Vivien Leigh, Lady Olivier (5 July 1913-8 July 1967), was an English actress. She won two Academy Awards for playing "Southern Belles": Scarlett O'Hara in Gone With The Wind (1939) and Blanche DuBois in the film version of A Street Car Named Desire (1951), a role she had also played on stage in London's West End.

She was a prolific stage performer, frequently in collaboration with her husband, Laurence Olivier, who directed her in several of her roles. During her thirty-year stage career, she played parts that ranged from the heroines of Noel Coward and George Bernard Shaw comedies to classic Shakespearean characters such as Ophelia, Cleopatra, Juliet and Lady Macbeth.

I had heard of The Petrified Forest as a gangster film, so was surprised to find that it is really a stage play, largely set in one room (a remote cafe at an Arizona petrol station) - and has a static, talky quality. Although this is known as a star-making performance for Humphrey Bogart, in fact the male lead is Leslie Howard.

 He plays a failed writer turned failed drifter, who lands up at this restaurant in the middle of nowhere and strikes up a tentative relationship with waitress Gabby (Bette Davis), the daughter of the owner - who is desperate to get away and discover the outside world. I was intrigued to discover how literary a lot of the conversation between Howard and Davis is, with them both reading poems aloud - everything from Francois Villon to TS Eliot. I like Davis' performance as the ambitious young dreamer frustrated by her surroundings and desperate to travel to Paris and find love. But Howard really does seem like a fish out of water, indeed almost like someone who has wandered in from another movie, and I don't find him at all convincing. There's also just too much stodgy dialogue, so that any sharp lines get lost along the way.
For me the movie only truly comes alive with the arrival of Bogart as gangster Duke Mantee, who holds everyone in the cafe hostage and insists that they sit at the tables for even longer, while he works out what to do. Bogart seems to be speaking a different language from everyone else in the film - terse, snappy lines with not an unnecessary word, a long way from the flowery exchanges between Howard and Davis. Bogart seems to be the man of the future, while the penniless Howard, with his pipe, romantic ideas and tales of meeting writers now dead, is the man of the past.

O ator britânico Leslie Howard, conhecido por seus papéis em filmes como "...E o Vento Levou" e "Pigmaleão", foi agente do Reino Unido durante a Segunda Guerra Mundial, de acordo com o livro "O Vôo de Ibis".

Escrito pelo espanhol José Rey-Ximena, o livro mistura a biografia do autor, que também trabalhou em filmes como "Intermezzo", com a pesquisa feita por ele ao longo de mais de duas décadas.

Howard nasceu no Reino Unido, passou a infância em Viena, falava alemão e tinha consciência do perigo representado pela ascensão de Adolf Hitler ao poder na Alemanha.

Por esse motivo, participou ativamente da resistência britânica, fazendo filmes e incentivando os cidadãos a enfrentarem a invasão alemã em uma guerra que, em vários momentos, parecia perdida para os seu país.

O ator morreu em 1943 quando o avião que o levava da Espanha para o Reino Unido, o Ibis, foi derrubado por caças nazistas.

Leia mais clicando aqui.

    

Esta vez le ha tocado el turno a las películas de corte romántico.  El Cine está plagado de ellas, aunque no todas las historias enclavadas en películas de ese corte.  El amor en el Cine, como en la vida real, se da en cualquier lugar y en cualquier circunstancia.

Espero que disfrutéis de los carteles que incluyo, y espero también, que si algunos de los que leáis el post, no habéis visto todavía las películas, os animéis ha hacerlo.  Son exclentes (algunas, obras maestras, -y mira que no me agrada mucho la denominación, por utilizarse demasiado alegremente) y clásicos imprescindibles que ayudan a conocer mejor el Cine.

Charles Chaplin dirigió “Luces de la ciudad” en 1931, y su personaje, Charlot, la iluminó, dando luz a los ojos de su amada. El amor del eterno vagabundo, hacia la vendedora de flores ciega, es de los más conmovedores que ha dado la historia del cine. Impagable Charlot e impagable Charles Chaplin, que incluyó, (sin saberlo) en su banda sonora, un tema del compositor español José Padilla: “La violetera”. Un perfecto tema para ilustrar una parte de esta maravillosa película.

