Vivien Leigh's GWTW Screentests

[cristrf83]

stupenda!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!ti amo!!!!!

[Britfan06]

It makes me angry that they could consider anybody else for that role but her. She was made for that role and that role was made for her. There are just things God makes sure happens and one of them was for sure that Vivien Leigh would play Scarlett O'Hara in Gone With The Wind.

[Charmedfan2010]

She did marvelous in that scene with Ashley during her screen-tests. She was not held back during filming, in fact she tried desperately to redo what she had done in the screen-tests but she never could much to her dismay. Vivien Leigh is flawless as Scarlett as it is, but just imagine this scene in the movie if she was able to recreate what she did here. Pure magic!

[plumeria66]

Vivien was half French and half Irish....so was the character Scarlett.

[VTMCompany]

she's unrestrained during paddock scene test shots.  wonder if cukor or fleming pulled her back in for the released version?

[edia05]

I think much of the success of GWTW was the casting they were just perfection to their characters!

[markedwardindc]

Just looking at that first screen test, you can tell that there is already chemistry between Vivian Leight and Hattie McDaniel---both won well-deserved Oscars for their performances.

[rosabaca21]

Vivien killed it!: D

[grifain1]

I am scratching my head thinking of who could have been a more suitable Scarlett than Vivian at the time. And truly I am not trying to argue.

She was magnificent. Goddard was not right for this role. This was something special. If one thinks of just some of the principals and how different they were and how some didn't even want to do their roles or had other things going on in their life at the time, somehow it just worked, and their superior work eithic, style, and performances live on.

[Ainzleeriddell]

Notice that she keeps her hands out of the picture? Vivien Leigh had ENORMOUS hands - her one flaw!

[MrGerardo007]

magnifica

[Britfan06]

She owned that role. They would have been completely out of their minds not to pick her. Vivien is a queen!!

[LadyTwentySeven]

Vivling forever!

[YourOasis97]

LOL Oh, Hattie McDaniel was hilarious. Vivien was amazing. Brought me to tears.

[thoserubyslippers]

My gosh did she have ANY physical flaws? :0 

[soulcornflake1]

@thoserubyslippers Well she did have consumption (TB), and I think she eventually died of it, so I would guess that yes, she had at least one physical flaw.

[thoserubyslippers]

@soulcornflake1 Yes that's true. I just mean looks wise, she was just so incredibly beautiful.

[soulcornflake1]

@thoserubyslippers That's very true. I have a sister who's middle name is Leigh, named for her.

[admins111]

lol bad acting!

[LexiixoxRoxx]

@admins111 lol bad judgement! (on your part, that is. moron...)

[bluestarlivesforever]

Who ever Atomicslid139 is you are completley crazy!!!!!!!!!!!!! You can stick to the trashy stuff of the 21st century but i'll stick with what i love and care for....... VIVIEN LEIGH!!!!!!!!!!! You oviously have no taste in good actors.

[bluestarlivesforever]

I LOVE VIVIEN LEIGH!!!

[Atomicslid139]

This really is some horrible acting. I personally have never understood how Vivien Leigh got the role of Scarlett. She is such a Mary-Sue looking character with such a boring personality that it seems almost blasphemous for her to be cast as the very antithesis of those things.

[LexiixoxRoxx]

@Atomicslid139 In the words of Scarlett O'Hara, "I've never heard of such bad taste!"

[Atomicslid139]

@LexiixoxRoxx In the words of me: "I've never seen such a pathetic, amateurish poser as LexiixoxRoxx!"

:)

[LexiixoxRoxx]

@Atomicslid139 lmao poser? That's the best you've got? Yeah, you can tell we've never met in real life. Are you five? haha :D

[Atomicslid139]

@LexiixoxRoxx Must've struck a neve..

[LexiixoxRoxx]

@Atomicslid139 I'd be delighted if you informed me what "neve" was.

