Smarter Utility

 

TMCNet: OPINION: Movie era may soon be gone

[September 08, 2010]

OPINION: Movie era may soon be gone

Sep 08, 2010 (The Free Lance-Star - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- CAMMIE King Conlon barely rated a couple of paragraphs inside most newspapers last week. Yet her death at the age of 76 brought us one step closer to the end of a cinematic era.


For the past 30 years, she lived on the north coast of California, well outside the media spotlight. But Conlon had one indelible claim to fame. She was among the handful of surviving cast members from the biggest blockbuster in the history of Hollywood -- 1939's "Gone With the Wind." She played Bonnie Blue Butler, the almost too adorable, rosy-cheeked daughter of Rhett and Scarlett. The scene in which 4-year-old Bonnie Blue suffers a fatal fall from her Shetland pony has gripped audiences for close to three-quarters of a century. It dramatically changes the tone and mood of the story.

Why do we so keenly feel the loss of persons who represent the "last" of their group? We're down to the last American veteran of World War I. A couple of years ago, we lost the last survivor of the Titanic sinking of 1912.

Perhaps we care so much because these last links help us to understand that the iconic, misty images from long ago that are part of our collective memories are more than images on a screen or names on a dusty archive. They reflect the stories of real people, who labored to capture our imaginations, to fight our wars and to survive our disasters.

Maybe that's why Conlon never seemed to tire of reminiscing about her minor role in the making of "Gone With the Wind." She never seemed caught up in her fame, noting to more than one interviewer that, "I was 5. They said, 'Stand here. Do this.'" She received $1,000 for her work. A diminutive stuntman actually took the fall off the pony. And Conlon admitted that most of her memories from such a tender age were like snapshots.

But Conlon was there -- on the set in Culver City, Calif., with her arms around the neck of Clark Gable. Just last month, she talked about how Gable seemed like "a wonderful daddy" to her at a time when her own parents were splitting.

It's fair to say that "Gone With the Wind" is out of sync with the times these days. Its idealized portrait of the "good ol' days" of plantation life before the Civil War hardly fits with our current knowledge of that tragic chapter of our history. This powerful epic reminds us that film, when used to distort history, can become a form of propaganda.

But there's no disputing the emotional pull producer David O. Selznick was able to create from his majestic and magical adaptation of the Margaret Mitchell novel. More and more critics and scholars seem to be recognizing that achievement.

Perhaps the movie gains its power from its focus on how people struggle to deal with their lives and their society when their world is turned upside down.

I still remember the night in the 1960s when I saw the film in wide-screen splendor at the Gary Theater in downtown Boston. It was a cynical time in America, but the movie palace was packed for this reserved-seat re-release.

As the second half of the film began, with its reference to Sherman's march across Georgia, the Boston audience booed. Somehow the filmmakers had convinced the Massachusetts Yankees to root for the Old South.

Believe it or not, four cast members with significant parts are still alive -- the magnificent Olivia de Havilland (Melanie Wilkes), 94; Alicia Rhett (India Wilkes from Twelve Oaks), 95; Ann Rutherford (Scarlett's youngest sister, Carreen), 89; and Mary Anderson (Maybelle Merriwether), 90.

Perhaps they'll still be with us in four years when the film marks its 75th anniversary. Maybe they'll be able to tell us, once again, what it was like to work on the sets with Gable, Vivien Leigh and the rest of the memorable cast as they created a film that has become an enduring part of our cultural fabric.

I hope so. Because when they're gone, it will be that much harder to appreciate that this misty melodrama owes its power to real people who labored mightily to capture our imaginations.

Ed Jones: 540/374-5401 Email: edjones@freelancestar.com To see more of The Free Lance-Star or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://fredericksburg.com/flshome. Copyright (c) 2010, The Free Lance-Star, Fredericksburg, Va. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For more information about the content services offered by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services (MCT), visit www.mctinfoservices.com, e-mail services@mctinfoservices.com, or call 866-280-5210 (outside the United States, call +1 312-222-4544).

[ Back To Homepage ]