No decía mucho el cartel sobre el contenido. Charlot, en solitario, saluda con su sombrero hongo, y las luces de la ciudad lo iluminan…

“Romeo y Julieta” (1936). Dirigió esta adaptación de la obra de Shakespeare, uno de los grandes directores que ha dado el cine: George Cukor. Esto no ha evitado que la película, si bien no naufragó en su momento, porque sus protagonistas eran estrellas punteras de aquellos años (Norma Shearer, y Leslie Howard ), si que haga aguas cuando la visionamos en la actualidad. Un Romeo de 43 años, y una Julieta de 34 (las edades que tenían Howard y Shearer cuando la rodaron), no encajan muy bien con la imagen de los enamorados adolescentes y llenos de inocencia, que describe el dramaturgo inglés en su obra, lo que da lugar a que determinadas escenas resulten casi ridículas, por sobreactuadas, intentando (sobre todo la Shearer), componer un personaje juvenil. Puede verse al día de hoy por mera curiosidad, y porque es de Cukor.

En el cartel, Romeo y Julieta, con cara de “pavos”.

El mismo año, y el mismo director (Cukor otra vez), llevó a la pantalla “Margarita Gautier, la dama de las camelias”, adaptación de la novela de Alejando Dumas. Los amores de Margarita, mujer de dudosa reputación, y enferma de tuberculosis, y su rendido amante Armando, han resistido perfectamente el paso del tiempo en esta película. Greta Garbo y Robert Taylor les dieron vida, y a las órdenes de Cukor, realizaron unas magníficas interpretaciones. Un melodrama muy recomendable.

El cartel español que cuelgo, podéis ver que no resulta muy atractivo. El dibujante no estuvo muy acertado en sacar los parecidos de los protagonistas.

En 1939 se rodó a las órdenes de William Wyler una de las historias de amor desgarrado y atormentado, mas grandes que ha dado el cine: “Cumbres Borrascosas”.  Estaba basada en la novela de Emily Brontë. Merle Oyeron y Lurence Olivier eran los protagonistas de esta maravilla dramática. Recomendabilísima.

En el cartel, Oberon-Cathy, y Olivier- Heathcliff, en dos escenas de la película.

-

“Tu y yo”, (1939), esa película que tanto se mencionaba en la bastante más reciente “Algo para recordar” (1993), tuvo dos versiones, que curiosamente dirigió el mismo director, Leo McCarey (si se hace un remake, lo hago yo, ¡leñe!). La más conocida por el aficionado al cine en la actualidad, seguramente será la de 1957, (que es la que realmente se citaba en el film que he nombrado arriba), pero tanto la del 39, como la del 57, son films que siguen siendo dignos de verse. La primera estuvo protagonizada por Irene Dunne y Charles Boyer. La segunda, por el carismático Cary Grant, y Deborah Kerr.

En muy poco varían sus carteles, aunque los separan casi veinte años. Como en toda película romántica que se precie, la pareja es la protagonista del cartel.

David Lean dirigió en 1945 “Breve encuentro”, que narra con realismo la historia de amor surgida entre dos personas ya maduras, y ambas casadas, en una estación de tren. Uno de los mejores dramas románticos escritos para la pantalla grande, excelentemente confeccionada y con unas interpretaciones totalmente convincentes, por parte de Celia Johnson, y Trevor Howard, sus protagonistas. La banda sonora es capítulo aparte en esta película. Piezas de Rachmaninov ponen música a la acción de este drama.

Un extraordinario film para ver en cualquier momento.