[Atomicslid139]

@LexiixoxRoxx Oh, and given Scarlett's personality in the book, I'm sure she'd think the same about you too.

:)

[LexiixoxRoxx]

@Atomicslid139 Oh you're a funny one aren't you? Darling we're so alike she'd have teamed up with me and together we'd have scandalized Atlanta like no one could ever imagine. Stick it to the fat old cats and bother the Old Guard. I do things how I want, to whom I want, and when I want. Nothing can stop me from getting the things I desire and I'd do absolutely anything necessary to get them. Just goes to show how little you know about Scarlett.

[Atomicslid139]

@LexiixoxRoxx

Riiiiight...

Anyhoo, from what I have gathered, Scarlett wasn't exactly BFF material. She literally hated all women, save for her mother, Mammy, and of course, Melanie in the end. She viewed them as nothing more than competition for male affection. Do forgive me if this fractures your pathetic, borderline lesbian fantasy in any way.. I just couldn't resist.

[LexiixoxRoxx]

@Atomicslid139 Riiiiight......And from what I gathered you're a stubborn old mule who can't see past your own little ideas. She didn't hate all women, THEY HATED HER. Why don't you get your facts straight before you go off opening your mouth and making a complete fool of yourself. And she didn't view them as competition either. Every single beau on the block besides Ashley was literally at her feet since the beginning. None of the other girls were remotely as lucky. Haha what's there to forgive?

[Atomicslid139]

@LexiixoxRoxx "If she knew little about men's minds she knew even less about the minds of women, for they interested her less. She had never had a girlfriend and she never felt any lack on that account. To her, all women, including her two sisters, were natural enemies after the same prey - man. All women with the one exception of her mother."

- GWTW pg. 60

Of course, I don't see how pudgy gingers would pose much of a threat either.

[LexiixoxRoxx]

@Atomicslid139 Pathetic. You deleted your comment, huh? Well, not before I received it. You really do amuse me. My channel is pathetic? Haha well, well, well...just when I thought you could sink no lower in immaturity. That comeback is the saddest, most overused in the history of youtube. And it is coming from a person who has 240 channel views and ZERO video views. Hilarious. Meanwhile I have 7,711 channel views and 146,777 video views. You poor little fool. Hahahaha :)

[Atomicslid139]

@LexiixoxRoxx So I cite a passage from Gone With The Wind, proving you wrong after your calling me a fool who needed to "research the facts" and all you can pick at are typos and the fact that I don't have as many channel views as you (which doesn't bother me at all and has nothing to do with my calling you or your channel pathetic). It's obvious you don't know a thing about Gone With The Wind other than what you've surmised from watching the movie and now you're desperately grasping at straws.

[Atomicslid139]

@LexiixoxRoxx And I'm glad I amuse you so darn much. You amuse me too by playing dumb and reverting to thirteen year old girl status every time you're exposed for what you really are: an amateur and a blowhard. Sorry hon, you just aren't cute enough to get away with that.

[LexiixoxRoxx]

@Atomicslid139 lol I'm no more offended than I am lesbian. 0% :P

[NightinGal89]

@Atomicslid139 she wasn't the perfect Scralett, but she was the best one they found.

[Atomicslid139]

@NightinGal89 Hardly. Goddard was far more suitable for the part.

[VASINGER]

@Atomicslid139 i think she was a great actress, and she was so darn good looking. You would have to be out of your mind to think anyone else could play Scarlett.

[skippyd89]

You can see Olivier and Leigh tigether in a pre-GWTW English film called FIRE OVER ENGLAND and a post-GWTW Hollywood film called either LADY HAMILTON (British) or THAT HAMILTON WOMAN (American).

[GrandWizard77]

Oh wow, this is laughable.

[erinplaice]

Vivien Totally outshined that gay-it was kinda all you did was listen to her!

[KScarlett777]

Miss Vivien was BORN FOR this part!!! FOR SURE!!! RIP Miss Leigh!!!

