpetbagger.)
SERVANT: Katie Scarlett! It's
over! It's over! It's all over,
the war! We surrendered!
CORRINE: It's not possible.
SUE ELLEN: Why did we ever
fight?
MELANIE: Ashely will be
coming home.
SCARLETT: Yes, Ashely will be
coming home. We'll plant
more cotton. Cotton ought to
go sky-high next year.
MELANIE: Scarlett, what seems
to be the trouble with
Mr. Kennedy?
SCARLETT: More trouble than
he guesses. He's finally
asked for Sue Ellen's hand.
MELANIE: Oh, I'm so glad.
SCARLETT: It's a pity he
can't marry her now. At least
be one less mouth to feed.
(Scarlett, Melanie and Mammie
stand in front of the door.
A figure appears in the
distance.)
SCARLETT: Oh another one. I
hope this one isn't hungry.
MAMMIE: Oh, he'll be hungry
SCARLETT: I'll tell Prissy to
get an extra plate.
(It\'s Ashley! Melanie opens
her arms, running to him.)
MELANIE: Ashley! Ashley!
MAMMIE: Miss Scarlett! Don't
spoil it. Miss Scarlett.
SCARLETT: Turn me loose, you
fool, turn me loose! It's
Ashley.
MAMMIE: He's her husband,
Auntie.
(Several days passed. One
day, a servant comes to
Scarlett.)
SERVANT: Miss Scarlett
Ma'am...
SCARLETT: High time you got
back. Did you get the horse
shod?
SERVANT: Yes'm, he shod all
right. Miss Scarlett Ma'am.
SCARLETT: Fine thing when a
horse can get shoes and
humans can't. Here stir the
soup.
SERVANT: Miss Scarlett Ma'am,
I've got to know how
much money have you got left?
In gold.
SCARLETT: Ten dollars. Why?
SERVANT: That won't be
enough.
SCARLETT: What in Heaven's
name are you talking
about?
SERVANT: Well, Miss Scarlett,
I see that old no-account
white trash, Wilkinson, that
used to be Mister Jerry's
overseer here. He's a regular
Yankee now, and he was
making a brag, that his
carpetbagger friends done run
the taxes way up sky-high on
Tara.
SCARLETT: How much more do we
gotta pay?
SERVANT: I heard the tax man
say three hundred dollars.
SCARLETT: Three hundred...
Oh, my, just as well be three
million. Well, we gotta raise
it, that's all.
SERVANT: Yes'm. How?
SCARLETT: I'll go ask Mr.
Ashley.
SERVANT: Oh, he ain't got no
three hundred dollars. Miss
Scarlett.
SCARLETT: Well, I can ask him
if I want to, can't I?
SERVANT: Asking ain't
getting.
(The Farm. Ashley is chopping
wood.)
SCARLETT: Ashley...
ASHLEY: They say Abe Lincoln
got his start splitting rails.
Just think what heights I may
climb to once I get the
"knack.
SCARLETT: Ashley. The Yankees
want three hundred
dollars more in taxes. What
shall we do? Ashley, what's to
become of us?
ASHLEY: What do you think
becomes of people when
their civilization breaks up?
Those who have brains and
courage come through all
right. Those who haven't are
winnowed out.
SCARLETT: For Heaven's sake
Ashley Wilkes. Don't stand
there talking nonsense at me
when it's us who are being
winnowed out.
ASHLEY: You're right,
Scarlett. Here I am talking
tummy-rot about civilization,
when your
Tara's in danger.
You come to me for help and I
have no help to give you.
Oh, Scarlett, I'm a coward.
SCARLETT: You, Ashley, a
coward? What are you afraid
of?
ASHLEY: Oh, mostly of life
becoming too real for me, I
suppose. Not that I mind
splitting rails. But I do mind very much
losing the beauty of that,
that life I loved. If the war hadn't come, I'd
have spent my life happily
buried at Twelve Oaks. But the war did
come. I saw my boyhood
friends blown to bits. I saw men crumple3
up in agony when I shot them.
And now I find myself in a world
which for me is worse than
death. A world in which there is no place
for me. Oh, I can never make
you understand, because you don't know
the meaning of fear. You
never mind facing realities. And you never
want to escape from them as I
do.
SCARLETT: Escape? Oh, Ashley
you're wrong. I do want to escape,
too. I'm so very tired of it
all. I've struggled for food and for money
and I've weeded and hoed and
picked cotton until I can't stand it
another minute. I tell you,
Ashley, the South is dead, it's dead. The
Yankees and the carpetbaggers
have got it and there's nothing left for
us. Oh, Ashley, let's run
away. We'd go to
Mexico.
They want officers
in the Mexican army, we could
be so happy there. Ashley I'd work for
you, I'd do anything for you.
You know you don't love Melanie, you
told me you loved me that day
at Twelve Oaks, and anyway, Melanie
can't...Dr. Meade told me she
couldn't ever have any more children.
And I could give you...
ASHLEY: Can't we ever forget
that day at Twelve Oaks?
SCARLETT: Just think I could
ever forget it, have you forgotten it?
Can you honestly say you
don't love me?
ASHLEY: No, I ...I don't love
you.
SCARLETT: It's a lie.
ASHLEY: Even if it is a lie,
do you think that I could go off and
leave Melanie and the baby?
Break Melanie's heart? Scarlett, are you
mad? You couldn't leave your
father and the girls.
SCARLETT: I could leave them,
I'm sick of them, I'm tired of
them...
ASHLEY: Yes, you sick and
tired, that's why you're talking this way.
You've carried the load for
all of us. But from now on, I'm going to
be more help to you, I
promise.
SCARLETT: There's only one
way you can help me. Take me away.
There's nothing to keep us
here.
ASHLEY: Nothing...nothing
except honor. Please Scarlett, please
dear, you mustn't cry.
Please, my brave dear, you mustn't...
SCARLETT: You do love me, you
do love me...
ASHLEY: No don't, don't!
SCARLETT: You love me!
ASHLEY: We won't do this, I
tell you, we won't do it. It won't
happen again, I'm going to
take Melanie and the baby and go.
SCARLETT: Just say that you
love me.
ASHLEY: All right, I'll say
it. I love your courage and your
stubbornness. I love them so
much that a moment ago I could have
forgotten the best wife a man
ever had. But Scarlett, I'm not going to
forget her.
SCARLETT: Then there's
nothing left for me. Nothing to fight for.
Nothing to live for.
ASHLEY: Yes, there is
something. Something you love
better than me, though you
may not know it,
Tara. (Ashley puts into
Scarlett's hands some soil.)
SCARLETT: Yes, I...I still
have this. You needn't go. I won't have
you all starve simply because
I threw myself at your head. It won't
happen again.
Chapter 8
Raising of the Tax
(Wilkinson, Mr. O'Hara's
ex-overseer, comes to
Tara with his newly-
married wife. They intend to
buy
Tara, for they know the "turbulence
Tara
now is in.)
SCARLETT: Why, Emmy Sladdly
EMMY SLADDLY: Yes'm, it's
me.
SCARLETT: Stop!
WILKENSON: You haven't
forgotten your old overseer, have you?
Huh? Well, Emmy is Mrs.
Wilkinson now...
SCARLETT: Get off those
steps, you trashy wench. Get off this land!
WILKENSON: You can't speak
that way to my wife.
