Gone With The Wind Screentests

[TracyLord]

Posted: 7/14/13 at 12:17am

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6xmfLHXiAhA

I know these have been floating around since the film's DVD release, but I stumbled upon them again today.

Can you imagine any of the actors in the roles that they ultimately weren't cast in?

I also wonder how rough all of this was on Paulette. She obviously put a great deal of work into Scarlet.

[carolineorchange21]

Posted: 7/14/13 at 1:02am

Paulette Goddard would have made an excellent Scarlett. She's exactly how I picture the character as depicted in the book. But, of course, no one could hope to touch Vivien Leigh's performance. She was one of the 20th Century's greatest actresses.

[best12bars]

Posted: 7/14/13 at 7:01am

Paulette is the only one other than Vivien who comes close to understanding how to play Scarlett. The others seem all wrong.

I think Paulette would have been very good, but you can see her struggling with it. When you see Vivien Leigh, her portrayal seems effortless.

They both understand how to play the character, but Vivien has a confidence that Paulette lacks (for this role). That's essential for the character and for a film of this size and scope.

I love watching the old screen tests for Scarlett and the ones for "I" in "Rebecca." Again, Joan Fontaine is so clearly the actress who understands how to play demure and insecure without coming off as phony or ham-handed about it.

I wish they would include screen tests on DVDs and BDs now, but it's so rare. I would love to see the ones for the musicals Les Mis, Dreamgirls, Nine, Chicago (especially Toni Collette's), and Sweeney Todd (all of the Mrs. Lovett tests).

[BroomstickBoy]

Posted: 7/14/13 at 9:34am

I would've loved to have seen Katharine Hepburn's screen test...you know, had she actually given one.

[Musical Master]

Posted: 7/16/13 at 2:49pm

I will agree that if Vivian never played Scarlett, then Paulette would be my second choice. However I will say that dispite Paulette's hard work to test out the role, she does sound as if her confidence and energy were sapped while Vivian shows spirit and wit which is needed to play such a well known character.

Vivian Leigh is the the true Scarlett O'Hara no one else. No one has topped that actress since.

[silversurfer2]

Posted: 7/16/13 at 4:42pm

One of the greatest screen performances ever given, only matched by her Blanche in STREETCAR.
And she gave another great, heartbraking performance in WATERLOO BRIDGE.
Not to mention she was one of the MOST beautiful women in the world at that time.

[best12bars]

Posted: 7/16/13 at 5:15pm

Not to rain on the Vivien Leigh parade, because I think her Scarlett is unmatchable ... but her screen test for "I" in Rebecca shows her to be all wrong for the part, from her body language to her poise to her casual manner.

She wanted the part badly, too. To star opposite her (then) husband Laurence Olivier in Hitchc0ck's first American film, produced by Selznick right after Gone With the Wind ... and she didn't get it.

Joan Fontaine was the perfect choice for that role, a very difficult role to pull off in my opinion, because she's almost a nonentity. The character doesn't even have a name, she's just "I".


Vivien Leigh screen test for Rebecca

[TracyLord]

Posted: 7/16/13 at 5:46pm

Vivien comes across as effortless in her GWTW screen test, and anything but in the one for Rebecca. "I" is indeed a very difficult role to pull off.

I wonder if some of Paulette's struggling was fatigue--she had been going at it for a while by this point.

I know she thought she was wrong for it, but I would have liked to have seen Norma Shearer's take. I feel like she radiates determination. She would have been fascinating.

[best12bars]

Posted: 7/16/13 at 5:56pm

Norma turned down Scarlett because she thought she was wrong for it. (Don't forget, Clark Gable also turned Rhett down, but when they offered him a deal that included paying for his divorce, he couldn't refuse.)

Norma also turned down Mrs. Miniver

Not that I don't agree with her, but those were two highly sought-after roles that earned Oscars for the actresses who played them.

Norma was kind of done with Hollywood after Irving Thalberg died. The joy went out of it for her. From the late '30s on, she sort of faded away gracefully.

[Gorlois]

Posted: 7/16/13 at 6:23pm

Ever since I first saw "Marie Antoinette," I've been captivated by Norma Shearer. I've only seen her later work (mostly post-Thalberg), and there she has a kind of normalcy and plainness that seems contradictory to her star power. Her style was very showy, but her face wasn't. A shame she isn't well remembered today.

Regarding Scarlett herself, In my opinion, back in Leigh's heyday she was the single most beautiful Hollywood star of her era. So beautiful and talented. And tragic. I need to read a biography on her someday.

[henrikegerman]

Posted: 7/16/13 at 9:07pm

Goddard doesn't seem to come through completely in many of these tests but in her scene with Jeffrey Lynn shows that she just might have been terrific. Andrea Leeds, so good as Kay in Stage Door, might have been a lovely Melanie.

Not that there's anything to complain about with the case we got.

[Musical Master]

Posted: 7/16/13 at 9:11pm

I agree best12bars, Joan Fontaine was absolutly PERFECT as "I" and I can see no one else but her. At least Vivian tried, but her screen test proved how hard that role really is.

[best12bars]

Posted: 7/16/13 at 9:15pm

I liked Andrea Leeds' reading as Melanie, too. Very similar to Olivia.

The difference there was easy. Olivia was a much bigger star at the time, but also better suited for the part.

Jack Warner didn't want to loan her out, because it was a supporting role, and Olivia was already "above the title" as a movie star. So Olivia appealed to Mrs. Jack Warner, who talked her husband into it. He, of course, insisted that Olivia was billed above the title anyway.

[best12bars]

Posted: 7/16/13 at 9:22pm

When I first saw Rebecca, I didn't like Joan Fontaine in it. Of course, I hadn't read the book yet, and I didn't understand that it was the character, more than anything else, that I was objecting to.

I really wanted her to haul off and slug Mrs. Danvers ... or at least fire her and tell her to get out of the house, but no.

With repeated viewings, I've come to really appreciate Joan's fine work in the film. Her helplessness against the sinister housekeeper and the memory of Rebecca comes off more as nightmarish. Like when you try to run away from something in a dream, but you can't move.

Sorry, back to GWTW!