Las miradas en ese cartel, dicen mucho…

“La bella y la bestia” (1946), de Jean Cocteau. Esta fue la primera adaptación al cine de la novela basada en un cuento tradicional europeo, de Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont. La historia nos presenta a Bella, una guapa y bondadosa joven que por salvar la vida de su padre se ve obligada a vivir en el castillo junto a su dueño: una bestia. La magia con la que Cocteau rodea al argumento, mereció y merece elogios actualmente. Jean Marais y Josette Day, la protagonizaron.

De las imprescindibles.

En el cartel se daba una idea de lo que podía verse, a los que no hubieran leído la novela.

También de 1946 es “El cartero llama dos veces”, de Tay Garnett, en su primera versión de la novela negra de James M. Cain. Con esta película nos alejamos de los amores románticos, y entramos en los amores pasionales y destructivos. Magistralmente contada, con una fotografía impecable, y con el dúo de protagonistas (John Gardfield, y Lana Turner) ofreciendo unas inmejorables interpretaciones de sus personajes, es una joya que se intento igualar en 1981, en una nueva versión, bajo la dirección de Bob Rafelson, protagonizada por Jack Nicholson y Jessica Lange, que aunque también ofreció una excelente calidad, y reforzó su argumento erótico, concibiéndolo mas al gusto de aquel momento, no alcanza las cotas de la versión de Garnett.

El cartel con el que se anunció, tampoco ofrecía mucha información de la película, ni resultaba muy atractivo.

Aunque entre los quince años que separan la película de arriba con esta, si se rodaron films de corte romántico, en mi selección he pasado directamente a “West side story” (1961).

Dirigida por Robert Wise, y Jerome Robbins, versionaba los desgraciados amores de Romeo y Julieta, trasladándolos al barrio oeste de Nueva York, y situándolos en los años en los que se rodó. Una Julieta encarnada por la menuda Natalie Wood, y un Romeo al que daba vida Richard Beymer, sufrían el rechazo en esta ocasión de las respectivas pandillas callejeras a la que pertenecían. Con un trasfondo social (nos habla de la hostilidad del norteamericano de entonces hacia el emigrante), y presentada la historia dentro del género musical, marcó un hito en su momento, y sigue siendo merecedora de alabanzas hoy en día. Magníficos decorados, excelente fotografía, buenísimas interpretaciones por parte del joven elenco de actores (solo flaquea un poco la Richard Beymer, un actor excesivamente “blando”, aunque con un atractivo físico valorado en la época), y una banda sonora con canciones y números musicales irrepetibles, la hicieron merecedora de los 10 Oscar de la Academia de Hollywood que ganó aquel año.

Se mantiene fresca como una rosa para un visionado actual después de casi cincuenta años.

El cartel lo protagoniza la reconocible escena del balcón de Romeo y Julieta.

En 1965, David Lean emprendió la tarea de adaptar al cine la novela del escritor ruso Boris Pasternak, “Doctor Zhivago”. En una lujosa superproducción, nos contaba los desdichados amores de Yury Zhivago y Lara, enmarcados en plena revolución rusa, y sin apartarse de la esencia de la obra, nos introducía en los vericuetos políticos y sociales de aquel momento histórico. Una excelente banda sonora, debida a la creatividad de Maurice Jarre, enmarca una perfecta fotografía y unos magníficos decorados que consiguen involucrarnos aún más en la historia. Omar Sharif, y una siempre maravillosa Julie Christie daban vida a los personajes centrales, que estaban acompañados por un destacado reparto de actores.

Todo un clásico que siempre merecerá la pena visionar.

El cartel, en esta ocasión, si podía dar una idea de lo que se iba a encontrar en la película.

"Romeo y Julieta", de Franco Zeffirelli, es del año 1968. Una nueva adaptación de la obra de Shakespeare, pero, al menos para mi gusto, la más redonda y cercana a la concepción de su autor. Los dos jóvenes actores que la protagonizaron (Leonard Whiting, y Olivia Hussey), si que eran creíbles en sus papeles de adolescentes enamorados. Vestuario, decorados, fotografía, y una puesta en escena digna de alabanzas, acompañado todo por la maravillosa banda sonora de Nino Rota, nos traslada durante los 138 mtos. (de los que no sobra ni un minuto) a esa Verona en la que los amores se convierten en amores desgraciados por culpa de la hostilidad entre unas familias. Atención a la impagable interpretación de John McEnery, en el papel de Mercutio (aunque todos los secundarios ofrecían dignas interpretaciones).