SCARLETT: Why? High time you
made her your wife. Who baptized
your other brats after you
killed my mother? WILKENSON: We came
out here to pay a call. A
friendly call, and talk a little business with
old friends.
SCARLETT: Friends. When were
we ever friends with the likes of
you?
WILKENSON: Still high and
mighty ain't you? Well, I
know all about you. I know
your father's turned idiot. You
can't pay your taxes. And I
come out to offer to buy the
place from you. To make you a
right good offer. Emmy's
got a ^hankering to live
here.
SCARLETT: Get off this place,
you dirty Yankee!
WILKENSON: You bum-trucking,
high-flying Irish will
find out who's running things
around here when you get
sold out for taxes. I'll buy
this place, lock, stock and barrel
and I'll live in it. But I'll
wait for the sheriff's sale.
SCARLETT: That's all of
Tara you'll ever get.
(Scarlett throws the ball to
Wilkinson’s face. of soil which
Ashley put in her hand.)
WILKENSON: You'll be sorry
for that. We'll be back!
(Mr. O'Hara mounts his horse.
In a fame of anger, he tries
to cut the way and catch the
Wilkinson’s.)
Mr. O'HARA: I saw you holding
on to the carriage!
SCARLETT: Paw, come back!
Mr. O'HARA: Yankee coward!
SCARLETT: Paw!
(Mr. O'Hara falls down to the
ground. He never rises again.
Days after...)
SCARLETT: Oh, Mammie, Mammie.
MAMMIE: You've been brave so
long, Miss Scarlett. You
just got to go on being
brave. Think about your Paw, like
he used to be.
SCARLETT: I can't think about
Paw. I can't think of
anything but that three
hundred dollars.
MAMMIE: Ain't no good
thinking about that. Miss
Scarlett. Ain't nobody got
that much money. Nobody but
that Yankee's and the scallow-wags
got that much money
now.
SCARLETT: Rhett!
MAMMIE: Who that? A Yankee?
SCARLETT: Oh, Mammie, I'm so
thin and pale and...I
haven't any clothes. Go up to
the attic Mammie, and get
down Ma's old box of dress
patterns.
MAMMIE: What are you up to in
Miss Ellen's Fortier?
SCARLETT: You're going to
make me a new dress!
MAMMIE: Not with Miss Ellen's
for tiers, not while I got
breath in my body!
SCARLETT: Great balls of
fire, they're my for tiers now.
I'm going to
Atlanta for that three hundred dollars, and
I've got to go looking like a
queen.
MAMMIE: Who's going to
Atlanta with you?
SCARLETT: I'm going alone.
MAMMIE: That's what you
think. I'm going to
Atlanta
with you, with you and that
new dress.
SCARLETT: Now Mammie
darling...
MAMMIE: No use to try and
sweet talk me Miss Scarlett,
I knows you ever since I put
the first pair of diapers on
you. I says I was going to
Atlanta with you, and going I is!
(Atlanta
prison. Rhett Butler and the prison Major are
playing cards at a table.)
MAN: Sir, there's a lady to
see Captain Butler. Says she's your sister.
MAJOR: Another sister? This
is a jail, not a 'harem, Captain Butler.
MAN: No, Major, she ain't one
of those. This one's got her mammie
with her.
RHETT: She has? I'd like to
see this one, Major, without her
mammie.
MAJOR: Hmm...
RHETT: Let's see, my losses
for the afternoon come to what? Hmm...
three hundred and forty. My
debts do mount up, don't they, Major?
MAJOR: All right, Corporal.
Show Captain Butler's sister to his cell.
RHETT: Thank you,
Major...excuse me, gentlemen.
MAJOR: It's hard to be strict
with a man who loses money so
pleasantly.
(In the jail. Scarlett
appears, dressing in beautiful green velvet.)
SCARLETT: Rhett!
RHETT: Scarlett! My dear
little sister. (to Corporal) It's all right
Corporal, my sister has
brought me now files or saws. Can I really
kiss you now?
SCARLETT: On the forehead
like a good brother.
RHETT: No thanks, I'll wait
and hope for better things.
SCARLETT: Oh, Rhett, I was so
distressed when I heard you were
in jail. I simply couldn't
sleep for thinking. It's not true they're going
to hang you.
RHETT: Would you be sorry?
SCARLETT: Oh, Rhett...
RHETT: Well, don't worry.
Yeah, The Yankees have
trumped up some charge
against me but what they're
really after is my money.
They seem to think I made off
with a Confederate treasury.
SCARLETT: Well, did you?
RHETT: What a leading
question. Let's not talk about
"sordid things like money.
How good of you to come and
see me. And how pretty you
look.
SCARLETT: Oh, Rhett, how you
do run on teasing a
country girl like me.
RHETT: Thank Heaven's you're
not in rags, I'm tired of
seeing women in rags. Turn
around. You look good enough
to eat. Prosperous, too.
SCARLETT: Thank you, I've
been doing very well.
Everybody's doing well at
Tara, only, I got so bored, I just
thought I'd treat myself with
to visit to town.
RHETT: You're a heartless
creature but that's part of your
charm. Though you've got more
charm than the law
allows.
SCARLETT: Now I did come here
to talk senseless about
me, Rhett. I came because I
was so miserable at the
thought of you in trouble.
Oh, I know I was mad at you
the night you left me on the
road to
Tara, and I still haven't
Forgiven you.
RHETT: Oh, Scarlett, don't
say that.
SCARLETT: Well, I must admit
I might not be alive now. Only for
you. And when I think of
myself with anything I could possibly hope
for, and not a care in the
world, and you where here in this horrid jail.
And not even a human jail,
Rhett, a horse jail. But listen to me, try to
make jokes when, when I
really want to cry. And in a minute I shall
cry.
RHETT: Scarlett, can it be
possible that...
SCARLETT: Can what be
possible, Rhett?
RHETT: That you've grown a
woman's heart? A real woman's heart.
SCARLETT: I have Rhett. I
know I have.
RHETT: You know it's worth
being in jail just to hear you say
that. It's well worth it.
(Rhett grasps Scarlett's hands. And suddenly, he
reads the callous skin of her
hands. This is a pair of hard-working
hands.) You can drop the
moonlight and magnolia, Scarlett. So
things have been going well
at
Tara, have they?
SCARLETT: Yes...
RHETT: What have you been
doing with your hands?
SCARLETT: It's just that, I
went riding last week without my
gloves...
RHETT: These don't belong to
a lady, you've been working with
them like a field hand. Why
did you lie to me, and what are you really
up to?
SCARLETT: Now Rhett...
RHETT: In another minute, I\d
almost believed you'd cared
something.
SCARLETT: But I do care!
RHETT: Suppose we get down to
the truth. You want something
from me and you want it badly
enough to put on quite a show on your
velvets. What is it, money?
SCARLETT: I want three
hundred dollars to pay the taxes on
Tara.
Oh Rhett, I did lie to you
when I said everything was all right. Things
are just as bad as they
possibly could be. And you've got millions,
Rhett.
RHETT: What collateral are
you offering?
SCARLETT: My ear bobs...
RHETT: Not interested.
SCARLETT: Mortgage on
Tara...
RHETT: What would I do with a
farm?
SCARLETT: You wouldn't lose,
I'd pay you back after next year's
cotton.
RHETT: Not good enough. Have
you nothing better?
