Word: selznicks
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David O. (for Oliver) Selznick grew up in the magic, flickering light of the silent films, came to maturity as Hollywood was mastering the revolutionary complexities of sound, set his seal as a producer on the industry by proving that literary classics such as Anna Karenina, A Tale of Two Cities, Little Lord Fauntleroy and Little Women could be transferred to the screen with fidelity and power. Other Selznick productions included King Kong, Dinner at Eight and A Star Is Born. And for ten years running, movie exhibitors ranked him No. 1 producer of box-office successes. But even...
G.W.T.W. was Selznick's greatest adventure. "It was such a stupendous undertaking," he said. "Anything else, no matter what we'll ever make, will always seem insignificant after that." He even proposed as his own epitaph, "Here lies David O. Selznick, who produced Gone With the Wind." He also recognized that his former glories could become a handful of dust. When the G.W.T.W. plantation set, including the mansion Tara, was finally dismantled and shipped to Atlanta in 1959, Selznick philosophized: "Once photographed, life here is ended. It is almost symbolic of Hollywood. Tara has no rooms inside...
Theater '62 (NBC, 10-11 p.m.). PREMIÈRE. A series of eight dramatizations of David O. Selznick "screen classics." The first, "The Spiral Staircase," starring Lillian Gish, treats of a psychopathic killer. Color...
Wonderful Flummery. Now, on the anniversary of the first shot in The War Between the States, G.W.T.W. has once more gone into crash release in 200 major theaters across the U.S. To judge from the block-long ticket lines and the weeping, cheering customers, Selznick's epic will make more money this time around than it ever has before. But surely the old warhorse has been spavined by time and enfeebled by continual exposure? Not at all. G.W.T.W. is as great a show today as it was 20 years ago, a magnificent piece of popular entertainment, undoubtedly the greatest...
...course, a few anachronisms. The Jim Crow humor, acceptable to most audiences in 1939, will embarrass the average moviegoer today. And there are flaws of style and structure. The second half of the picture tends to maunder a little, and the whole film is afflicted by Producer David Selznick's rather tacky preference for gnarled trees silhouetted against flaming sunsets. The spectator sometimes gets a peculiar sensation that the picture has not really begun-he's still watching the travelogue...