Recomendabilísima para disfrutar del mundo de Shakespeare.

En el cartel, Romeo y Julieta. ¿Para que más?

Y para cerrar, porque esta selección siempre se cierra en 1970, un título que hay que recordar, aunque no tenga los mismos valores (al menos para mí) para estar aquí, que el resto de las películas citadas.

“Love story” (1970), de Arthur Hiller, basada en la novela de Erich Segal, superventas de la época (también Corín Tellado vendía a mansalva), ofrecía una historia de amor ñoño y empalagoso, pero que caló bastante bien en una parte de los espectadores (no sólo del género femenino, si no también en barbados integrantes del masculino). Quizás haya pasado a la historia del género precisamente por su cursilería al tratar el tema de enamoramiento, y ahí está, tiene su rinconcito. Para nada inolvidables las actuaciones de sus protagonistas, Ali MacGraw, y Ryan O'Neal, y si algo tiene destacable la película, es su excelente banda sonora, con un bonito tema principal, casi excesivamente machacado a lo largo de los años.

Nada más que añadir. El cartel: La pareja, el libro en el que se basa la historia, y la –Frase- “Amar significa no tener que decir nunca: lo siento. ¿Recomendarla? Para los incondicionales de las “películas de amor”.

Como siempre, no están todas, y algunos echaráis en falta títulos como “Casablanca” (no se por donde anda metido el cartel de mano original de su estreno en España), pero talvez haga una segunda ronda, e incluya títulos que no aparecen en esta primera.

Lamento no haber podido incluir el cartel original de su estreno en España de "Breve encuentro".  No se encuentra entre los de mi colección, y no lo he conseguido tampoco por Internet.  El que he colgado, es de una edición para video, pero la película tenía que aparecer en esta recopilación, y tenía que ser ilustrada.

 Swanson 

Warner Gangsters Collection, Vol. 1 (The Public Enemy / White Heat / Angels with Dirty Faces / Little Caesar / The Petrified Forest / The Roaring Twenties) is available at Amazon for $61.99. To Order click here
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• Warner Gangsters Collection, Vol. 2 (Bullets or Ballots / City for Conquest / Each Dawn I Die / G Men / San Quentin / A Slight Case of Murder)
• Warner Gangsters Collection, Vol. 3 (Smart Money / Picture Snatcher / The Mayor of Hell / Lady Killer / Black Legion / Brother Orchid)
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• Scarface (Universal Cinema Classics)
• Bogie and Bacall - The Signature Collection (The Big Sleep / Dark Passage / Key Largo / To Have and Have Not)

El artículo completo, aquí.

*****

Gone with the Wind is one of the greatest films of all time. It picked up ten Academy Awards in 1940, setting a record that would stand for twenty years until Ben Hur would surpass it in 1960. In AFI’s 2007 version of its Top 100 American Films of All Time list, Gone with the Wind ranked at number six. It was responsible for the melodramatic framework that most soap operas would wind up using, too, and is perhaps most interesting because of the notion that the characters are all perfectly flawed human beings.

Based on Margaret Mitchell’s 1936 novel of the same name, Gone with the Wind is an epic film set in the American South around the time of the Civil War. We are introduced to a large cotton plantation in rural Georgia in the year 1861. Called Tara, this plantation is home to the Irish immigrant Gerald O’Hara (Thomas Mitchell), his wife Ellen (Barbara O’Neill), and their three daughters. Scarlett O’Hara (Vivien Leigh) is the eldest of the three daughters and she is seemingly sought after by just about every young man in the area. The man she wants is Ashley Wilkes (Leslie Howard), but Ashley is getting engaged to Melanie Hamilton (Olivia de Havilland) and that’s that.