SCARLETT: You once said you
loved me. If you still love me,
Rhett...
RHETT: You haven't forgotten
that I'm not a marrying man.
SCARLETT: No. I haven't
forgotten,
RHETT: You're not worth three
hundred dollars. You'll never mean
anything but misery to any
man.
SCARLETT: Go on, insult me, I
don't care what you say, only give
me the money! I won't let
Tara go, I can't let it go while there's a
breath left in my body. Oh,
Rhett, won't you please give me the
money?
RHETT: I couldn't give you
the money if I wanted to. My funds are
in
Liverpool, not in Atlanta. If I tried drawing a
draft, the Yankees would be
on me like a duck on a June bug. So you
see my dear, you've abased
yourself to no purpose. Stop it! You want
the Yankees to see like this?
SCARLETT: Take your hands off
me, you dunk! You know what I am
going to say before I
started. You knew you wouldn't lend me the
money and yet, and yet, you
let me go on.
RHETT: I enjoyed hearing what
you had to say. Cheer up, you can
come to my hanging and I'll
remember you in my will.
SCARLETT: I'll come to your
hanging. The only thing I'm afraid of is
they won't hang you in time
to pay the taxes on
Tara.
Chapter
9Scarlett's Second Marriage
(Scarlett leaves the jail in
burning anger. But the visit of
Scarlett and her new dress to
Atlanta is not a complete
"futility. She meets Frank
Kennedy, Sue Ellen's beau.)
FRANK: Surely it can't be
Miss Scarlett!
SCARLETT: Why, Frank Kennedy!
FRANK: And Mammie...
MAMMIE: It sure is good to
see home folks.
FRANK: I didn't know you were
in
Atlanta.
SCARLETT: I didn't know you
were.
FRANK: Didn't Miss Sue Ellen
tell you about my store?
SCARLETT: Did she, I don't
remember. Have you a store? This?
FRANK: Won't you come in,
look around a bit? (Into the store) I
don't suppose it looks like
much to a lady, but I can't help being
proud of it.
SCARLETT: You're not making
money?
FRANK: Well, I can't
complain. In fact I'm mighty encouraged.
Folks tell me I'm just a born
merchant. It won't be long now before
Miss Sue Ellen and I can
marry.
SCARLETT: Well , you're doing
as well as all that?
FRANK: Yes, I am. Miss
Scarlett. I'm no millionaire yet, but I have
cleared a thousand dollars
already.
SCARLETT: And lumber too.
FRANK: Well, that's only a
sideline.
SCARLETT: A sideline, Frank?
With all the good
Georgia
pine
around
Atlanta, and all this building going on?
FRANK: Well, all that takes
money, Miss Scarlett, and, I got to be
thinking about buying a home.
SCARLETT: What would you want
a home for?
FRANK: For Miss Sue Ellen and
me to set up housekeeping.
SCARLETT: Here in
Atlanta. You'd want to bring her to
Atlanta,
wouldn't you? There wouldn't
be much help in that for
Tara.
FRANK: I don't rightly know
what you mean, Miss Scarlett.
SCARLETT: I don't mean a
thing. Frank, how'd you like to drive me
out to my Aunt Pitty's?
FRANK: Oh, nothing could give
me more pleasure, Miss Scarlett.
SCARLETT: I think you'd
better stay for supper, too. I'm sure Aunt
Pitty would be agreeable and
I know I'd like a good long visit with
you.
FRANK: Oh, you act on me just
like a ^tonic, Miss Scarlett. And will
you tell me all the news, all
the news of Miss Sue Ellen? What's the
matter, Miss Scarlett? Miss
Sue Ellen's not ill, is she?
SCARLETT: Oh, no, no. I
thought surely she had written you. I guess
she was ashamed to write to
you. She should be ashamed. Oh how
awful to have such a mean
sister.
FRANK: You must tell me, Miss
Scarlett. Don't leave me on the
tender hooks.
SCARLETT: Well, she's going
to marry one of the county boys next
month. She just got tired of
waiting and was afraid she'd be an old
maid and...Oh, I'm sorry to
be the one to tell you. Oh, it's cold, and I
left my muff at home. Would
you mind if I put my hand in your
pocket? (Scarlett returns to
Tara as Mrs. Kennedy, with 300 dollars, to
face Sue Ellen's broken heart
and the astonishment of the other
people.) SUE ELLEN: But
Melanie, you don't realize what she's done.
She's gone and married my Mr.
Kennedy! He's my beau and she's
gone and married him.
MELANIE: She did it to save
Tara, you must understand that, Sue
Ellen.
SUE ELLEN: I hate
Tara. And I hate Scarlett. She's the only thing I
hate worse than
Tara!
(In the living room.)
ASHLEY: It's all my fault. I
should have committed highway robbery
to get that tax money for
you.
SCARLETT: I couldn't let you
do anything like that, and anyway, it's
done now.
ASHLEY: Yes, it's done now.
You wouldn't let me do anything
dishonorable yet you'd sell
yourself in marriage to a man you didn't
love. Well, at least you
won't have to worry about my helplessness
anymore.
SCARLETT: What do you mean?
ASHLEY: I'm going to
New York. I've arranged to get a position in a
bank there.
SCARLETT: But you can't do
that! I've counted on you to help me
start a lumber business
Ashley and, I counted on you.
ASHLEY: Scarlett, I wouldn't
be any good to you, I don't know
anything about the lumber
business.
SCARLETT: You know as much as
you do about banking, and I'd
give you half the business
Ashley.
ASHLEY: That's generous of
you Scarlett. But it isn't that. If I go to
Atlanta and take help from you again, I'd bury forever any hope of
standing alone.
SCARLETT: Oh, is that all?
Well, you could gradually buy the
business, and then it would
be your own, and then...
ASHLEY: No Scarlett.
SCARLETT: Oh, Ashley! Ashley
(Melanie walks in.)
MELANIE: Scarlett. Scarlett,
what is it?
SCARLETT: Ashley is so mean
and hateful.
MELANIE: (to Ashley )What
have you done?
ASHLEY: She, she wanted me to
go to
Atlanta.
SCARLETT: To help me start me
my lumber business,
and he won't lift a finger to
help me.
MELANIE: Why how unshivaless
of you. Why think
Ashley, think. If it hadn't
of been for Scarlett, I'd have
died in
Atlanta, and maybe we wouldn't have had little
Beau, and, when I think of
picking cotton and plowing
just to keep food in our
mouths, I could just, oh, my darling!
ASHLEY: All right, Melanie.
I'll go to
Atlanta. I can't fight
you both.
(Months passed. The lumber
business is a great success.
But good times don't last
long. Frank Kennedy died in a
fight against some tramps,
for their insult on Scarlett.
Scarlett is very sad.)
MAMMIE: Miss Scarlett.
Captain Butler here to see you.
I told him you was ^prostrate
with grief.
SCARLETT: Tell him, tell him
I'll be right down, Mammie.
(Downstairs.)
MAMMIE: She says she's
coming. I don't know why she's
coming, but she's a-coming.
RHETT: You don't like me
Mammie. Now don't you argue
with me, you don't, you
really don't like me.
(Scarlett comes down, and
shows Rhett into the living
room.)
RHETT: It's no good Scarlett.
SCARLETT: what?
RHETT: The cologne.
SCARLETT: I'm sure I don't
know what you mean.
