The 2nd Annual Classic Quotes Blogathon: «Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn!»

Gone with the Wind (1939) is widely regarded as one of the greatest films of all time. Directed by Victor Fleming, this Civil War epic tells the story of Scarlett O'Hara (Vivien Leigh), the strong-willed daughter of a Georgia plantation owner, following her life from her romantic pursuit of her gentlemanly neighbour, Ashley Wilkes (Leslie Howard), to her marriage to Rhett Butler (Clark Gable), a wealthy older bachelor and society pariah. Running at over 230 minutes, the film was a massive critical and commercial success upon release, winning a total of ten Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director and Best Actress for Leigh.

Rhett Butler: Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn.

Written by Sidney Howard based on Margaret Mitchell's 1936 bestselling novel of the same name, Gone with the Wind features a series of well-known quotes, many of which have entered popular culture. The most iconic of these is, of course, the classic «Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn», voted the most memorable American movie quotation of all time by the American Film Institute in 2005. (Mitchell's original line was actually «My dear, I don't give a damn»; presumably, Howard added «Frankly.») The line is spoken by Rhett Butler as his last words to Scarlett, in response to her tearful question: «If you go, where shall I go? What shall I do?» This tart reply is supposed to demonstrate Rhett's strength of character and heartbreaking heroism as he finally breaks away from his poisonous relationship with Scarlett.

According to producer David O. Selznick, they had to «put up a strong fight for the line» with the Hays Office, Hollywood's self-imposed censorship board, which strongly objected to the use of the word «damn» on screen. The term had been prohibited by the Motion Picture Production Code Administration (PCA) since July 1934, but it was relatively common in both silent and Pre-Code films. For instance, John Gilbert shouted «Goddamn you!» to the enemy during a battle scene in The Big Parade (1925); Winner Lightner ended Gold Diggers of Broadway (1929) by complaining, «Oh, damn it, I forgot my second line»; and in The Big Trail (1930), John Wayne said, «Zeke always told me women were damn funny.» 

 

LEFT: David O. Selznick, producer of Gone with the Wind. RIGHT: Joseph I. Breen, head of the Production Code Administration from 1934 to 1941.

 

But obviously, by the time Gone with the Wind began production in early 1939, PCA head Joseph I. Breen protested to the use of the word «damn» under Section Five of the Production Code, which stated that, «Pointed profanity (this includes the words God, Lord, Jesus, Christ — unless used reverently — Hell, S.O.B., damn, Gawd) or every other profane or vulgar expression, however used, is expressly forbidden.» A list of far less objectionable alternatives was immediately provided. These included «Frankly, my dear, I don't care»; «Frankly, my dear, nothing could interest me less»; «Frankly, my dear, I don't give a hoot»; and «Frankly, my dear, it makes my gorge rise.» Selznick, however, was concerned that removing the word «damn» would diminish the picture's fidelity to the book, as well as the impact of its conclusion. 

 

A list of alternatives to Rhett Butler's iconic line provided by the PCA.

 

Determined to maintain the integrity of the iconic line, Selznick went over Breen's head and, on October 20, 1939, wrote a letter directly to PCA chairman Will H. Hays, explaining why «the punchline of Gone with the Wind» should be retained. In his letter, Selznick pointed out that a number of popular magazines, including so-called «moral publications» as Woman's Home Companion and the Saturday Evening Post, used the word freely. He also asserted that

«from the reaction of two preview audiences, this line is remembered, loved and looked forward to by the millions who have read this new American classic. [...] A great deal of the force and drama of [the film] is dependent upon that words. It is my contention that this word as used in the picture is not an oath or a curse. The worst that could be said against it is that it is a vulgarism, and it is so described in the Oxford English Dictionary.»

Selznic ended his lengthy letter to Hays by saying, 

«I do not feel that your giving me a permission to use 'damn' in this one sentence will open the flood-gates and allow every gangster picture to be peppered with 'damns' from end to end. I do believe, however, that if you were to permit our using this dramatic word in its rightfully dramatic place [...] it would establish a helpful precedent [...] which would give to Joe Breen discretionary powers to allow the use of certain harmless oaths and ejaculations whenever in his opinion they are not prejudicial to public morals.»

 

LEFT: David O. Selznick, Victor Fleming, Vivien Leigh and Clark Gable on the set for the final scene of the film. RIGHT: Victor Fleming and Vivien Leigh.

Meanwhile, Hays was told that if he refused to overrule Breen, then a meeting would take between the major studio heads to discuss the matter. But that was not necessary. On November 1, 1939, a month and a half before the film's release, Hays passed an amendment to the Code that allowed the words «hell» and «damn» to be spoken on screen, when their use «shall be essential and required for portrayal, in proper historical context, of any scene or dialogue based upon historical fact or folklore [...] or a quotation from a literary work, provided that no such use shall be permitted which is intrinsically objectionable or offends good taste.» With this, Breen and the PCA had no further objection to Rhett's closing line. The word «damn» was not used again until John Ford's How Green Was My Valley (1941), wherein Sara Allgood says to a group of miners, «I am Beth Morgan, as you damn well know!»

This post is my contribution to The 2nd Annual Classic Quotes Blogathon hosted by The Flapper Dame. To view all entries to the blogathon, click HERE.

 

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SOURCES:
Clark Gable: Biography, Filmography, Bibliography by Chrystopher J. Spicer (McFarland & Company Inc., 2002)
The Making of Gone with the Wind by Steve Wilson (University of Texas Press, 2014)
TCM's notes on Gone with the Wind