All language subtitles for 1939.Secrets.of.Hollywoods.Golden.Year.S01E02.WEBRip.x264-ION10_English

[projector whirring]

[typewriter bell dings]

[typewriter tapping]

[upbeat piano music]

- 1939 was Hollywood's
most important year.

- Hollywood in 1939 was when
the studios ran rampant.

- They were factories.

They were just humming.

- There was "Gone with the
Wind," "Stagecoach,"
"Wuthering Heights,"

and of course,
"The Wizard of Oz."

1939 was the greatest year
in Hollywood history.

- In this episode,
we go behind the scenes

to reveal an illicit love
affair.

- Larry and Vivien had to
keep their affair a secret,

because if it had got out, it
would have been an absolute
scandal

- They were in each other's
arms between every take

making love.

Larry was absolutely
exhausted by her demands.

She was a very demanding
lady.

- And uncover
an uncomfortable truth

about golden-age Hollywood's
most successful film.

- "Gone with the Wind"
is a race problem.

It's bullshit.

- There were toilets
for the white actors

and toilets for the Black
actors.

So segregation lived on that
set.

- In the words of the stars,
and those who knew them best.

- John Ford was very
difficult. He could be very
tough

on you, thinking back on it.

I was scared shitless.

- They would be
saying in Navajo,

you know,
this movie really sucks.

John Ford is an asshole.

[laughs]

- On the eve of World War II,
delving into one of
Hollywood's darkest secre

- They were still
trying to make movies

that wouldn't offend Hitler.

- [speaking German]

- They were trying
to make movies that

wouldn't offend Mussolini.

- If you want to know the
truth about Hollywood,

you need to understand 1939.

- 1939 is everything that
Hollywood

stood for, both good and bad.

But it did produce gold.

The energy of it all,
just breathtaking.

[projector whirring]

[upbeat jazzy music]

- Hollywood, mecca of the
motion picture industry.

- In 1939, Hollywood
made over 500 films,

generating an astonishing
$659 million at the box
office.

- 1939 is really the golden
year of classical Hollywood.

It was an absolutely
extraordinary year

in terms of the number
of classic films

that were produced in a
12-month period in Hollywood.

It was the peak of
the Hollywood studio system,

the peak of the greatest
iconic stars of the silver
screen.

And it was the point at which
they just suddenly kind of hit

their stride and produced just
one

classic film after another.

- 1939 is a culmination of so
much of what Hollywood had
done.

All of that was providing
a staggering amount of work

for an enormous number of
people.

I always want to
go back and say,

do you know how this
is peak Hollywood?

♪ ♪

And the great event of 1939
was ""Gone with the Wind.""

- "Gone with the Wind" was
the most ambitious movie

of Hollywood's golden age,
and its producer,

David O. Selznick,
had everything

riding on the film's success.

- Selznick was everything you
imagine a producer should be.

He was a publicist,
he was detail maniac.

He was famous for
calling people up

at 4:00 in the
morning because he'd

had an idea about some tiny
detail

of a fireplace or something,
you know, ridiculous.

- Selznick was what today we
might call a control freak.

He was just constantly firing
off memos and sending them

to everybody all over
the set and saying,

you know, you need to do
this, and you need to do
that.

Selznick was not only a
compulsive memo writer,

he was a compulsive gambler.

And he basically
bet the farm on it,

and he stood to lose
everything if "Gone with the
Wind"

wasn't a success.

But this was a gamble
that he was ready to take.

- "Gone with the Wind" was
a tumultuous production

right from the start.

Filming had already been
delayed by two years

because Selznick was
determined to secure

Clark Gable for the lead
role.

- Clark Gable and Carole
Lombard

returned from Kingman,
Arizona, as Mr. and Mrs.
Clark Gable.

This news means a good
many broken hearts

all over the world.

- Clark Gable was not
just a great star,

he was the great star.

He was known as the
King of Hollywood.

- When Clark walked
into the forecourt,

the police were
nearly overpowered.

