Gone With The Wind: The Missing Alternate Ending

I looked for it, but couldn’t dig it up.

“It” is a clip of the “alternate ending” to David O. Selznick’s classic movie “Gone With The Wind”, a film that many people still consider the greatest movie ever made.

The alternate end was merely the last line uttered by Clark Gable. Fearing that the original “Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn”, issued to Scarlett O’Hara would not make it past the censors, Selznick filmed Rhett Butler saying, “Frankly, my dear, I don’t really care”.

No teeth in that last line, so it turns out to be quite fortunate for movie history that the censors let it go—albeit not without punishment. Selznick was fined $5,000 for including that curse.

Here is a link to the version that everyone knows and loves:



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-6Pbc8SQwV8&feature=related

It was on this date in 1939 that this final scene was filmed. That pivotal line was voted as the #1 movie line of all time in 2005. Still one would think that the alternate line footage would exist somewhere. Maybe it’s in a dusty steel reel box in some Hollywood film vault. Either way, it would be amusing to see Gable deliver this hapless dialogue line to a tearful Vivian Leigh.

The movie itself was a soap opera behind the scenes, taking nearly two and a half years from the agreement to pay an unprecedented $50,000 for the rights from writer Margaret Mitchell—to the debut of the film in Atlanta. Although Selznick hired a director immediately, had writers working on a script and launched a nationwide search for a fresh talent to play the part of Scarlett O’Hara, a year passed and he still didn’t have a lead actress. In fact the famous “Atlanta burning “ scene was filmed without a decision on who would be Scarlett. Finally, MGM studios lent Clark Gable to Selznick and Vivian Leigh won the role for which she would be famous.

Here’s the original cinema movie trailer for “Gone With The Wind”:



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K9ftIzRAgAk

Breaking all box office records and winning a ton of Academy Awards, including the first ever to an African American (Best Supporting actress Hattie McDaniel)

While it’s tough to crown any single movie as “Best Ever”, “Gone With The Wind” would almost surely be in everyone’s Top 10.
It’s in my Top 5.

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