RHETT: I mean you've been
drinking. Brandy. Quite a
lot.
SCARLETT: Well, what if I
had? Is that any of your affair?
RHETT: Don't drink alone,
Scarlett. People always find
out. And it ruins reputation.
What is it? This is more
than losing old Frank.
SCARLETT: Oh, Rhett. I am so
afraid.
RHETT: I don't believe it.
You've never been afraid in your
life.
SCARLETT: I'm afraid now. I'm
afraid of dying, of going
to Hell.
RHETT: You look pretty
healthy. And maybe there isn't
any Hell.
SCARLETT: Oh, there is. I
know there is. I was raised on
it.
RHETT: Well, far be it for me
to question the teachings of
childhood. Tell me what
you've done that Hell yawns
before you.
SCARLETT: I ought never to
have married Frank to begin
with. He was Sue Ellen's beau
and he loved her not me.
And I made him miserable. And
I killed him. Yes, I did,
I'd killed him. Oh, Rhett.
For the first time, I'm finding
out what it is to feel sorry
for something I've done.
RHETT: Here, dry your eyes.
If you had it to do all over again, you'd
do it no differently. You're
like the thief who isn't the least bit sorry
he stole but he's terribly,
terribly sorry he's going to jail.
SCARLETT: I'm glad ma is
dead. I'm glad she's dead so she can't see
me. I always wanted to be
like her, calm and kind and...and suddenly
I've turned out
disappointing.
RHETT: You know what,
Scarlett? I think you're on the verge of a
crying jag. So I'll change
the subject and say what I came to say.
SCARLETT: Say it, then get
out! What is it?
RHETT: That I can't go on any
longer without you.
SCARLETT: Oh, you really are
the most ill-bred man to come here
at a time like this...
RHETT: I made up my mind you
were the only woman for me,
Scarlett, the first day I saw
you at Twelve Oaks. Now that you've got
your lumber mill and Frank's
money, you won't come to me as you
did at the jail. So I see I
shall have to marry you.
SCARLETT: I never heard of
such bad taste.
RHETT: Would you be more
convinced if I fell to my knees?
SCARLETT: Turn me loose, you
varlet and get out of here.
RHETT: Forgive me for
startling you with the impetuosity of my
sentiments, my dear Scarlett,
I mean my dear Mrs. Kennedy. But it
cannot have escaped your
notice that for some time past, the
friendship I have felt for
you has ripened into a deeper feeling. A
feeling more beautiful, more
pure, more sacred... dare I name it? Can
it be love?
SCARLETT: Get up off your
knees, I don't like your common jokes.
RHETT: This is an honorable
proposal of marriage, made in what I
consider a most opportune
moment. I can't go all my life waiting to
catch you between husbands.
SCARLETT: You're coarse and
you're conceited. And I think this
conversation's gone far
enough. Besides, I shall never marry again.
RHETT: Oh yes, you will. And
you'll marry me
SCARLETT: You...you? I don't
love you. And I don't like being
married.
RHETT: Did you ever think of
marrying just for fun?
RHETT: Oh yes, you will. And
you'll marry me
SCARLETT: You...you? I don't
love you. And I don't like being
married.
RHETT: Did you ever think of
marrying just for fun?
SCARLETT: Marriage, fun?
Fiddle-dee-dee. Fun for men you mean.
Hush, do you want them to
hear you outside?
RHETT: You've been married to
a boy and an old man. Why not try a
husband at the right age?
With a way with women?
SCARLETT: You're a fool,
Rhett Butler. When you know I shall
always love another man.
RHETT: Stop it. You hear me
Scarlett, stop it. No more of that talk.
SCARLETT: Rhett don't, I
shall faint.
RHETT: And I want you to
faint. This is what you were meant for.
None of the fools you've ever
known have kissed you like this, have
they? Your Charles or your
Frank or
your stupid Ashley. Say
you're going to marry me. Say yes. Say yes.
SCARLETT: Yes.
RHETT: Are you sure you meant
it? You don't want to take it back?
SCARLETT: No.
Chapter
10 Scarlett and Rhett
(Rhett and Scarlett spent a
most-expected honeymoon in
New Orleans. And one year after, their first child is born.)
RHETT: She's a beautiful baby
The most beautiful baby
ever...yes... do you know
that this is your birthday? That
you're a week old today?
Yes...I'm going to buy her a pony
the likes of which this town
has never seen. Yes, I'm going
to send you to the best
schools in
Charleston...yes, and
I'll be received by the best
families in the South. And when
it comes time for her to
marry, well, she'll be a little
princess.
SCARLETT: Certainly you are
making a fool of yourself.
RHETT: Why shouldn't I? She's
the first person who\'s ever
completely belonged to me.
SCARLETT: Great balls of
fire. I had the baby, didn't I?
(Knock at the door.)
MELANIE: It's Melanie, may I
come in?
SCARLETT: Come in, Mellie.
RHETT: Yes, come in and look
at my daughter's beautiful blue eyes.
MELANIE: But Captain Butler,
most babies have blue eyes when
they're born.
SCARLETT: Don't try and tell
him anything, Mellie, he knows
everything about babies.
RHETT: Nevertheless, her eyes
are blue and they're going to stay
blue.
MELANIE: As blue as the
bonnie blue flag.
RHETT: That's it. That's what
we'll call her. Bonnie Blue
Butler.
(In the bedroom, Scarlett is
having Mammie measure her waist.)
SCARLETT: Try again Mammie.
MAMMIE: Twenty inches.
SCARLETT: Twenty inches? I've
grown as big as Aunt Pitty. You've
simply got to make it
eighteen and a half again, Mammie.
MAMMIE: You done had a baby,
Miss Scarlett. And you ain't never
going to be no eighteen and a
half inches again. Never. And there
ain't nothing to do about it.
SCARLETT: There is something
to do about it. I'm just not going to
get old and fat before my
time. I just won't have any more babies.
MAMMIE: I heard Mr. Rhett
said that he\'d be wanting to have a son
next year.
SCARLETT: Go tell Captain
Butler I decided not to go out after all.
I'll have supper in my room.
(Scarlett sits motionless in
the chair, fixing her eyes on a picture. It is
a picture of Ashley. Then
Rhett comes in. Scarlett hurriedly turns the
picture upside down.)
RHETT: I got your message.
I'll have them bring my supper up here
too. No objections to that, I
hope.
SCARLETT: No...yes, I...I
mean I don't care where you have your
supper. Rhett?
RHETT: Yes?
SCARLETT: You see...well,
I've decided-well, I hope I don't have
any more children. (Rhett
notices the picture of Ashley.)
RHETT: My pet, as I told you
before Bonnie was born. It is
immaterial to me whether you
have one child or twenty.
SCARLETT: I know, but do you
know what I...do you know what I
mean?
RHETT: I do. And do you know
I can divorce you for this?
SCARLETT: You're just low
enough to think of something like that.
If you had any chivalry in
you, you'd be nice, like...well look at
Ashley Wilkes. Melanie can't
have anymore children and he...he...
RHETT: You've been to the
lumber office this afternoon, haven't
you?
SCARLETT: What does that got
to do with it?
RHETT: Quite the little
gentlemen, Ashley Pray, go on, Mrs. Butler.
SCARLETT: It's no use. You
wouldn't understand.
RHETT: You know, I'm sorry
for you, Scarlett.