- In today's terms, he would
be kind of, you know,

George Clooney
and Brad Pitt rolled into one.

He was just the A-list star.

Everybody thought that Clark
Gable should play Rhett

Butler, except Clark Gable.

There were various
elements of the character

that Gable was particularly
uncomfortable with.

He didn't much like the
idea of being the man

who was chasing a woman.

He was used to being the man
who the women were chasing.

- This war has
stopped being a joke

when a girl like
you doesn't know how

to wear the latest fashion.

- Rhett Butler was
a bit of a dandy,

that he liked his
clothing, which was not

a guy's thing in the 1930s.

That he would be surrounded
by all these ladies in hoop

skirts, and that he would
have to dance with them.

- You do waltz divinely,
Captain Butler.

- He just didn't
think it was for him,

and of course, it would go on
to be the film that defined

his career, that absolutely
kind of, you know,

locked him into
iconic classic status.

- But finding the perfect
actress to play Scarlett

O'Hara was proving
impossible, and it

was threatening to derail
the entire production.

- The big question
very quickly became

who was going to play
Scarlett O'Hara,

who is this spoiled, vain,

dreadful woman, really,

but there's something
lovable about her.

- Selznick screen-tested
some of the biggest

actresses in Hollywood.

- [inaudible].

- But none of
their performances

quite hit the mark.

- It was very difficult to
cast.

Almost every great
actress in Hollywood

wanted to play the role.

- I've been wondering where
you're keeping yourself.

- Scarlett was a
very coveted role.

They screen-tested
80 actresses.

- I love you.

- I'm in love with you, Ashley.

- I love you.

- The search was
really well-publicized.

It had become this kind of PR
stunt, a bit like, you know,

Cinderella's ball,
like the prince was

going to try the slipper
on every single girl

in the country.

Selznick got to the
point where he was sure

that he was failing, and he
sent one of his famous memos

saying, I think this is
going to be the biggest

failure of my career.

And everybody is to
blame, including me.

- As the search
continued, little

did Selznick know that
his Scarlett O'Hara

had just arrived in town.

Vivien Leigh was an
up-and-coming British theater

actress, unknown in Hollywood
except for the rumors

that she was having
an adulterous affair

with the new British
star, Laurence Olivier.

- My father and
Vivien first met--

it was she who engineered it.

She was married to a very nice
lawyer called Leigh Holman,

and she dragged him
to see Larry as Romeo,

and afterwards they went
round to the dressing room.

My papa was in his
vest and underwear

taking his cream to
his face, and Vivien

leaned over and planted
a kiss on his shoulder.

And he saw her and fell
for her immediately.

- Both told me separately
that when they saw each other,

it was just
absolutely explosive.

- Unguarded and intimate
shots of Laurence and
Vivien's

early life together
were captured on film.

- There's some rather
grainy homemade

footage of Larry and Vivien
when they first fell in love.

The way he ran
down to the pool.

Everything they did was so
charged with that, whew!

- Their early
relationship was brought

together through acting as
lovers in "Fire Over England."

- Dear and foolish.

- Why foolish?

- Very clever photography, with
the beautiful shafts of light.

This is so real
that watching it,

you feel a sense of intrusion.

And being in each other's arms
for the camera was one thing,

but it went far beyond that.

They were in each other's
arms between every take,

in their dressing rooms,
making love, to such an extent

that Larry was absolutely
exhausted by her demands.

She was a very demanding lady.

My father and Vivien
had to cover up

their illicit love affair
because

of the prurience of Hollywood.

- Hollywood was
very conservative,

and Larry and Vivien had to
keep their affair a secret.

Because if it had
got out, it would

have been an absolute
scandal.

- Vivien had come to
Hollywood for love,

but she had an ulterior
motive.

- Vivien followed
Larry to Hollywood

because she wanted very
much to be with him,

and she also wanted to
be there because they

were casting Scarlett O'Hara.

