Olivia de Havilland’s subtle playing could make a romantic pairing persuasive, but the demure parts restricted her. We value the move towards more demanding drama; her Melanie in Gone with the Wind is too easily crowded out.
Fi1m perspective
In Gone with the Wind (1939), Olivia de Havilland’s Melanie Hamilton has to register beside Vivien Leigh’s Scarlett and Clark Gable’s Rhett Butler. Leigh dominates, and Gable has enough presence to keep their exchanges from becoming hers alone. De Havilland makes less impression in their company, as does Leslie Howard’s Ashley Wilkes. We were frustrated by Sidney Howard’s screenplay, which remains so attentive to Scarlett that the people around her can feel like support for her next bout of unhappiness. The film is worth the effort.
Her early adventure films placed her opposite Errol Flynn, often with Michael Curtiz directing. The romantic scenes benefited from her subtle playing and the rapport between the actors. The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938), in which she plays Maid Marian, is one of those pairings. The demure heroines suited that partnership, though repeated casting in such parts limited the work she was asked to do.
Gable’s comfort with the extravagance of Gone with the Wind helps make the romance persuasive when the writing labours, and de Havilland has no comparable effect. We would have liked Sidney Howard’s script to take more interest in Melanie. As it stands, she is not one of the film’s chief pleasures.
The move into dramatic parts in the 1940s matters more to our view of her than the early typecasting. To Each His Own (1946), as Josephine Norris, and The Heiress (1949), as Catherine Sloper, gave her more demanding work beyond the sweet heroine. In the latter, she makes a troubled, resilient woman convincing, which is a better use of her subtlety than another demure romantic part. Start with The Heiress if Melanie has left you unconvinced.
Biography
Olivia de Havilland was a British-American actress whose career spanned from 1935 to 1988. She appeared in numerous feature films and is known for her performances as Melanie Hamilton in Gone with the Wind (1939), Maid Marian in The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938), and Catherine Sloper in The Heiress (1949).
Born in Tokyo to British parents, she moved with her mother and sister to California in 1919. She made her screen debut in the 1935 film A Midsummer Night's Dream. She often appeared opposite Errol Flynn in films including Captain Blood (1935).
De Havilland won Academy Awards for best actress for To Each His Own (1946) and The Heiress (1949). She died in Paris in 2020.