None of that matters to Scarlett, however, and she continues to pursue Ashley regardless of the costs to Melanie or anyone else. Melanie is kind and compassionate to a fault and never suspects anything but the best of Scarlett. This unrelenting kindness doesn’t deter Scarlett in the least when it comes to her quest of stealing Ashley away. Along comes Rhett Butler (Clark Gable), a rogue gentleman who notices Scarlett and immediately realizes her plans for Ashley. Smitten with finding a woman so vile in her character, Rhett begins to pursue Scarlett.

Throughout these romantic entanglements, there is a war going on. Scarlett continues in her quest to be with Ashley and is willing to do anything to save her own reputation, going so far as to marry Melanie’s shy younger brother Charles before he goes off to war. After Charles dies, Scarlett continues her pursuit of Ashley without missing a beat. The only ones who seem to notice her relentless and shady pursuit is Rhett and Scarlett’s servant Mammy (Hattie McDaniel). The war takes its toll on Tara and the inhabitants there, driving Scarlett to find for the place herself and find a way to finance it. This takes her to the arms of a wealthy businessman, but she still holds on to hope for Ashley. That hope for Ashley follows her throughout the course of the film, haunting her until the very end.

One of the most remarkable things about Gone with the Wind is that it is, in effect, an anti-romantic movie. It is often dismissed as a romantic wartime epic drama, but there is actually nothing romantic about this film. The character of Scarlett, so wonderfully played by Leigh, is absolutely terrifying in her willingness to do anything to get what she wants. It is probable that Scarlett does not even want Ashley all that much, rather that she prefers the pursuit, and that a life with Ashley would not even satisfy her. She is a shrewd individual and is able to capture that element ideally when she has to become a businesswoman. Her inability to care about workers’ conditions, for instance, belies a darker attitude below the surface.

Offsetting Scarlett is, of course, Rhett. Rhett is a scoundrel as well, although even he is a step up from the depravity with which Scarlett lives her life. Rhett spends time with shady characters and frequents a brothel, but he still has a heart and is still able to look for decency. Scarlett, conversely, overlooks human decency wherever she finds a glimpse of it. She is so abhorrently afraid of Melanie that she has to put the poor woman out of her mind constantly. Rhett, on the other hand, is drawn to characters like Mammy and Melanie because of their genuine goodness. He envies them and wishes he would find someone like them, but settles for Scarlett until his famed moment of realization.

The film’s legacy is immense, clearly. There are so many facets to the impression Gone with the Wind left behind that books have been filled on the topic. There’s Hattie McDaniel’s Oscar, for instance. There’s the segregation at the Atlanta premiere that led to Gable’s near-boycott of the event. There’s Max Steiner’s incredible score and that famous line that everybody knows. Gone with the Wind is a part of film history that should be seen, at least once, by everyone with the ability to see it. I hope and pray for another theatrical release - there have been several already, with the most recent one in 1998 - so that I can take in the magic and wonder that is this wonderfully human story.

Gone with the Wind set the bar incredibly high for other melodramas. It is one of the most perfect films of all time and is one of my favourite movies ever. Something special happened with Victor Fleming directed this masterpiece, that’s for sure. For the legacy, for the complexity, for the beauty, for the grandeur, and for the messages, Gone with the Wind is simply the best.

10/10

Trailer:

Despite an epic canvas, this is fundamentally the story of one vivacious but flawed heroine. Casting the part of Scarlett O'Hara was a piece of hype that had everybody buzzing with anticipation. Actresses were ready to kill to take this coveted role. The field included Lucille Ball, Tallulah Bankhead, Claudette Colbert, Joan Crawford, Bette Davis, Irene Dunne, Paulette Goddard, Jean Harlow, Carole Lombard, Norma Shearer and Mae West. Selznick famously ran a 2 year talent search for someone to play the role and 2000 screen tests were done. When Leigh was cast, she was unknown to American audiences, although no stranger to the London stage, or to the bed of Lawrence Olivier.