SCARLETT: Sorry for me?
RHETT: Yes, sorry for you
because you're throwing away
happiness with both hands.
And reaching out for something that will
never make you happy.
SCARLETT: I don't know what
you're talking about.
RHETT: If you were free and
Miss Mellie were dead, and you had
your precious, honorable
Ashley, do you think you'd be happy with
him? You'd never know him.
Never even understand his mind. Any
more than you understand
anything. Except money.
SCARLETT: Never mind about
that. What I want to know is...
RHETT: You may keep your
sanctity Scarlett. It'll work no
hardship on me.
SCARLETT: Do you mean to say
you don't care?
RHETT: The world is full of
many things and many people. And I'm
not a shunt bit lonely...
I'll find comfort elsewhere.
SCARLETT: Well, that's fine.
But I warn you just in case you
change your mind... I intend
to lock my door.
RHETT: Why bother. If I
wanted to come in no lock could keep me
out.
(In the lumber mill, Scarlett
comes to see Ashley.)
ASHLEY: Why Scarlett. What
are you doing downtown this time of
day?
SCARLETT: Why Ashley, I
just...
ASHLEY: Why aren't you
helping Mellie get ready for my surprise
birthday party?
SCARLETT: Why Ashley Wilkes.
You aren't supposed to know
anything about that. Melanie
be so disappointed
you weren't surprised.
ASHLEY: I won't let her down.
I'll be the most surprised man in
Atlanta. Well as long as you're here, let me show you the books. So
you can see just how bad a
businessman I really am.
SCARLETT: Oh, don't let's
fool with any books today. When I'm
wearing a new bonnet, all the
figures I ever knew go right slab out of
my head.
ASHLEY: The figures are well
lost when the bonnet's as pretty as
that one. Scarlett, you know
you get prettier all the time. You haven't
changed a bit since the day
of our last barbecue at Twelve Oaks.
When you sat under a tree
surrounded by dozens of beaus.
SCARLETT: That girl doesn't
exist any more. Nothing's turned out as
I expected. Ashley, nothing.
ASHLEY: Yes, we've traveled a
long road since the old days,
haven't we, Scarlett? All the
lazy days...and the warm, still, country
twilight...the high soft
Negro laughter from the quarters...the golden
warmth, and security of those
days.
SCARLETT: Don't look back,
Ashley Don't look back. It drags at
your heart till...till you
can't do anything but look back.
ASHLEY: I didn't mean to make
you sad my dear. I never want you
to be anything but completely
happy. (Ashley hugs sad Scarlett. Mrs.
Meade and
India happen to enter the room. Seeing this, they leave,
wordless and disgusted.
Scarlett is now back at home, lying in the
bed.)
SCARLETT: Oh, Ashley Who is
it?
RHETT: Only your husband.
SCARLETT: Come in.
RHETT: Am I actually being
invited into the sanctuary?
You\'re not ready for
Melanie's party?
SCARLETT: I've got a
headache, Rhett. You go without
me and make my excuses to
Melanie.
RHETT: What a wee-livered
little coward you are. Get
up. You're going to that
party and you'll have to hurry.
SCARLETT: Has
India...
RHETT: Yes, my dear,
India has, every woman in town
knows the story and every
man, too.
SCARLETT: You should have
killed them for spreading
lies.
RHETT: I have a strange way
of not killing people who
tell the truth. No time to
argue, now get up.
SCARLETT: I won't go! I can't
go until this
misunderstanding is cleared
up.
RHETT: You're not going to
cheat Miss Melanie out of the
satisfaction of publicly
ordering you out of her house.
SCARLETT: There was nothing
wrong.
India hates me,
so I can't go, Rhett. I
couldn't face her.
RHETT: If you don't show your
face tonight, you'll never
be able to show it in this
town as long as you live. And
while that wouldn't bother
me, you're not going to ruin
Bonnie's chances. You're
going to that party if only for
her sake. Now get dressed.
Now wear that. Nothing
modest or matronly will do
for this occasion. And put on
plenty of rouge. I want you
to look your part tonight.
(At the door of the Wilkes'.)
RHETT: Good night, Scarlett.
SCARLETT: But Rhett, you
can't...
RHETT: You go into the area
alone. The lions are hungry for you.
SCARLETT: Oh, Rhett, don't
leave me, don't!
RHETT: You're not afraid?
(Ashley's birthday party is
going on. As Scarlett shows at the door,
people in the room stop
singing. Melanie pretends to notice nothing
and goes to greet Scarlett
calmly.)
MELANIE: What a lovely dress,
Scarlett darling!
India
wasn't able
to come tonight. Will you be
an angel? I do need you to help me
receive my guests. Mrs.
Meade, here's our darling Scarlett. Mrs.
MEADE: Good evening.
SCARLETT. Good evening. WOMAN:
Why, Scarlett, good evening.
ASHLEY: Good evening, Miss
Scarlett.
MELANIE: Ashley, aren't you
going to get our Scarlett a glass of
punch?
(Tara, Scarlett in her room.)
MAMMIE: Did you have a good
time tonight at Miss Mellie's party
child?
SCARLETT: Yes, yes. Now
Mammie be sure and leave word. If
Captain Butler asks for me
when he comes back, I'm asleep.
MELANIE: Yes'm.
(Scarlett can not fall
asleep, so many things happen, she sneaks
downstairs and wants to have
a drink. And she
finds Rhett is already there,
half-drunk.)
RHETT: Come here. Sit down.
There's no reason why you
shouldn't have your "nightcap
even if I am here.
SCARLETT: I didn't want to
drink. I heard a noise and...
RHETT: You heard nothing of
the kind. You wouldn't have
come down if you thought I
was here. You must need a
drink badly.
SCARLETT: I do not.
RHETT: Take it. Don't get
yourself airs. I know you drink
on the quiet and I know how
much you drink. You think I
care if you like your brandy?
SCARLETT: You're drunk and
I'm going to bed.
RHETT: I'm very drunk and I
intend getting still drunker
before the evening's over.
But you're not going to bed. Not
yet. Sit down. So she stood
by you, did she? How does it
feel to have the woman you've
wronged "cloak your sins
for you? You're wondering if
she knows all about you and
Ashley. You're wondering if
she did it just to save her face.
You're thinking that she's a
fool for doing it even if it did
save your hide but...
SCARLETT: I will not listen.
RHETT: Yes, you'll listen.
Miss Melanie's a fool, but not
the kind you think. It's just
that's there's too much honor
at her to ever conceive of
dishonor in anyone she loves.
And she loves you. Though
just why she does, I'm sure I
don't know.
SCARLETT: If you weren't so
drunk and insulting, I could explain
everything. As it is
though...
RHETT: If you get out of that
chair once more... of course, the comic
figure in all of this is the
long suffering Mr. Wilkes. Mr. Wilkes, who
can't be mentally faithful to
his wife and won't be unfaithful to her
technically. Why doesn't he
make up his mind?
SCARLETT: Rhett you...
RHETT: Observe my hands, my
dear. I could tear you to pieces with
them. And I'd do it if it'd
take Ashley out of your mind forever. But it
wouldn't. So I'll remove him
from your mind forever this way. I'll put
my hand so. One on each side
of your head. And I'll smash your skull
between them like a walnut.
That'll block him out.
SCARLETT: Take your hands off
me, you drunken fool.