[Beatleschick1]

Guys, I must warn you, I tried going to that website that is shown in the description of this vid and it tried to give me a virus. So dont use that site!!

[sylviajorgentorolaf]

Vivien was a perfect Scarlett it was certainly the right studio choice.

[WICKEDrocksHL26]

I like how even though she was British, she tried so hard to maintain a Southern accent; she was brilliant as Scarlett <3

[VTMCompany]

i like these clips because they're in glorious black & white...makes GWTW seem period 1939 instead of the technicolor print that warners (yes, warner bros. now owns it) keeps upgrading to today's video standards.

[chislehurstbat]

@VTMCompany but GWTW was filmed in colour, so what's wrong with restorig it?

[LexiixoxRoxx]

@VTMCompany Um...the film was done in Technicolor.

[cda345]

George Cukor's direction shows in these tests. Vivien is playing the character so much more like the book here. I wish Cukor had directed the whole film, it would have been even better, if that's possible (:

[VTMCompany]

@cda345

Indeed...Cukor would have been able to add shades of delicacy to the strong female characters that strong-handed Fleming couldn't.

[lf1234]

Does anyone have Hattie McDaniel's original screentest?

[himehime90]

I love Clark Gable he's so hot

[Vega01]

I loved Vivien and Hattie together, their chemistry was my favorite thing about the movie.

[detectmendacity]

That was just a screentest?? :O

Incredible.

[princessjoots]

That Ashley.. is way hotter than the real Ashley!

[AfterTheWind]

Woah! At 0:35 she looks so determind to get what she wants. Great actress!

[BobBobbyHulk]

LOL! That performance was awful! Go Sherman!

[Apink420]

she's so pretty

[alnilam54]

That was playing Melvyn Douglas I think as Ashley Wilkes.

[sugarrandspice]

who was that playing rhett butler?

[CrispinFlora]

0:38 Vivien Leigh (looks wickedly determined to get what she wanted!!) Powerful screen test.

0:21 her response is almost spontaneous--not like she was waiting for her turn to say her lines---marvelous. Simply the best

[brainjesus]

wow...just...wow.

[ShakespeareHamlet]

Though I personally think that Laurence Olivier also could have pulled off playing Rhett Butler, Clark Gable was the best choice for the role. then again, I just wonder what it would have been like to see Vivien and Larry , then affianced, play Scarlet & Rhett . This movie HAD BETTER NOT BE REMADE.

[peacheslovesjesus]

Clark gable was BORN to play taht part...I understand that acording to he description in thebiik, he and rhett favor each other...A LOT!

[lilchuy01]

no one else on earth could have ever played scarlett o'hara but vivien leigh. even after 70 years i don't think anyone could even try to touch it. it is definitely the best performance by any actress in film history

[sisalrug]

I think there was a wonderful real chemistry between Vivien Leigh and Hattie McDaniel.

[MsGamber]

I thought everyone was perfectly cast! With the exception of Ashley Wilkes...I respect him as a person but I dont think he physically fit the part...he is the only person in the entire cast who I can say this about.Mammy, Scarlet, and Rhett were alll perfectly cast! Even the minor characters.(idk about ms. Pitty though...)but yes! Love love love this movie! Nobody else could ever play the role of Scarlett or Rhett those two especially were well-cast...almost on a scary how well case they were.

[thenightscribe]

I completely agree with you on Ashley. He was much too old to play Ashley. Rhett, on the other hand...he's still smoking hot 60 years later.

[TheHollywoodland]

Ashley is a 19/20 year old in the book. I agree with you.

[JudgeJulieLit]

@Hollywoodland, And in the book, Scarlett had a child by each of her three husbands; plot points the film dropped. By such "dramatic license," a film adaptation need not duplicate every element of its source work. Given that in Scarlett's milieu, nubile girls often married financially settled older men (as had Scarlett's own mother), it would be plausible that Scarlett -- e.g., bored with flirting with boys her own age -- would look to marry a sophisticated older, postgraduate heir Ashley.

