Scarlett O'Hara Makes It Tough For Clark Gable!

1939

BUNK is cheap on the "Gone With the Wind" set. Most of it arose because the director, George Cukor, asked to be released and because everyone wondered whether Vivien Leigh ("Scarlett") and Clark Gable were hitting it off together.

Early in the shooting, "Scarlett" stole several scenes from Great Gable - and a couple of columnists sent out stories saying there was a feud on. This is not true; Vivien Leigh's tremendous vitality has actually "lifted" the rest of the cast to much better work than anyone expected. In her role, she is one moment demure, the next a ranting hellcat. In person, she is wearing herself out. Weighing only a little over hundred when she started, she has lost several pounds. In some early scenes she refused a stand in and baked herself under hot floodlights for eight hours a day to insure perfect lighting. She kept up her stiff pace of wardrobe fittings and other appointments until nine each night. Now she has been forced to relax a bit, lest the long-delayed film stall again over her succumbing to overwork.

The reason for director George Cukor's asking to be relieved of his duties was not that he disagreed on the handling of the story, as was reported untruly to the discredit producer Dave Selznick, who "has never lost a director yet" for such a reason. It was that overzealous technicians were so anxious about their color that they disturbed him.

That's the situation now, with Gable, long the master of every role, hard put to match "Scarlett's" work, and a great new star making Hollywood history in an American epic!

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