Victor Fleming gives stars room to work, and we value him for it. His handling of large productions is impressive, though Gone with the Wind needs more restraint and depends heavily on Vivien Leigh to reward our patience.
Fi1m perspective
In Gone with the Wind (1939), Vivien Leigh makes Scarlett O’Hara’s selfishness absorbing enough to sustain a long evening. Her romantic troubles are given the weight of a war drama, a considerable demand to make of an actor. Fleming’s film is worth the effort largely because she can meet it. We would sooner begin an account of his work with Leigh than with the size of the production.
His MGM work from 1932 centred on action pictures and star vehicles, including Red Dust (1932), with Clark Gable, and Captains Courageous (1937), with Spencer Tracy. He made five films with Gable and three with Tracy. He favoured stationary camera work, letting performances guide framing and editing, a sensible approach when the stars can hold our attention. Cinematographer Harold Rosson was another regular collaborator, working with him on five films.
Fleming was also repeatedly called in to rescue troubled productions, which complicates the question of what belongs to him. He took over both The Wizard of Oz (1939) and Gone with the Wind during production. David O. Selznick produced the latter, and we would be wary of assigning all its virtues and excesses to the man with the director’s credit. The familiar description of Fleming as a reliable craftsman is reasonable, though getting a faltering production finished requires judgement as well as stamina.
We grew impatient with Gone with the Wind because its second half keeps extending Scarlett’s troubles beyond the point where they remain absorbing. Its indulgence of a slaveholding society is a more serious failing, and the scale gives us no reason to excuse it. Even so, Leigh makes Scarlett worth spending time with, despite the considerable demands she places on everyone’s patience. Begin there if a sprawling romance appeals, but set aside 238 minutes and do not expect Fleming to hurry.
Biography
Victor Fleming was an American film director, cinematographer and producer. He directed The Wizard of Oz (1939) and Gone with the Wind (1939), for which he received sole director credit on the former and the Academy Award for Best Director on the latter.
Born in California in 1889, Fleming entered the film industry as a stunt driver around 1910 and later worked as a cinematographer, including on productions for D.W. Griffith. He directed a series of features in the 1920s and 1930s, among them Red Dust (1932), Treasure Island (1934) and Captains Courageous (1937). Fleming died in Arizona in 1949.
