“GONE WITH THE WIND”

Wairarapa Times-Age, 21 June 1940, Page 9

“GONE WITH THE WIND”

STORY OF THE FILM. "Gone With the Wind." which runs | three hours and 40 minutes, and thus i achieves an all-in world record for j length of celluloid, still had me openeyed and absorbed when it reached its end, says a writer in a London paper. To the men who laboured on the production for more than a year that fact may mean little, but it occurs to my mind as the highest tribute I can pay to the most courageous exploit in film-making ever known. There is. of course, the danger of being lulled into the belief that because "Gone With the Wind" cost a million pounds and runs to record length it :s therefore the greatest film ever screened. Although I refuse to be thus lulled, the critical hat is doffed to the technical magnificence of the .production. The colour photography, the flawless acting, the carefully fashioned dialogue (with humour introduced so skilfully), the perfection of the sound recording. all stand as another monument to the awe-inspiring competence which Hollywood commands. “Gone With the Wind” is a story of the old South at the time of the American Civil War. The countryside is peopled with aristocrats living luxuriously on the labour of their negro slaves.

The heart of every young aristocrat is governed by the vixenish whims and tantrums of lovely Scarlett O'Hara (Vivien Leigh), a strange, somewhat eerie character, who out of spite is continually marrying men with whom she is not in love and simultaneously carrying on affairs with other men who exercise a physical fascination for her. Up to the end she gives every evidence of being infatuated by Leslie Howard, though he is married to saintlike Olivia de Havilland. But one man is never enough for Scarlett O'Hara. At a party she encounters Rhett Butler (Clark Gable). Her pulse quickens. Her eyes take on a steely look. She goes after her man. But Rhett Butler is no aristocrat. He believes only in Rhett Butler. He never gives

either to men or women without demanding something in return. Scarlett despises him for his coarseness, but plunges wildly for his charms..

Meanwhile her first two husbands have died—one killed in the early days of the Civil War, the other shot through the head in an affray with roughnecks. The third husband —yes. Clark Gable —is still surviving at the end of the story, when he leaves Scarlett because of the unhappiness she has brought into his life.

I will not attempt to detail the story any further. Perhaps the thought occurs to you that the amorous exploits of a wanton would not seem to justify such an ambitious production as "Gone With the Wind." Maybe not. But delay finally making up your mind until you have seen the film. To me it will remain an unforgettable experience.