Selznick cast Clark Gable
as Rhett Butler, of course.

That was at everybody's
insistence across America.

They'd all read this book.

And Vivien read it
and was determined,

set her heart on it.

- The making of "Gone with the
Wind" was in dire straits.

Preproduction
costs were soaring,

and David O. Selznick
had been forced

to start filming before
they'd found an actress

to play the crucial lead
role.

- Before Scarlett
had been cast,

they shot the
burning of Atlanta.

And they did that
because the money

people said, if it doesn't
begin by this date,

the money is off.

And so they had to do
it with understudies.

- Part of the legend of the
making of "Gone with the Wind"

is that the burning
of Atlanta, which

is one of the major
spectacular set pieces of the
film,

Selznick managed
to get permission

to burn down the backlot
of "King Kong,"

which is a movie he had worked
on.

Obviously they had lots of
cameras to catch every angle,

because they could
only do this once.

So they weren't going
to do a reshoot.

Olivier went with
Vivien Leigh to witness

this astonishing sight.

- Larry said, now look.

I want you to stand on this
platform

so you can see
everything going on.

And David Selznick was there,
shouting at these people,

do it this way, do it that way.

And the fire was huge,
three, four stories high

of flames and smoke.

And Vivien was excited,
and Larry took David Selznick

and said, I want you to meet
Vivien Leigh.

Meet your Scarlett.

And he could see.

And he said,
I've got my Scarlett.

That's no question.

- It really was instant.

He took one look at her
and said, yeah, this is it.

And did the screen test, and
that just confirmed his
instinct.

- Coming up,
at the heart of golden-age

Hollywood's most famous film
lies an uncomfortable truth.

- Could you tell me about "Gone
with the Wind's" race problem?

- "Gone with the Wind"
is a race problem.

"Gone with the Wind" is trash.

It is racist propaganda.

It's bullshit.

- The actor who would become
Sir Laurence Olivier, darling

of the British stage, was
relatively unknown when

he came to Hollywood in 1939.

But this wasn't
his first attempt

to break into the movies.

He'd tried and failed to
make a name for himself

in Hollywood several
years earlier.

- My father was a
big theater star.

His Romeo was a
fantastic success,

and his Hamlet had been
absolutely magnificent.

But his first films were
dreadful, and I've seen them.

Embarrassing.

For example, "The Yellow
Ticket."

He was in a small railway
carriage with this very

attractive woman.

- Um, I'm awfully sorry.

- His eyes were always full
of emptiness, out of focus.

He was a little bit wooden.

His gestures were
slightly exaggerated.

[laughs]

- You're pretty
sharp, aren't you?

- In 1939, Laurence Olivier
returned to Hollywood to have

another shot at stardom.

He'd been cast in
"Wuthering Heights,"

and gave an imposing
performance as Heathcliff.

- Go on!

Shoot, you puling
chicken of a man

with not enough blood in you
to keep your hands dirty.

- But the aggression
of the character

was reflected in Olivier's
difficult personality

on the set.

- Larry had more charm,
when he put it on,

than anybody I've ever seen.

But he was a man
on a short fuse.

- Vivien told me that Larry,
on the set of "Wuthering
Heights,"

was very, very difficult,
because ther

was always that--
don't come too near.

It was almost as
though he felt godlike,

and he didn't want
anybody to cast a shadow

on his godlike personality.

- Did you like Larry?

- No.

I admired him.

I admired him enormously,
but I didn't like him.

- He didn't suffer fools at
all, and was easily bored.

Diplomacy was not for him.

- You'd be amazed at the scenes
between Merle and myself that

took place, beneath that
heart-throbbing romance

called "Wuthering Heights."

You'd be amazed at the
temperament, and the spit,

and the fury, and the passion.

- Merle Oberon was
much better on screen

than he was, to start with.

- Heathcliff, when you
went away, what did you do?

Where did you go?

- There is a scene
in the film where

they are sitting
on a crag, and she

is dying to be close to him.

