TomJH

That star ego thing once again, plus McQueen was a very competitive guy. Newman and Redford had such great chemistry in Butch Cassidy that I'm not in the least bit sorry that casting went the way it did. Jimmy Stewart and John Wayne had the same "who gets top billing" issue when they made Liberty Valance. So they agreed to a compromise by which the actor who got top billing in the film would be billed second in all advertising material for the film. Of course, no matter how you deal with the casting issue of that film the reality is that Stewart has far more screen time. Speaking of top billing anyone ever notice how often Clark Gable did NOT get top billing during the '30s, when he was pretty much the top box office name of the time? He got second billing to Crawford constantly, Norma Shearer (as late as 1939's Idiot's Delight, the same year as GWTW), even, I believe, to Constance Bennett in a 1935 comedy. He also got second billing to Laughton in Mutiny on the Bounty even though he was a bigger draw and they had pretty well equal screen time. I wonder if Laughton had top billing as part of his contract when he got the part of Bligh.

McQueen always struck me as trying to come across as too cool for words. And, to be honest, I found that a little bit alienating, especially as I never found him particularly charming, particularly when compared to Newman, who was also the better actor. Just as Newman's affable charm helps to carry the day in Cool Hand Luke (in a manner in which I think McQueen was incapable), he shone even more brilliantly in that respect in Butch Cassidy. I've read that McQueen had been considered for that film but I'm not certain in which role. I'm just happy that it was Newman who played Butch. I have enjoyed McQueen in a few of his films but Newman's range was greater and his best films (Hustler, Cool Hand Luke, Butch Cassidy, The Verdict) hold up better for me than Steve's.

"So do you like me, honey? Do you really like me?" "Everything except your head. . . . Err, no, I mean, do you want to see my collection of chain saws?"

Wouldn't it be easier to just get a new girlfriend at the strip club?

Douglas Fairbanks Jr. as THE CORSICAN BROTHERS. They're twins, physically joined at birth then separated from each other for years, without knowing of the other's existence. But one is haunted by unexplained visions involving the other one and can feel physical pain when his brother is injured. COBRA WOMAN, with good Maria Montez and bad Maria Montez as twins.

Let's face it. If Rhett hadn't left Scarlett there would be a lot less audience respect for him. He had simply taken too much self absorbed behaviour from her. It's no wonder he no longer gave a damn, which, when he said it, was a declaration of emancipation.

Sorry, skaytonf, I guess the thread has come a bit of a distance from Margaret Mitchell's cautionary tale. I promise - no more hernia jokes.

"Oh, geez, I think I've got a hernia!"

GWTW is, of course, high profile film though it may be, far from the most racist film ever made. I've said this before but I think it's true: The Birth of a Nation comes barging through your front door with its racism on full display in all its raw ugliness while GWTW walks gently through the back door with its bigotry. The success of Birth encouraged the K KK to use the film as a recruiting tool in 1915. But, still, I don't think the Griffith film should be banned from viewing any more than the Selznick epic. Both films are of their time (keep in mind that Birth was premiered just five years after Jack London started his "great white hope" campaign to return the heavyweight championship back to its "rightful" place with the white race when Jack Johnson was champ). Selznick made a point of avoiding the N word in the screenplay of his 1939 film but it was hardly enough to keep black protesters away from campaigning outside the theaters with that film's initial release.

The decision to use Anton Karas and his zither was made by director Carol Reed when he came across him during the Vienna location shooting for The Third Man. I've speculated before on why I think the zither music works for this film rather than a more conventional musical score. Holly Martins is very much a fish out of water in this film, a naive American unaware, initially at least, of the dangers that lurk in those dark, twisting post war Vienna streets. Likewise, the zither music has an unusual foreign sound to American ears. Every time you hear those strings strung it's a reminder to the audience that the action of this film is in a foreign land.

I'm really sorry that they couldn't have had motorcycles in Gone With the Wind. Mammy could have scooted around Tara playing your basic plantation Bad ****. "Hey, Mammy," Prissy or Poke might ask her, "what are you rebelling against?' "Whadda ya got?" Mammy would reply, "Now you get that washin' done, you shiftless bunch 'fore I tell Miss Scarlett on you!" I can envision Rhett arriving at Tara with a horse drawn buggy and Mammy scooting by him on her bike shouting, "I'm warning the house you's on the way, you no good white trash!"

So are you saying that if you don't like a woman you advocate her being beaten and raped? (Always eager to gain keen insights from those who love to quote the Bible to us all the time). Or is this just another attempt at trolling on your part?

Sometimes I feel like a survivor after getting through the scenes with Prissy.

Now it is far from unusual to see commercials featuring mixed race couples. I don't know when that first began but it certainly wouldn't have been the case in the '60s. Would it have been in the '70s or '80s? We obviously have a lot further to go than this in race relations but it's still a healthy sign.

One of my biggest regrets about GWTW was that there were not more scenes between Gable and Hattie McDaniel, the two actors enjoying a delicious chemistry. Then again Rhett and Mammy are also my two favourite characters in the film. Having said that, to be fair, the film is primarily about Scarlett O'Hara and it's Vivien Leigh's magnificent performance which, for me, largely holds GWTW together.

It's been a few years since I saw In This Our Life but I only recall seeing Walter Huston as the bartender in the bar scene.