[lilmizpinkbubblegum]

@MsGamber

I think I read somewhere that Howards thought he was too old to play Ashley too. But apparently the film company promised him a directing/producing opportunity in a different movie, so he agreed to it.

But yes, I agree, he was too old. But personally, I don't like the character of Ashley anyway. So I doubt any actor could have made me like him.

Rhett and Scarlett were so perfectly cast, it IS scary. Agree w/ you 100% It's like Mitchell had them in mind.

[MsGamber]

Huh, that's interesting....I was unaware of that.I know he died defending his country in a carrier where the enemy mistook his plane for an important figures plane, so thats a cool little fact as well.

But ya, agreed there.Ashley is DEFINATLY not my favorite character...nor Suellen.HA!

[lilmizpinkbubblegum]

@MsGamber

Yeah, that was admirable of him.

Oh I hated Suellen. I don't blame her for being bitter after the whole Scarlett/Frank incident, but she was annoying and spiteful even before that. I didn't like Careen either, to be honest xD

[czarnamamba6661]

Vivien was so beautiful and the best asctress. She was a real Scarlett O'Hara!

[OurStarChristineDaae]

I could never see ANYONE else in the role!

[AnniPink5]

She was an amazing actress, and beautiful also. She's very passionate in all her roles, I love it. May she rest happily in heaven.

[Garboskindredspirit]

Leslie Howard shuddered at the thought of being cast as Ashley, but he had to do it in order to co-produce Intermezzo: A Love Story (he had a keen interest in producing and directing.). He called Ashley Wilkes' character "weak and watery", and despised being dressed up and made to look "attractive". Hah! I love him for his self-deprecation, but he WAS damned attractive anyway! I'm in love with him (and alack! I'll never get to be with him!).

[LexiixoxRoxx]

The perfect pick and the smartest choice the people of GWTW ever made in their casting. Any other person as Scarlett would make my blood run cold. There's no one like dear sweet Vivien, God rest her. And Clark Gable, my oh my. What a handsome man he was. Why, my grandma says when my grandpa was young, he looked just like him. He's around 86 and there is some resemblence. Such a classic movie, and it will lives on in the hearts of others forever. Or at least in mine it will. As well the actors.

[Pixxerz]

Let me guess...down syndrome??

[LexiixoxRoxx]

what???

[AmericanEvita]

Case Closed: Gone With The Wind is PERFECTLY CAST...Clark Gable was the perfect Rhett, Vivien Leigh was Scarlett and there is no other, Leslie Howard makes the most elegant and intellectual Ashley Wilkes (like in the book) and Olivia De Havilland as the most warm and compassionate Melanie

[springfest1]

Leslie Howard was perfect in his role! These other guys are too strong and rustic to play a southern gentile plantation owner, possessing honor and humility. I wouldn't change a thing left to me.

[onlyforbrian]

Anyone that doesn't fall in love with Vivien Leigh after 5 seconds is gay...

[jeremyud]

You fall in love with Vivien Leigh(in a non-sexual way) even if you ARE gay.

[Koishii57]

LOL!

[himehime90]

@jeremyud lol or if you are a woman ;P I mean she's pretty

[OneNobodyAND100000]

@jeremyud You can say that again!

[tigertysonfan]

@jeremyud no. you fall in love with Vivien Leigh ESPECIALLY if you are gay!

[skippyd89]

@onlyforbrian : Well, THAT'S a stupid thing to say. In fact, most gay men are so in love with Vivien asScarlett, that they fantazis about BEING Vivien as Scarlett. Quoting Scarlett's lines from the film has entered iconically into the world of gay camp. I know you mean in a sexual way, but that is still a stupid thing to say. So, I will say that any man who doesn't fall in love with Clark Gable the moment that camera tracks into his face at the foot of that staircase is a breeding heteo!