The problem was that with
his enunciation, when it came

to close-ups,
little bits of spit

used to hit her in the face.

- Cathy, you're not thinking
of that other world now?

- And she complained about
that, understandably.

And he lost his
temper and shouted

and screamed and
yelled, and everybody

left him sitting on a moor.

And after a couple of days,
they got it together again.

And it was-- it
worked very well.

- Fill my arms with heather.

All they can hold.

Come on.

- Cathy, you're still my queen!

- I was very
snobby about films.

I did them to make
money, and said so.

The man who changed me
was the man I quarreled

with most bitterly of
all, really, and that

was William Wyler.

- My father's acting
improved significantly

because of the director.

The death scene,
when Heathcliff

carries Cathy to her
bed, William Wyler

made him do 62 times.

And at the end of each
time William Wyler

just said, be better.

- What do they know
of heaven or hell,

Cathy, who know
nothing of life?

- He speaks with soft,
soft, soft passion,

and with a look of
such desperate tragedy.

- Do not leave me
in this dark alone,

where I cannot find you.

- It's a tear-jerking moment.

It was the first
really important

part that he had played.

He saw that this, by
God, would make him

star number one, which it did.

- Having won the lead role in
"Gone with the Wind,"
Laurence

Olivier's secret
lover, Vivien Leigh,

was on the cusp of
stardom herself.

- Vivien told me that
she knew that part

would absolutely make her.

She said, there
were so many people

that looked at me
with such, for want

of a better word, hatred.

And she said, it
took me a long time

to realize it was the
dream of many, many people.

- Right from the
very beginning,

as the camera closes
in on her, you

can see that she is Scarlett.

- Fiddle-dee-dee.

- Couldn't be
anybody else but her.

- War, war, war.

This war talk's spoiling
all the fun at every party

this spring.

I get so bored I could scream.

- She's never far away
from giving a genteel,

rather self-pleased giggle
about the situation,

about her love of life.

- There isn't going
to be any war.

- Not going to be any war?

- Why, honey, of course
there's going to be a war.

- If either of you boys
says war just once again,

I'll go in the house
and slam the door.

- But Scarlett, honey!

- Don't you want
us to have a war?

- Wait a minute, Scarlett.

Honey, please.

- There is an
awful lot of Vivien

in that role, no question.

She got her way whenever she
really wanted to get her way.

A well-known actress,
Judy Campbell,

said about Vivien, what
Vivien wanted, she got.

And she did, too.

- With his Scarlett
O'Hara finally in place,

David O. Selznick turned
his attention to casting

the iconic role of Mammy.

- I'm Kevin John Goff,
and Hattie McDaniel

was my great-grand aunt.

For the role of Mammy,
every Black actress

showed up for that audition.

Eleanor Roosevelt, the First
Lady of the United States,

wanted her maid to
get the part and wrote

a letter of recommendation.

Hattie showed up in
actual full costume.

Selznick and the
rest of the people,

just they couldn't believe it.

There are a couple
of scenes that

they're-- they're performing
in the screen test.

- Suck in.

- One is where she's
pulling on a corset,

and the other is helping
Vivien Leigh adjust her
dress.

- Keep your shawl
on your shoulders.

- She's doing these slight
movements and gestures

with her body that stand out.

She's moving her head
from side to side, showing

that acerbic wit, that bite.

- Ashley Wilkes told me
he liked to see a girl

with a healthy appetite.

- What gentlemen says
and what they thinks

is two different things.

And I ain't noticed Mr. Ashley
asking for to marry you.

- When Selznick saw Hattie's
performance in the rushes,

he was astonished.

She turned out to be, in his
opinion, one of the strongest

characters in the film.

And this led him
to believe that she

would be one of the great
Black performers in Hollywood.

- With an extraordinary cast,
Selznick's Civil War epic

was reaching new heights in
terms of scale and spectacle.

- Maybe the most iconic
scene in "Gone with the Wind"

is when Scarlett is
searching for the doctor

among the Confederate
wounded at the train depot.

