Back to Golden Days

In the two years after the Japanese attack on the U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor, over 60,000 American servicemen had died in combat overseas. The country was right in the middle of a costly war and thousands of families were mourning the loss of their loved ones. Taking advantage of this scenario, MGM became interested in making a film that would somehow console grieving families by fueling «hope in a connection between at risk or deceased loved ones and the folks they leave behind.» (from left to right) Photograph taken from a Japanese plane during the attack on Pearl Harbor; the entrance to the MGM studios in Culver City (1947).   Looking to match the success of the afterlife comedy Here Comes Mr. Jordan (1941), MGM chief Louis B. Mayer commissioned that film's producer, Everett Riskin, to find a story with a similar premise. He came up with «Fliers Never Die», in which a couple of brothers tutored their youngest sibling from the great beyond. The studio, however, was not impr...

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. Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn! (Rhett Butler)   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 gi...

Original release poster for Red Dust Wilson Collison's 1928 play Red Dust had been gathering quite a bit of dust of its own on the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer shelves since 1930 as a fifteen-page treatment of a «very purple melodrama about a poor little slaving whore.» At various times, Joan Crawford and Norma Shearer had been considered for the lead until screenwriter John Lee Mahin and producer Paul Bern settled on turning it into a comedy starring Jean Harlow and John Gilbert, with Jacques Feyder occupying the director's chair. Since Harlow's first film as an MGM contract player, Red-Headed Woman (1932), had proved to be just controversial enough to ensure its firm success, the studio figured that pairing her with Gilbert would help the former matinée idol's ailing image.   While Mahin was working on the script in late July 1932, he reportedly saw Clark Gable in William A. Wellman's Night Nurse (1931) or George W. Hill's Hell Divers (1932), dependi...