[GrandWizard77]

@skippyd89

A "breeding hetero"? Someone has bad Aids..

[13orthanc13]

@onlyforbrian .....and anyone that DOES.is also GAY

[dallasen74]

@onlyforbrian

I'm gay and i'm falling in love with Vivien!

[onlyforbrian]

@dallasen74 Well...there you go...how could ANYONE resist her..a total goddess..what a lucky dog Lawrence Olivier was!!!

[Vivien1]

@onlyforbrian And he didn't appreciate it :(

[onlyforbrian]

@Vivien1 I couldn't agree more...and you should see the frumpy cow he left her for...hard to believe...similar to that lamebrain Charles screwing around on Diana with Camilla...go figure...

[palamen2005]

@onlyforbrian

I am as gay as a Gucci handbag, but I have been in love with miss Leigh for almost 20 years.

[LexiixoxRoxx]

@onlyforbrian LMAO!

[qt8625]

@onlyforbrian Lol! Absolutely!

[BrasileiraRecifense]

the best

[Olc71]

Simplemente maravillosa

[dutchesschelsy54]

who cares if she had trastorn bipolar?? she was amazing actress

[ggggroucho]

leslie howard was a bit too old, other than that he was perfect. he fit the type they were trying to relay

[Fanjayaforever]

DANG! Why didn't they get THIS guy to play Ashley Wilkes? Would have been so much more suitable than Leslie Howard...and you can FEEL the heat and chemistry between them, so much more than what the too old and overly proper Leslie Howard brought to the role.

[firegoat]

i thought he was wooden and stiff though O.o

it was...awkward :/

[klachmacka]

She is perfect, as always.

[lazyisa]

Can anyone tell me what bipolar disorder is?? I think my mom has the same sickness.. but really wanna know what Vivien has...please...

[rubygamgee9]

It is when a person goes into lapes of mania and then depression. It is the same as manic-deppression. Try "psycology today" for more info.

[jarvisel]

She had well-documented bipolar disorder with wild erratic mood swings and deep depressions. Still, she won two Oscars and was a great actress. Many artists had or supposedly had bipolar disorder.

[lazyisa]

Thank you so much.

[jarvisel]

No problem. I hope you find what you're looking for and things work out well for you.

[Elecksia]

i dont think she had it if at all in her youth not at this point subtle signs mb but it was at least a decade later that it started really and she had shock treatment for it around the 60's

[archer1949]

Is this from the "making of" documentary?

That was a fascinating film and almost as good as the film itself.

[BetterxDays]

Vivien is Scarlett O'Hara.

No doubt.

[javert24601]

Who was that playing Ashley? Didn't look or sound like Leslie Howard to me...

Also, he is the ONLY Ashley!

[tuktukskagal]

Great video of a fabulous actress;thanx.

[BobbieJeanEndZone]

What's amazing is she was she had bipolar disorder and kept on acting. She was simply outstanding!

[lazyisa]

Could you please tell me what kind of sickness bipolar disorder is?? How does the patient and others who live with her suffer?? I would be grateful if you can share with me.^_^

[ben7368]

Its also called manic depression. If you look it up on Wikipedia you will get a good description :)

[lazyisa]

Thanks really. I think it's not just my mum who has it,I think I have it too. I am beginning to notice I have mood swings everyday and most of the time I forget why I started the arguement.Always small things...I used to think that it was just an act of being picky and perfect.

[musiclover1152]

vivien is so amazing love her! miss her! she is so amazing as an actress and as a person!

[Jade151210]

Vivien was such an underrated actress. At least her fans can appreciate what a talent she had.

[lilchuy01]

she was the only woman who could play scarlett o'hara

[HistoryGeek4U]

Classic Scarlett. I couldn't imagine anyone else in that role other than Vivien Leigh.

[MissGreenie]

Love the determined look on her face.