The camera is
following her at first,

and then it registers her
horror without showing

you what she's seeing.

And then the camera
starts to pan back,

and it's on a crane, which
means that it can keep
pulling

back, but also pulling up.

You realize that
she is surrounded

by thousands and
thousands of wounded

and dying and dead soldiers.

In order to get the scale
that they were looking for,

they couldn't even afford
to hire enough actors.

And so they interspersed
actors with dummies

so that they could just get
the sheer number of bodies.

Her figure gets
smaller and smaller

until she's actually
wiped out by the scale of

the devastation to humanity.

And all that you see, then,
waving in the foreground,

is the Confederate battle
flag.

- Surprisingly to
modern audiences,

"Gone with the Wind" tells
the story of the American
Civil

War from the perspective of
the Confederates, who went

to war to defend
slave-owning.

- History is meant to be
written by the victors.

And so it is a very, very weird
thing that "Gone with the Wind"

is made, and it's
so sympathetic.

It seems so sympathetic
to the Confederacy.

The way in which it treats
the plantation South as being

a perfect, gentle,
elegant society

is so different
from the reality.

"Gone with the Wind" becomes
a preferred way of thinking

about the American past.

- Many people think of
classic Hollywood films

as nostalgic,
harmless, innocent fun.

And unfortunately,
these films can

be quite difficult for
some communities to watch.

- Excuse me, Mr. Rhett.

- It's important to understand
that what is referred

to as the golden
age of Hollywood

is an era in which
racism was rampant.

- Could you tell me about "Gone
with the Wind's" race problem?

- [chuckles]

"Gone with the Wind"
is a race problem.

"Gone with the Wind" is trash.

It is racist propaganda.

It's bullshit.

- Even by classic Hollywood
standards, "Gone with the Wind"

has some shocking
racial representations.

As a person of
color, you almost

have to distance
yourself from the film

in order to get through it.

It's an ordeal.

[dramatic music]

The use of Technicolor
is particularly powerful

when it comes to depicting the
slaves working in the fields.

Shots of enslaved
African-Americans

are bathed in glorious
Technicolor light.

These aren't gritty
images of people

working and getting dirty.

These are incredibly romantic,
almost glamorized images.

[bell ringing]

- Quitting time!

- Who says it's quitting time?

- I said it's quitting time.

- I's the foreman.

I's the one says when it's
quitting time at Tara.

Quitting time!

- The tension between the
film's famous,

beautiful images and the harsh,
brutal realities of slavery

are especially clear in the
shocking scene when we see

young, white Southern
belles enjoying

their peaceful afternoon nap,
whilst little Black girls are

fanning them with
giant peacock feathers.

Like so many scenes
in "Gone with the Wind,"

the grim realities
of Black slave labor

are glossed over, glamorized,
romanticized by the lighting

and beauty of the setting.

- "Gone with the Wind," it's a
representation of the desire

to see Black people
subordinate to white people,

relative to this lost cause
narrative about the Civil War

and its aftermath.

It's considered an American
classic, but how can you

embrace this film
without embracing

the racism inherent to it?

That's impossible.

- Although the film was
depicting an event that took

place 70 years
earlier, the racism

on screen was still
a daily reality

for African-Americans in
1939.

- 1939, you're talking
in between the Great

Depression and World War II.

Black people were
still being hung.

There were certain
parts of towns

that you couldn't go into.

So of course segregation
lived on that set.

There were toilets
for the white actors,

and toilets for
the Black actors.

There was a point in the film,
during the shooting, where

the Black actors were
protesting because

of the segregated toilets.

And Clark Gable eventually
stepped in and said, look,

everyone's going to use the
same bathroom facilities.

- The making of
"Gone with the Wind"

caused enormous controversy
in the Black community,

and there was strong
criticism of the Black actors

appearing in the film.

- Hattie's participation
in "Gone with the Wind"

was met with a
lot of negativity

from the Black press.