RHETT: You know, I've always
admired your spirit, my dear. Never
more than now when you're
cornered.
SCARLETT: I'm not cornered.
You'll never corner me, Rhett Butler,
or frighten me. You've lived
in dirt so long you can't understand
anything else. And you're
jealous of something you can't understand.
Good night.
RHETT: Jealous am I? Yes, I
suppose I am. Even though I know
you've been faithful to me
all along. How do I know? Because I
know Ashley Wilkes and his
honorable breed. They're gentlemen.
That's more than I can say
for you and for me. We're not gentlemen.
And we have no honor, have
we?
Chapter 11 Losing of
the Children
(The next morning, Scarlett
wakes up, quite delighted.)
SCARLETT: (Sing)...Oh, she
went with delight when he
gave her a smile, and
trembled with yet his frown...
RHETT: Hello. I, I'd like to
extend my apology for my
conduct of last night.
SCARLETT: Oh, but Rhett...
RHETT: I was very drunk and
quite swept off my feet by
your charms.
SCARLETT: You needn't bother
to apologize, nothing you
ever do surprises me.
RHETT: Scarlett, I've been
thinking things over and I
really believe it'd be better
for both of us, if we admitted
we made a mistake and got a
divorce.
SCARLETT: A divorce?
RHETT: Yes. There's no point
in our holding onto each
other, is there? I've
provided for you amply. You've plenty
of grounds. Just give me
Bonnie and you can say what
you please and I won't
contest it.
SCARLETT: Thank you very
much, but I wouldn't dream
of disgracing the family with
a divorce.
RHETT: You'd disgrace it
quick enough if Ashley were
free. It makes my head spin
to think of how quickly you'd
divorce me. Wouldn't you,
Scarlett? Well answer me.
Wouldn't you?
SCARLETT: Will you please go
now and leave me alone.
RHETT: Yes, I'm going, that's
what I came to tell you. I
am going on a very extended
trip to
London, and I'm
leaving today.
SCARLETT: Oh...
RHETT: And I'm taking Bonnie
with me. So you'll please
get her little duds packed
right away.
SCARLETT: You'll never take
my child out of this house.
RHETT: She's my child, too,
Scarlett. And you're making
a mistake if you think I'm
leaving her here with a mother
who hasn't the decency to
consider her own reputation.
SCARLETT: You're a fine one
to talk. You think I let that
child get out of this house
when you'll probably have her
around with people like, like
that Belle?
RHETT: If you were a man, I'd
break your neck for that.
As it is. I'll thank you to
shut your stupid mouth. And as
for you giving yourself pious
airs about your motherhood,
why a cat's a better mother
than you are. You have her
things packed ready for me in
an hour, or I warn
you, I've always thought a
good lashing with a buggy whip
would benefit you immensely.
(One month later, Rhett
Butler is back from
London
after
a long departure.)
MAMMIE: Miss Scarlett!
Captain Butler! Miss Scarlett!
Honey child!
BONNIE: Come on Mammie!
Mammie!
MAMMIE: Miss Scarlett, she's
back. She's back, Miss
Scarlett!
SCARLETT: Bonnie! Bonnie! Bonnie. .Bonnie
baby...darling baby...you
glad to be home?
BONNIE: Daddy gave me a
kitten! Oh,
London's a horrible
place. Where's my pony? I
want to go out and see my pony.
SCARLETT: You go out and see
your pony.
RHETT: Mrs. Butler, I
believe.
SCARLETT: Mammie said you'd
come back.
RHETT: But only to bring
Bonnie. Apparently any mother,
even a bad one is better than
a child with none.
SCARLETT: You mean you're
going away again?
RHETT: What perception Mrs.
Butler. Right away In fact
I left my bags at the
station. You're looking pale. Is there
a shortage of rouge? Or can
this wonders mean you've
been missing me?
SCARLETT: If I'm pale, it's
your fault. Not because I've
been missing you, but
because...
RHETT: Pray continue, Mrs.
Butler.
SCARLETT: It's because I'm
going to have a baby.
RHETT: Indeed? And who's the
happy father?
SCARLETT: You know it's
yours. I don't want it any more
than you do. No woman would
want the child of a cad like
you. I wish it were, I wish
it were anybody's child but
yours!
RHETT: Well, cheer up. Maybe
you'll have an accident.
(In great anger, Scarlett
throws herself to Rhett. But she
loses her balance on the
slippery floor and falls all the
way down the stairs. Days
later, newly recovered from
the unexpected accident and a
resulting miscarriage,
Scarlett sits in a chair on a
balcony. Rhett comes.)
MAMMIE: Miss Scarlett's
feeling a heap better today, Mr.
Rhett.
RHETT: Thank you. I've come
to ask your forgiveness. In
the hope that we can give our
life together another chance.
SCARLETT: Our life together?
When did we ever have a
life together?
RHETT: I guess you're right.
But I'm sure if we could
only try again, we could be
happy.
SCARLETT: What is there to
make us happy now?
RHETT: Well there's, there's
Bonnie and, and I love you,
Scarlett.
SCARLETT: When did you
discover that?
RHETT: I've always loved you.
But you've never given
me a chance to show it.
SCARLETT: Well, then just
what do you want me to do ?
RHETT: To begin with, give up
the mill, Scarlett. We\'ll go
away. We'll take Bonnie with
us and we'll have another
honeymoon.
SCARLETT: Give up the mill?
Well why should I, it's
making more money than it
ever did.
RHETT: Yes, I know, but we
don't need it. Sell it. Or better
still, give it to Ashley.
Melanie has been such a friend to
both of us.
SCARLETT: Melanie, always
Melanie. If you'd only think
a little more about me.
RHETT: I am thinking of you.
And I'm thinking that, well,
that maybe it's the mill
that's taking you away from me.
And from Bonnie.
SCARLETT: I know what you're
thinking. And don't try
and bring Bonnie into this.
You're the one who's taking
her away from me.
RHETT: But she loves you.
SCARLETT: You've done
everything possible to make her
love you and not me. Why,
she's so spoiled now, that...
BONNIE: Mommy, Daddy, watch
me!
SCARLETT: We're watching,
darling! You're mighty pretty
precious.
BONNIE: : So are you! I'm
going to jump. Watch me,
Daddy.
RHETT: I don't think you
ought to do much jumping yet,
Bonnie. Remember you just
learned to ride side-saddle.
BONNIE: I will so jump. I can
jump better than ever, cuz
I've grown, and I've moved
the bar higher...
SCARLETT: Don't let her do it
Rhett...
RHETT: No, Bonnie, you
can't... Well if you fall off, don't
cry and blame me!
SCARLETT: Rhett, stop her.
RHETT: Bonnie! Bonnie!
SCARLETT: Just like Paw. Just
like Paw!
RHETT: Bonnie! Bonnie!
Bonnie!
(Bonnie died. Like her
grandfather, she falls over from
the horse to the ground. With
her, she takes many
things......)
Chapter
12 Tara, Land of
Hope
(Melanie is seriously sick.
She knows there is not much
time left for her, and begs
to see Scarlett.)
SCARLETT: It\'s me, Mellie.
MELANIE: Promise me.
Ashley...Ashley and you...
SCARLETT: What
about...Ashley, Mellie?
MELANIE: Look after him for
me. Just as you looked
after me for him.
SCARLETT: I will, Mellie.
MELANIE: Look after him. But
never let him know.