People were expecting great things of Leigh, and they got them. Her co-star, Clark Gable, gave the performance of his life as Rhett Butler. His part too was hotly contested; Ronald Colman, Gary Cooper and Errol Flynn all had their names associated with the role at one time or another.

When Rhett Butler tells Scarlet O'Hara:

You need kissing badly. That's what's wrong with you. You should be kissed, and often, and by someone who knows how.

we all know he doesn't exactly mean "kissing". The Civil War is merely a backdrop, this is really a story about sex.

Numerous writer and directors worked on the film: George Cukor was replaced by Victor Fleming, kidnapped from directing the unfinished The Wizard of Oz. Fleming collected the Best Director Oscar for GWTW but was himself replaced by Sam Wood, before everything was in the can. Scott Fitzgerald, Ben Hecht and others all had a hand in the screenplay credited to Sidney Howard who won another Oscar, posthumously. Yet more names contributed to the cinematography but the true begetter of this film was David O Selznick.

Hattie McDaniel played the black slave Mammy who dotingly serves Scarlet, while chiding her recklessness. McDaniel was the first black actress to win an Academy Award. McDaniel's role in Gone With the Wind was such a strong racial stereotype that her award may not actually have moved forward the cause of equality for black actors.

Certainly, the film presents slavery as an acceptable norm. Margaret Mitchell's romanticized view of the Old South is shown on screen for us to read:

There was a land of Cavaliers and Cotton Fields called the Old South. Here in this pretty world, Gallantry took its last bow. Here was the last ever to be seen of Knights and their Ladies Fair, of Master and of Slave. Look for it only in books, for it is no more than a dream remembered, a Civilization gone with the wind...

...and thank goodness it has.

Doubtless, one of the last of those Gallant Cavaliers  was Ashley Wilkes, theatrically portrayed by Leslie Howard. A true Southern gentleman who is the object of Scarlett's ambition. Unfortunately for Scarlett, Ashley plans to marry his demure cousin Melanie Hamilton from Atlanta. Rhett Butler overhears Scarlett's desperate protestation of love for Ashley. Out of spite, Scarlett marries Melanie's sickly brother, but is soon widowed when the war begins.

The action moves to Atlanta, where Scarlett meets Rhett again, now much admired as a blockade runner. But one man's hero is another man's profiteer:

I believe in Rhett Butler. He's the only cause I know. The rest doesn't mean much to me.

Rhett Butler sounds a lot like Casablanca's Rick Blaine.

The Yankees lay siege to Atlanta. As the city falls to the Union troops, Melanie goes into labor. In a memorable scene we see Scarlett passing among thousand of wounded soldiers as she seeks the doctor. After delivering the baby herself she is rescued by Rhett and in one of the most legendary scenes of the cinema, they drive through the burning city of Atlanta.

The war ends, Ashley returns, Scarlett schemes and deals to bring prosperity back to her beloved Tara, eventually marries Rhett, yet he never truly masters her.

I've always thought a good lashing with a buggy whip would benefit you immensely.

They separate, their daughter dies, Melanie dies and Ashley make plain he never loved Scarlet. Scarlet tries to win back Rhett but...

Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn.

The film should have ended here but in fact closes on an optimistic note. Scarlet returns to Tara.

I'll go home, and I'll think of some way to get him back! After all, tomorrow is another day!

So, in a sunset glow as corny as any you'll ever see in any movie, we goodbye to the outrageous Scarlet O'Hara. Selznick has delivered a masterpiece of melodrama on an epic scale and justified his enormous budget. No film before or since has put so many bums on so many seats in so many cinemas. Best Picture 1939? You bet.
benny

Oh boy, where to start, where to start? I guess I'll start by saying that this is my favorite film of all time; it is also my favorite novel of all time as well. Usually I end up disappointed with films that are adapted from my favorite books but not this time. Can you believe that there was a time when I detested this movie? I didn't even want to try watching it. It was "too old, boring, annoying, long, and did I mention too old?" I'm sad to say that for a girl who had been in love with the movies her whole life, I wasn't a very open-minded film nerd.