They felt that the
film was definitely

stereotypical and wasn't
showing the Black person

in the best light.

There were some
things in that book

that were troubling for her,
and she wanted to make sure

that her character, in
the way she portrayed it,

had some dignity, and it
wasn't one-dimensional.

One of her famous quotes was,
I'd rather make $700

playing a maid than $7 being
one.

The Mammy character
was supposed

to be a little more
subservient, low-key,

yes ma'am, no ma'am
type of character.

Hattie flipped the
script on that.

From the very first moment that
Hattie appears in the film,

she makes her presence known.

- Miss Scarlett!

Where are you going without
your shawl, and the night

air fixing to set in?

- She has that
voice, boisterous,

perfect voice, the pitch,
the power behind it.

- Miss Scarlett,
come on in the house.

Come on in before you catch
your death of dampness.

- No, I'm going to
wait for Pa to come

home from the Wilkes's.

- You could just
feel that almost

mother-daughter, scolding
kind of a relationship

between them.

- Come on!

Mm, mm, mm.

- Hattie's offscreen
friendship with Clark Gable

actually went back years
before "Gone with the Wind."

Hattie would throw parties.

Clark Gable would be there.

I don't think he ever
missed any of her parties.

- Have a drink
of sherry, Mammy.

- There's a very
endearing scene

in "Gone with the Wind"
between Rhett and Mammy,

and he offers her a drink.

But Clark Gable decided
that on one of the takes

he would replace the tea,
or the colored water,

with whiskey.

- Have another glass.

- So when they did
that take, and she

took a swig of that whiskey,
it burned her throat.

I'm sure her eyes got big, and
she was just thrown off-guard.

And I'm sure Clark Gable had
the biggest laugh on the set.

- Mr. Rhett, you is bad.

- There are several scenes
throughout the film where

Hattie's showing
different ranges,

but there's one particular
scene where she's showing

some true raw emotion,
when she's going

up the stairs with Melanie.

- It's Mr. Rhett
I was worried about.

He done lost his mind
these last couple of days.

- Rhett Butler's character
is distraught over the loss

of his daughter Bonnie, and
you can see how the camera

is following Hattie.

She's the main focus.

- But he wouldn't
even open the door

when Miss Scarlett beat
on it and hollered to him,

and that's the way it's
been for two whole days.

- Oh, Mammy!

- Those tears are real.

This wasn't something
she was just

merely reading off a script.

The emotion, it's raw.

It's genuine.

- Lord.

- She was drawing from energy
from her life, from her past,

from her upbringing.

That moment is very powerful,
and it's one of the strongest

moments in the film.

- Coming up, for
one of its stars,

the pressures of filming
were taking their toll.

- During the making
of "Gone with the Wind,"

Vivien Leigh actually
had a breakdown.

It was all too much.

- And even when Hattie became
the first Black woman ever

nominated for an Oscar, she
still faced appalling racism

from Hollywood.

- Selznick had to
call in a favor

to get her into the Ambassador
Hotel at the Cocoanut Grove,

and she had to sit in
the back of the room.

- Towards the end of 1939,
after 11 grueling months,

production on "Gone with the
Wind" was coming to an end.

- Over the course of the
making of "Gone with the Wind,"

everybody's tempers
frayed very badly.

It was a difficult production,
and they went through around

15 screenwriters.

They also went through
four directors.

- Producer David O.
Selznick's control

freakery was pushing the
entire cast and crew over the
edge.

- Everybody was
losing their temper

left, right, and center,
including Selznick.

He was manically
attentive to detail.

He absolutely cared about
every aspect of the film.

And he was controlling the
director, and the script,

and the actors,
and the production,

and the look, and the
costumes, and everything.

It was driving everybody nuts.

Selznick and Gable
didn't get off

to a good start, because
Selznick, in his very

characteristic way, sent
Gable this enormously

long memo telling him how he
needed to play Rhett Butler.

