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<blockquote data-quote="Snarky Oracle!" data-source="post: 415671" data-attributes="member: 57984">Of all the screen tests for Scarlett, I found Edyth Marrinner (&quot;Susan Hayward&quot;) the most acceptable, had they not found Vivien Leigh. Leslie Howard was the only cast member who didn&#039;t want the role (and was the first one cast) and the only one Margaret Mitchell though ill-cast... The problem with Mr. Howard is that he&#039;s too prissy, not the kind of personality you&#039;d believe Scarlett would be haunted by, as she was in the book, albeit a relic of The Old South. (As a result, in the movie, her fixation on him seem designed merely to vex Rhett and make him jealous).It&#039;s hard to think who have been better casting for Ashley Wilkes, who could strike the patrician-but-genuinely-sensitive balance that Howard couldn&#039;t... Maybe Henry Fonda? But Fonda had just done JEZEBEL, a similar role in a similar film.Leslie Howard is like Jack Coleman instead of Al Corley.&nbsp;I think all that&#039;s probably why GWTW has never really been successfully-dismissed as racist-tripe in the way the truly ghastly BIRTH OF A NATION (1915) was and is. The nostalgia in GWRW resonates effectively enough that it mutes the soft-pedaling of the slavery issue. (Ashley&#039;s assertion that &quot;we would have freed them ourselves if the war hadn&#039;t already freed them&quot; -- or words to that effect -- has always felt a little lame, but it&#039;s as progressive as 1939 cinema was ever going to get).I&#039;ve known African-Americans who&#039;ve had no problem with GWTW and even liked it.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Snarky Oracle!, post: 415671, member: 57984"] Of all the screen tests for Scarlett, I found Edyth Marrinner ("Susan Hayward") the most acceptable, had they not found Vivien Leigh. Leslie Howard was the only cast member who didn't want the role (and was the first one cast) and the only one Margaret Mitchell though ill-cast... The problem with Mr. Howard is that he's too prissy, not the kind of personality you'd believe Scarlett would be haunted by, as she was in the book, albeit a relic of The Old South. (As a result, in the movie, her fixation on him seem designed merely to vex Rhett and make him jealous). It's hard to think who have been better casting for Ashley Wilkes, who could strike the patrician-but-genuinely-sensitive balance that Howard couldn't... Maybe Henry Fonda? But Fonda had just done JEZEBEL, a similar role in a similar film. Leslie Howard is like Jack Coleman instead of Al Corley. I think all that's probably why GWTW has never really been [I]successfully[/I]-dismissed as racist-tripe in the way the truly ghastly BIRTH OF A NATION (1915) was and is. The nostalgia in GWRW resonates effectively enough that it mutes the soft-pedaling of the slavery issue. (Ashley's assertion that "we would have freed them ourselves if the war hadn't already freed them" -- or words to that effect -- has always felt a little lame, but it's as progressive as 1939 cinema was ever going to get). I've known African-Americans who've had no problem with GWTW and even liked it. [/QUOTE]

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