Scarlett: "Cathleen, who's that man staring at us? The nasty dog."
Cathleen Calvert: "Why, that's Rhett Butler, he's from Charleston."
Scarlett: "He looks as if he knows what I look like without my shimmy!"
Classic melodrama from 1939. One of the most successful and popular movies ever made, it was directed by three different directors, George Cukor, Victor Fleming, and Sam Wood, though Fleming did the majority of the work and gets the majority of the credit. The screenplay was written by Sidney Howard, based on Margaret Mitchell's novel.
Rhett: "No, I don't think I will kiss you, although you need kissing, badly. That's what's wrong with you. You should be kissed and often, and by someone who knows how."
The movie starred Clark Gable as Rhett Butler, Vivien Leigh as Scarlett O'Hara, Leslie Howard as Ashley Wilkes, Olivia de Havilland as Melanie Hamilton, Hattie McDaniel as Mammy, and Butterfly McQueen as Prissy, among many others.
Scarlett: "But you are a blockade runner!"
Rhett: "For profit, and profit only."
Scarlett: "Are you tryin' to tell me you don't believe in the cause?"
Rhett: "I believe in Rhett Butler. He's the only cause I know."
Producer David O. Selznick purchased the movie rights to Mitchell's book only a month after it was published. He paid her $50,000, which was, at the time, the highest amount ever paid for an author's first novel.
Rhett: "Did you ever think of marrying just for fun?"
Scarlett: "Marriage, fun? Fiddle-dee-dee! Fun for men, you mean."
"Gone with the Wind" received Academy Award nominations for Gable as Best Actor and de Havilland as Best Supporting Actress, as well as nominations for special effects and for composer Max Steiner's score. It won Oscars for Best Picture, Best Writing, Best Director, Best Film Editing, Best Art Direction, and Best Color Cinematography. Leigh won Best Actress, and McDaniel won for Best Supporting Actress -- she was the first black person to be nominated for and to win an Academy Award.
Mammy: "Oh no, you ain't! If you don't care what folks says about this family, I does. And I done told you and told you, you can always tell a lady by the way she eats in front of people like a bird. And I ain't aimin' to have you go over to Mista John Wilkes' house and eat like a field hand and gobble like a hog."
Scarlett: "Ashley Wilkes says he likes to see a girl with a healthy appetite."
Mammy: "Well, I ain't see Mista Ashley asked for to marry you."
McDaniel herself did not attend the movie's grand premiere in Atlanta. Georgia's racial segregation laws barred blacks from "white only" theaters. Selznick was prepared to fight to get McDaniel admitted into the theater, but McDaniel, possibly fearing bad publicity for the movie (and perhaps for herself), sent the producer a letter, saying she would be unable to attend the premiere. Desegregation in Georgia would have to wait another few decades...
Scarlett: "Rhett, if you go, where shall I go? What shall I do?"
Rhett: "Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn."
The most famous line in the movie almost didn't make it to the screen. Back in 1939, the Hayes Code dictated that swearing was forbidden on the big screen, and a number of alternate lines were suggested for Rhett, from the less-than-concise "Frankly, my dear, my indifference is boundless," to the dull "Frankly, my dear, I just don't care," to the silly "Frankly, my dear, I don't give a hoot." In the end, Selznick chose to pay the $5,000 fine to keep the line in the film, but audiences were not appreciative. Many viewers stormed out of theaters in disgust when Gable said the D-word. On the other hand, the line came at the very end of the movie, so maybe they were beating the rush out of the theater.
Scarlett: "As God is my witness, as God is my witness, they're not going to lick me! I'm going to live through this and when it's all over, I'll never be hungry again! No, nor any of my folk. If I have to lie, steal, cheat, or kill! As God is my witness, I'll never be hungry again!"
Research from the Internet Movie Database (www.imdb.com)