That all changed when I was 18. You see my friend, Tara, who was named after GWTW, had a poster of Clark Gable and Vivien Leigh in that famous shot where Rhett has asked her to marry him and then he plants a dominating kiss on her. I said, "Tara, what? You actually like that movie?" To which she replied, "Yeah, it's like my favorite movie ever, it's so good." I was confused. How could my friend who was so awesome, like this film? But what if she was right? What if it WAS the best film ever and I was missing out for being so stubborn?

I decided to read the book first; I got a used paperback for like $4 and proceeded to read it. Within a couple chapters, I was hooked. I'd always loved to read, and adored books with intricate and detailed imagery. I like to be able to picture the scene in my mind and feel like I'm there, in another time and another place. I like to believe the characters, even if I don't like them. Isn't that what good books are all about? Needless to say, I finished the novel after two months feeling accomplished and sad at the same time. Accomplished because I'd read long books before, but not as long as GWTW (to this day it remians the most lengthy book I've ever read aside from "The Count of Monte Cristo" by Alexandre Dumas). Sad because it was over. The saga of Scarlett O'Hara and her love for the wrong man was over and then I was thrust back into reality and I wanted more. I wanted to go back to the Civil War South and stay there. Well, the next best thing to do was see the film. So my mom bought it for me for Christmas, and the rest, as they say, is history.

Gone with the Wind is the story of selfish, beautiful and manipulative Scarlett O'Hara, whose life is shaped by the American Civil War and Reconstruction. Scarlett thinks she loves the dreamy Ashley Wilkes but is sought after by the roguish Rhett Butler who seeks to make her love him. As Scarlett's world is turned upside down by circumstance and her own actions, so are her feelings toward those who love her and those she can't quite understand her feelings for. Once she realizes that her love for Ashley Wilkes was nothing more than a fantasy, an illusion, it may be too late to have a life with the man she really loves so much because he is so like her.

One of the first things that struck me after watching the film for the first time was how similar the two leads were to Margaret Mitchell's descriptions of Rhett and Scarlett in the book. When you read about the search for the leading lady by David Selznick, the producer, you have to wonder how he must have known not to sign anyone until Vivien Leigh showed up and surprised everyone with her striking facial similarity to Mitchell's heroine. It must have been fate. Vivien was perfect for that part, in my opinion. It didn't matter if she wasn't Southern, if she had a British accent, she pulled it off like a dream and it's no wonder she took home the Oscar that year for her performance. Clark Gable did equally as well. He fit Rhett Butler like a glove, and you have to acknowledge the chemistry between those two on screen. It's like if you lit a match, the whole place would explode, so thick was the sexual tension between those two characters. I think it's an example of perfect timing as far as when it was made, who was cast, and audience's sensibility to screen stories at that time. That's why it works so well.

I think the film has lasted so long in the mind of the public was not because it was so lavish and big budget for its time; it's because of audience's ability to relate to the characters, especially Scarlett, and the themes presented in the story. Compared to so many womens' roles during the 1930's, Scarlett O'Hara was the ultimate bitch. She wasn't demure, she wasn't kind, and she wasn't submissive. Maybe that is why so many actresses vied for the part, because it was so different from the norm. Everyone wanted to play the bad girl. Yet despite Scarlett's flaws (and she's got more than I can count) as a person, she was strong, full of vitality in the face of destruction, and, in Margaret Mitchell's words, she had "gumption." She adapted as her surroundings changed while everyone else (except Rhett) fell behind. She didn't give up despite war ravishing her family, her friends and her home. She vowed to hold on to what was important to her, and even though she may have lost more than she gained in doing so, she refused to quit.

Scarlett was like a phoenix being reborn from the ashes and rising up as a new woman. And Rhett; tall, dark, handsome, sarcastic Rhett, what kind of girl doesn't like a character like that. I'd rank him up there with your Heathcliffs and your Darcys and your Rochesters. He is my favorite character in the novel and my favorite literary crush of all time, haha. I mean honestly, who doesn't love his blackguard ways?