One of the most poignant scenes in GWTW is when a tearful Mammy tells Melanie of the destructiveness that she had witnessed between Rhett and Scarlett following Bonnie Blue's death. The scene is a marvelous showcase for Hattie McDaniel as an actress and it's a shame that Hollywood never again offered her the opportunity to show off her dramatic powers as an actress as she does here. But I also want to say a word about the emotional support Hattie receives in this scene from Olivia de Havilland, whose sympathetic presence I suspect strongly assisted the actress in reaching emotionally deep in order to produce those tears. Don't forget, too, that, similarly, Olivia shared the screen with Gable in the scene in the film which he most dreaded having to play when his character had to cry.

I'm not trying to nit pick, Cid, but in the film's final scene Scarlett at one point says, "I only know I love you" to which Rhett responds, "That's your misfortune" as he starts to descend the stairs to leave. He either doesn't believe her or, you know, doesn't give a . . .. After putting up with endless self indulgence and psychological abuse from Scarlett to the point of m a s o chism Rhett is finally resigned to the end of their love, as well as his sense of independence from her. Their bonding tie of a daughter is gone forever. Mixed with a melancholy he must feel over the death of his love for Scarlett he must also feel a sense of emotional freedom as he departs. The film does not have a happy ending for Rhett but he has at least reasserted his dignity as he begins a new future without Scarlett.

Scarlett O'Hara was a spoiled, self centred, pampered ****. But she was also a tough hard nosed ambitious survivor who had more guts in her tiny finger than many people do in their entire body. A friend of mine, who was black, and had had a hard road in life (to put it mildly) watched GWTW one evening at my home and the next morning waxed enthusiastically about the film. Not a word came out of her, curiously, about the racial stereotyping in the film (and she was person who frequently spoke about prejudice) but she found Scarlett to be a highly inspirational figure because of her strength and fortitude. Scarlett O'Hara is a classic survivor. Aside from the rose coloured portrait of the antebellum South, the soap opera antics of the story (particularly in the second half) and the inherent racism of the story, we need inspirational heroes and heroines in the world, today as much as ever. In that respect, whatever other faults one may find with this film, Scarlett (far from the most likeable person the movies have ever given us with her flawed character) still fulfills that role.

Rita Hayworth benefited from Sheridan's dispute with the studio. And I agree with you that Olivia de Havilland gave a wonderful performance in the film. She is one of my favourite Cagney leading ladies based on this performance. The scene in which a mellowed Cagney, just released from prison, sits on a park bench with his wife for the first time in years is a sublime demonstration of how restrained performances can make a scene of suppressed emotion all the more poignant. And to think this scene was directed by Raoul Walsh, a man known as an action director.

Angels With Dirty Faces was also an important film in the career of Ann Sheridan. Her gutsy tom boy performance (assisted by great screen chemistry with Cagney) had Warner Bros. soon giving her a buildup as the "Oomph Girl". Sheridan disliked that tag line but went long with it as her career was about to go into high drive. She and Cagney would be co-starred twice more but, unfortunately, missed out on a fourth collaboration when Sheridan refused to participate in The Strawberry Blonde due to a money dispute at the time with Jack Warner. Sheridan was one of the very few leading ladies who could hold her own and was not blown off the screen by Cagney's dynamism. It's wonderful watching the two of them together, one of the great screen teams, even if it is not as celebrated as some others.

That building at the back of the alley today looks like it's the same one that saw all those great comics at work in the early '20s. Doesn't it get any recognition in combination with the alley?

According to Wiki: Cleopatra VII Philopator (Koinē Greek: Κλεοπάτρα Φιλοπάτωρ, Kleopátra Philopátōr;[5] 69 – 10 or 12 August 30 BC)[note 2] was the last active ruler of the Ptolemaic Kingdom of Egypt.[note 5] As a member of the Ptolemaic dynasty, she was a descendant of its founder Ptolemy I Soter, a Macedonian Greek general and companion of Alexander the Great

Thanks Tim. I hadn't thought of Othello, which has a centuries old stage tradition of casting white actors as the Moor (although a few black actors have played the part, too) but the movies continuing that tradition. Aside from a film adaption of Shakespeare, though, can anyone think of any other films since 1950 that cast a white actor as a black character?

It's a film whose story touches on racial prejudice anyway. The producers had to know right off the bat that box office sales in the South might be impacted by that fact moreso than the actual casting of a role in the film by an African American. Going right back to the days of The Birth of a Nation, of course, Hollywood had been notorious for casting white actors as blacks (among other races) in movies. The industry started to become more socially conscious after the war but it was a slow process and, as always, dependant upon the box office, dictated, to a large extent, by primarily white audiences. I've got a question for anyone who might be up on this more than myself. Was Mary Anderson in Underworld Story the last time that a Caucasian played an African American in the movies? Can anyone think of any other instance after 1950 (the year of this film's release) when the role of a black character was played by an actor or actress who WASN'T black? Of course there would still be countless times after that when Caucasians were employed playing Indians in westerns or south seas natives (Debra Paget, among others). And there was also Mickey Rooney and Alec Guinness adding to the insult as Orientals. But, as far as black characters were concerned, weren't they the ones that lead the way to being consistently cast by actors who were of that race? My point is that I suspect Underworld Story might be about the last time the movies did this kind of thing.