SCARLETT: Good night.
MELANIE: Promise?
SCARLETT: What else, Mellie?
MELANIE: Captain Butler...be
kind to him...he loves you
so...
SCARLETT: Yes, Mellie.
(Melanie passes away.
Scarlett comforts the heart-broken
Ashley, neglecting the
existence of Rhett Butler, who
couldn't bear to see the
scene, leaves. But suddenly
Scarlett sees the fact, she
doesn't love Ashley anymore.
So she goes to look for Rhett
everywhere.)
SCARLETT: Rhett, wait for me!
Rhett, wait for me! Rhett!
Rhett!
(Outside the restroom.)
RHETT: Come in.
SCARLETT: Rhett!
RHETT: Melanie, she's...well.
God rest her. She was the
only completely kind person I
ever knew. Great lady. A
very great lady. Though she's
dead. That makes it nice
for you, doesn't it?
SCARLETT: Oh, how can you say
such things. You know
how I loved her really.
RHETT: No, I don't know that
I do. But at least it's to
your credit that you could
appreciate her at the end.
SCARLETT: Of course I
appreciated her. She thought of
everybody except herself. Why
her last words were about
you.
RHETT: What did she say?
SCARLETT: She said, be kind
to Captain Butler, he loves
you so.
RHETT: Did she say anything
else?
MELANIE: She said, she asked
me to look after Ashley
too.
RHETT It's convenient to have
the first wife's permission,
isn't it?
SCARLETT: What do you mean?
What are you doing?
RHETT: I'm leaving you, my
dear. All you need now is a
divorce and your dreams of
Ashley can come true.
SCARLETT: No! No, you're
wrong! Terribly wrong! I don't
want a divorce. Oh Rhett,
when I knew tonight, when I
knew I loved you, I ran home
to tell you, oh darling,
darling!
RHETT: Please don't go on
with this. Leave us some
dignity to remember out of
our marriage. Spare us this
last.
SCARLETT: This last? Oh
Rhett, do listen to me. I must have loved
you for years only I was such
a stupid fool I didn't know it. Please
believe me. You must care!
Mellie said you did!
RHETT: I believe you. But
what about Ashley Wilkes?
SCARLETT: I......I never
really loved Ashley.
RHETT: You certainly gave a
good imitation of it up to
this morning. Oh, Scarlett, I
tried everything. If you'd
only met me halfway, even
when I came back from
London...
SCARLETT: I was so glad to
see you, I was Rhett, but,
but you were so nasty!
RHETT: And then when you were
sick. And it was all my
fault. I hoped and against
hope that you'd call for me.
But you didn't.
SCARLETT: I wanted you. I
wanted you desperately, but
I didn't think you wanted me!
RHETT: It seems we've been at
crossed purposed, doesn't
it. But it's no use now. As
long as there was Bonnie there
was a chance we might be
happy. I like to think that
Bonnie was you. A little girl
again. Before the war and
poverty had done things to
you. She was so like you. And
I could pet her and spoil her
as I wanted to spoil you. But
when she went, she took
everything.
SCARLETT: Oh, Rhett, Rhett,
please don't say that. I'm
so sorry. I'm so sorry for
everything.
RHETT: My darling, you're
such a child. You think that
by saying I'm sorry, all the
past can be corrected. Here,
take my handkerchief. Never
in any crisis of your life have
I known you to have a
handkerchief.
SCARLETT: Rhett, Rhett where
are you going?
RHETT: I'm going to
Charleston. Back where I belong.
SCARLETT: Please, please take
me with you.
RHETT: No. I'm through with
everything here. I want
peace. I want to see if
somewhere if there is something
left in life with charm and
grace. Do you know what I'm
talking about?
SCARLETT: No. I only know
that I love you.
RHETT: That's your
misfortune.
SCARLETT: Rhett! If you go,
where shall I go? What shall
I do?
RHETT: Frankly my dear, I
don't give a damn.
SCARLETT: I can't let him go.
I can't. There must be
some way to bring him back.
Oh, I can't think about that
now. I'll go crazy if I do,
I...I'll think about it tomorrow. I
must think about it. I must
think about it. What is there
to do? What is there that
matters?
( The words other father and
Ashley thunder in her ear.)
Mr. O'HARA: You mean to tell
me, Katie Scarlett O'Hara,
that
Tara doesn't mean anything to you? That land is the
only thing that matters. It's
the only thing that lasts.
ASHLEY: Something you love
better than me, though you
may not know it.
Mr. O'HARA:
Tara, it's this from where you get your
strength.
ASHLEY:
Tara, the red earth of
Tara.
Mr. O'HARA: That land's the
only thing that matters, it's
the only thing that lasts.
ASHLEY: Something you love
better than me, though you
may not know it,
Tara.
Mr. O'HARA: ...From which you
get your strength...
ASHLEY: ... the red earth of
Tara.
Mr. O'HARA: Lands the only
thing that matters...
ASHLEY: something you love
better than me...
Mr. O'HARA plus
ASHLEY: ...the red earth of
Tara...Tara!...
Tara!... Tara!
SCARLETT:
Tara! Home. I'll go home. And I'll think of
some way to get him back.
After all, tomorrow is another
day!
(The end)
The
Making of the
film
Gone With the Wind was the
first brought to David Selznick's attention
by Katharine Brown, head of
his
New York story office. In
July 30, 1936,
Seiznick International and
Margaret Mitchell signed the sale contract.
Everyone else in the country
was reading Gone With the Wind, and
every one of the millions of
readers knew who would make the perfect Rhett
and the ideal Scarlett.
According to a studio poll, 98% of the people who
wrote in saw dark Gable as
the devilish blockade runner. But Gable was
completely opposed to the
idea. "It wasn't that I didn't appreciate the
compliment the public was
paying me," he said. "It was simply that Rhett was
too big an order. I didn't
want any part of him....Rhett was too much for any
actor to tackle in his right
mind." However, he was under contract to MGM.
Selznick struck a deal with
MGM. They would loan Gable to Selznick
International for the right
to distribute the film and fifty percent of the box-
office take. MGM gave Gable.
In August 1938, he was signed for the part of
Rhett Butler. Scarlett still
had not been found.
The public went on to casting
Scarlett. All of
America
had a different
candidate in mind, and so did
every starlet and actress in
Hollywood
namely
herself. Everyone from
Lucille Ball to Jean Arthur to Joan Crawford tested
for the part. At various
times Selznick seriously considered Taullulah
Bankhead, Norma Shearer, and
Paulette Goddard. But none fit the role. Out
of all the glittering
cornucopia of
Hollywood females, not one had the right
stuff to really become
Scarlett O'Hara. Scarlett had to have an indefinable
essence all her own, one that
she would carry straight from the pages of the
All during the drama of
casting, research, and planning, Selznick had
been working on the
screenplay. He had used a dozen different writers to "fix"
the script. Selznick even
wrote to
Margaret Mitchell for advice. Then he had
his secretary pull apart and
cross-index the entire book. The rewrites were so
vast that the resulting mass
was dubbed the "rainbow script" for the group of
different-colored page
revisions poking out of it. And still a final version did
not exist. On Thursday,
January 26 the cast and crew of GWTW buzzed with
activity. The first day of
shooting was under way.