Gone with the Wind is an epic film in every sense of the word, and Robert Osbourne (whose job I want) made a good point last night when he introduced it on TCM. He said it was "the movie to which all other films are held up to." That certainly was true at the time. It stands as the pinnacle of Hollywood's Golden Age of cinema, and I personally think that even if someone tried to remake it today, the original would not be lost from memory, nor would its leading actors.

With its stellar performances, sweeping music, beautiful cinematography, and heart-wrenching melodrama, Gone with the Wind still remains number one in so many people's hearts and I think it will continue to be so for generations to come.

It is a film for all time. They just don;t make 'em like that anymore.  And if you haven't read the book but you like to read, I encourage you to do so, it's so wonderful.  It might just change your life.  No, I'm serious, that's how rad it is.

Rating: 4 stars

They seek him here, They seek him there,
Those Frenchies seek him everywhere.

Is he in heaven?
-Is he in hell?
That demmed, elusive Pimpernel.

Boken som filmen bygger på är skriven av  Baronessan Orczy (Emmuska Magdalena Rosalia Maria Josefa Barbara Orczy 1865-1947).

Den Röda Nejlikan i tysk filmtidskrift

Leslie Howard - som spelar huvudrollen - den Röda Nejlikan (1935) spelade några år senare in Pimpernel Smith - en film som baseras på den förra filmen.

I Den Röda Nejlikan spelar Leslie Howard en engelsk aristokrat - Sir Percy Blakeney - som är engagerad i ett hemligt sällskap vars syfte är att rädda dödsdömda franska aristokrater undan giljotinen.

Med fara för sitt eget liv reser han över den Engelska kanalen, tar sig in i Paris och utklädd lyckas han forsla flera av de dödsdömda till ett liv i frihet i England.

I den efterförljande filmen - Pimpernel Smith (1941) - spelar Lesley Howard en brittisk historielärare (professor Horatio Smith) som reser till Tyskland med sex av sina elever under 1930-talet för att ta reda på om det funnits en tidig arisk civilisation i Tyskland.

När han pratar med en av gestapoledarna (General Von Graum) om sitt uppdrag, försöker han övertyga honom om att han läst i The Jabberwocky av Lewis Carroll att William Shakespeare verkligen var "the Earl of Oxford".

Smiths elever känner först inte till hans verkliga avsikter - men när han såras - kommer de på att han egentligen är där för att hjälpa judar undan förintelsen. Eleverna funderar på hur de ska göra - men kommer sedan överens om att slutföra sin lärares uppdrag.

Filmen är regisserad och producerad av Leslie Howard - som ett led i propagandan mot nazismen. Howard var starkt patriotisk och arbetade i det brittiska försvaret.

1943 hade han varit på en föreläsningstur i Spanien och Portugal - men troligen hade han i hemlighet också mött motståndsmän.

När han flög hem till England sköts hans plan ner av Luftwaffe. Det spreds ett rykte om att tyskarna trodde att Winston Churchill skulle ha befunnit sig på planet - att det i själva verket var han som var måltavlan. Bland annat skrev Churchill själv ner detta i sina memoarer. Men Leslie Howards son undersökte själv saken och kom fram till att tyskarna omöjligt kan ha trott att Churchill skulle ha flugit ett litet plan och med endast en livvakt. Det var Leslie Howard man var ute efter. Tyskarna visste mycket väl att propaganda var ett effektivt vapen. Och Howard var Englands mest effektiva "propagandaminister".

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I always highly admire those in Hollywood (or any other high-profile career) who leave it to do what they feel is right. I also am constantly in search of celebrities who marry before becoming famous, and stay married to that same person, after fame and fortune make their appearance. Both of these are true of Leslie Howard, and that makes him particularly admirable in my opinion. Happy Birthday to a great man!

Devilish clever race, the French. How they speak that unspeakable language of theirs defeats me. (12 points)