American Cinematographer - March 1999 - 106

Cosgrove, ASC, who served as direc¬
of photographic effects, Wilfred

Rhett Butler

(Clark Gable)

tor

and Scarlett
O'Hara (Vivien

M.

Leigh) test their
chemistry with
a

Kline, ASC, and Karl Struss, ASC.

The

convincing 1860s look of the
primarily from the

film resulted

kiss.

work

of Haller

production

and

Rennahan,

designer

William
Lyle
Wheeler and costume designer
Walter Plunkett.
Remarkably, the
entire picture, save for a few secondCameron Menzies, art director

unit scenes, was made at the RKO
Pathe studio in Culver City, then

occupied by Selznick International
Pictures. All of the soundstages were
utilized for the interior sets, and
much of the 40-acre backlot, a trea¬

of sets from great motion
pictures of the past, was bulldozed to
make way for new exteriors. The
scrapped sets provided flaming back¬
grounds for the "burning of Atlanta"
sury

sequence.

The

public followed newspa¬
of the production
avidly, especially the search for suit¬
able actors. Although the cinematog¬
raphy was not publicized, patrons
commented on it in glowing terms,
per

accounts

and increased their demands for
more

color films.

Three-strip Technicolor was
easy process. Although the
picture was made in the new "high¬
speed" Technicolor that had been
used for The Wizard of Oz, the film
was so "slow" that
filming required
not an

Gone With theWind
Ernest

and

Haller, ASC
and director of

Gone With the

Wind, the best¬

In a way, it's unfortunate that
loved

picture of its time, was
released in 1939. Film historians

generally agree that more
outstanding movies were made that
year than in any other, but GWTW
(as it was called) shunted most of the
others aside. Based

on

an

enor¬

mously successful novel of the Old
South by Margaret Mitchell, it was
produced by David O. Selznick, who
drove the production with an iron
will. The first director, George Cukor,
104 March 1999

an

Ray Rennahan, ASC
Garmes, ASC,

photography, Lee

were

fired

a

few weeks

almost intolerable

amount

of

candlepower, especially in the many
large-scale scenes. The camera in its
blimp weighed about 700 pounds,
and the three-strip process required
of correction filters and

into

production. The credited direc¬
Fleming, a notoriously
tough ex-cinematographer, suffered

the

tor, Victor

weirdly colored makeups to achieve

breakdown before produc¬

GWTW was nominated by the

a nervous

tion

wrapped.
The

credited

cinematogra¬
phers were Ernest Haller, who
replaced Garmes, and Technicolor's
great Ray Rennahan, who was with
the show from beginning to end.
Several other cinematographers were
also
involved, including
Jack

use

realistic hues.

Academy in 13 categories. It won
eight Oscars, plus three special
awards. Among the winners were
Haller

and

triumph

was

Rennahan,

whose

hard-won and richly

deserved.
-G.T.
American Cinematographer - March 1999

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of American Cinematographer - March 1999