The set for the city of
Atlanta, the largest ever constructed for a single
picture, comprised
fifty-three buildings and seven thousand feet of streets. All
of
Atlanta was being built from scratch. Tara and various rooms within
Twelve Oaks, too, were built
on the back lot. Only the gardens of the Wilkes
plantation and a few scenes
of
Tara's farther reaches were shot on location.
Trees were planted, sod was
laid, huckleberry bushes imported from
Oregon
to become boxwood hedges. In
some cases, trees were built of plaster
wrapped around telephone
poles. Loads of crushed brick were brought in to
scatter over the sets for the
red earth of
Georgia.
Susan Myrick, a friend of
Margaret Mitchell's who had been hired as an
adviser on Southern accents
and etiquette, watched every scene. Cukor
consulted with her after each
take. "Okay for
Dixie?" If Susan nodded in
agreement, the scene was
considered final; if she felt the accents weren't right,
it was redone with her mild
coaching.
Then, in the midst of all
this, George Cukor left the production over what
they called "creative
differences." Selznick had to find another director.
Checking around at MGM, he
pulled Victor Fleming off the set of The Wizard
of Oz. Cukor's replacement
with Fleming was the source of endless friction
among the ladies of the cast.
Gable was delighted. He and Fleming were great
buddies from way back and had
shared work and play. Fleming had a
reputation as a "man's
director." This was in direct contrast with the intimate,
introspective "women's
director" style of Cukor.
Cast and crew were
transported to Lasky Mesa, sixty miles
Little Known
Facts
1) When
Margaret Mitchell began writing GWTW, the star was originally
called "Pansy O'Hara," but
she later changed it to "Scarlet! O'Hara." (thank
goodness)
2)
TARA was not often photographed from straight in front of it because
it
was built with the front door
off-centered.
3) Olivia de Havilland and
Joan Fontaine were sisters.
4)
Margaret Mitchell began writing GWTW wile recuperating from a
sprained
ankle. Vivien Leigh began
reading GWTW while recuperating from a broken
ankle.
5) After seeing the "wounded
soldiers" scene where Scarlett searches for Dr.
Mead,
Margaret Mitchell's husband John Marsh remarked, "Why, if we'd had
that many soldiers, we'd have
won the war."
6) Butterfly McQueen
absolutely refused to do two things in the film: be
slapped and eat watermelon.
7) Vivien Leigh refused to
make the vomiting sounds needed for the scene at
the end of Part 1, so Olivia
de Havilland provided the sounds for the track.
8) The cotton in the cotton
field that Scarlett and the others are picking were
actually store-bought cotton
balls glued on by the prop people.
9) When GWTW began
production, Olivia de Havilland had been neither a
wife or a mother. To prepare
for the scene where she was to give birth, Olivia
spent hours cowering in a
corner of a delivery room at LA County Hospital.
During the shooting of the
scene, director George Cukor would twist Olivia's
ankle whenever he wanted he
to 'have a labor pain.'
10) In the scene just after
the birth of Bonnie, where Rhett pours Mammy a
glass of scotch, there was
actually supposed to be cold tea in the Scotch
decanter. However, dark Gable
had put real Scotch in the decanter, much to
Hattie McDaniel's surprise.
book onto the screen. Casting
directors were sent to all the comers of the
country to find Scarlett
O'Hara and bring her back to the waiting gates of the
studio. The casting searchers
viewed a total of fourteen hundred girls. And
although Alicia Rhett, a
Southern belle from
Charleston,
was discovered and
later cast as poor, plain
India Wilkes, no Scarlett came to light. Eventually the
search was called off, with
still no Scarlett.
Selznick hired Sidney Howard
as screenwriter, and George Cukor as
director. Sidney Howard took
possession of SeIznick's copy of the book with
the notes scribbled in the
margins and fled back to his farm to hammer out the
script. Three months later
Sidney Howard sent back to Selznick the first stage
of his work, which he had
entitled a "preliminary treatment."
The first scene to be shot
was the Burning of Atlanta scene. Lyie
Wheeler, GWTW's art director,
had come up with the idea of actually setting
the studio back lot on fire.
An elaborate system of oil and water pipes was
rigged up behind the
buildings to allow control of the flames. Security guards,
studio firemen, city fire
departments, cameraman, a horse trainer and extra
horses, stunt doubles for
Rhett and Scarlett, secretaries, makeup girls,
wardrobe ladies, invited
guests, Cukor, and Selznick all took their assigned
places on the cold, dark lot.
The signal was given, the oil ignited, and a three-
hundred-foot wall of flame
shot up into the night. Black smoke billowed
skyward. The doubles for
Rhett and Scarlett raced through the fire.
It was at the filming of this
scene that Selznick met his Scarlett. He met
her when is brother, Myron,
showed up with English film star Vivien Leigh.
Leigh had read Gone With the
Wind and determined, with all the willfulness
of Scarlett, to make the role
her own. She signed a contract with Selznick
International on a luck
Friday, January 13, 1939.
Barbara O\'Neil, only a year
older than Vivien Leigh, was
cast her mother, Ellen.
The first day of filming was
slated for
January 26, 1939.
Everything
and everybody was ready
except the script.
outside the studio in the
Simi Valley, for the filming of Scarlett's retching
over a radish and vowing to
"never be hungry again." Vivien Leigh, Victor
Fleming and the necessary
camera, and makeup and crew people had already
made this trip a half a dozen
times, hoping to catch a properly scenic sunrise.
Finally, on May 23, having
left the studio at
eleven p.m.
after a full day's
shooting, they drove north to
Lasky Mesa yet again, arriving in time to
capture a picture-perfect
dawn on film. Perhaps this was more luck than
timing, for according to
Vivien Leigh in the souvenir program, The sun rose
shortly after
two a.m," surely an unheard-of hour
for sunrise anywhere south
of the
Arctic Circle. But the sun, and Vivien, performed admirably, and the
group returned home at
four-thirty, just in time for an hour's sleep before
reporting to the studio
again. 'Yet I do not recall that I was so terribly tired,"
Vivien reported. "Instead I
think of the day that Scarlett shoots the
deserter...after that
nerve-wracking episode, both Olivia de Havilland...and
myself were on the verge of
hysterics_ not alone from the tenseness of the
scene, but from the all too
real fall as the 'dead' man went down the stairs
before us."
By the time filming of Gone
With the Wind was officially completed
on July 1, Vivien worked 125
days, or five months, with only a few days off.
Gable worked 71 days. It was
apparent to most observers that Vivien Leigh
was driving herself at top
speed, and harder than Scarlett drove her sisters to
pick cotton after the war.
Feverish with desire to finish the movie and fly to
New York and Olivier, GWTW's leading lady threw herself into the
project
with a disregard for rest of
any kind. At last the day came when the final
scene was to be filmed
Scarlett sobbing on the staircase for the departed
Rhett. Vivien had to postpone
her
New York flight for this scene, a last-
minute invention of
Selznick's, and as a consequence, the tears were real.
During the preview show in a
theatre, when the title Gone With the
Wind flashed across the
screen, the audience rose to its collective feet,
cheering, applauding, and
screaming. And the movie was now ready for the
big time. Lights, action,
Atlanta!
GONE WITH THE WIND" ©1939 Turner Entertainment
Co.
All Rights Reserved.
"GONE WITH THE WIND," its character names and elements
are trademarks of
Turner Entertainment Co. and the Stephens Mitchell Trusts.
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