Gable was the biggest
star in the world.

He wasn't going to be
told by the producer

how to play a part.

And he'd already had to
be persuaded to do it,

and it offended him mightily.

And from that point things
just went from bad to worse.

By the time the film
premiered, Selznick and Gable
weren't

really speaking to each
other.

- Selznick was
particularly concerned

that news of Laurence
Olivier and Vivien Leigh's

illicit love affair would
make it into the gossip
columns,

and he encouraged
Laurence to leave town.

- David Selznick was terribly
worried that they might

be found out as being lovers.

They were both married
to other people.

If the affair had
become public,

it would have reduced the
appeal of the film no end.

And so they had to be kept
secret, secret, secret.

- She really adored him,
and to be separated from him

in Hollywood must have been
absolute agony, because she

was very, very young.

- For Vivien, the
pressure of filming

and living apart
from Laurence was

beginning to take its toll.

- Playing Scarlett
O'Hara took every ounce

of creative energy.

It took every ounce out of her.

She felt completely drained.

- Vivien was very
hard-working.

It was a huge part.

She's never off screen.

It took three months.

Normal shooting would be
less than half that time.

And it was exhausting
to such an extent

that when it was finished,
David Selznick wanted

to have a few of the
earlier shots done again,

Scarlett when she was 18,

she put on those clothes again,
and David just took one look

at her and said, silly idea.

Forget it.

Because those months
of extremely hard work

had shown on her face.

It was no longer as
pretty and innocent,

and would never be again.

- During the making
of "Gone with the Wind,"

Vivien Leigh actually
had a breakdown.

It was all too much.

- David Selznick telephoned
Larry saying, for God's sake,

get your ass over here.

Vivien needs your company.

Please come, it's desperate.

And so Larry went there
for three or four days,

and she was behaving
extraordinarily

badly to people on set.

Vivien developed what was
then called manic depression.

It's now called bipolar,
nervous breakdowns,

which Larry could predict.

There was a rhythm with
this manic, manic energy,

and then she'd have
a nervous breakdown.

Shocking.

People didn't talk about it.

They used the word sick.

And at that time,
there was no cure.

- Even though Vivien
was emotionally

exhausted when "Gone with the
Wind" w released--

- For the event all
Dixie, indeed all America,

has been waiting for, the
world premiere of the film

of "Gone with the Wind."

- --she was propelled into
global stardom overnight.

- At the premiere of
"Gone with the Wind,"

Vivien did tell me that she
felt absolute terror,

triumph and terror.

TNT.

- Margaret Mitchell's famous
novel comes to the screen,

with Vivien Leigh as
Atlanta's Scarlett O'Hara.

- She said, I had emotions
that I think very, very

few people have in a
lifetime.

She said, I was given
an experience that

is rare in my field of work.

I was suddenly world-famous.

- Now that I'm here, it feels
just as if I were coming home.

And the warmth and kindness
of your wonderful welcome

have made it the
happiest homecoming

I could possibly imagine.

I greet you, and I want to
thank you with all my heart.

- She was the
center of attention.

She knew it was the
role of her life,

and I think she must have
felt absolutely thrilled.

- But there was a glaring
absence at the premiere.

- Hattie was not
invited, along with

the other Black
performers, to the premiere

of "Gone with the Wind."

The reason was because
of the Jim Crow laws.

Segregation was a living,
breathing thing in the South,

and Hattie's image was
removed from the program.

Considering that she was
one of the main characters

in the film, that's quite
a humiliating and

demeaning thing.

Hattie's performance went
down really well at the
premiere,

and the mayor of Atlanta
singled her out for praise,

and the crowd erupted.

And afterwards,
Margaret Mitchell

sent a telegram
saying to Hattie,

you should have been there,
the applause was incredible.

And for Hattie,
receiving that telegram

had to be a very
bitter pill to swallow.

- "Gone with the Wind"
was an enormous critical

and financial success.

- The gala premiere
of "Gone with the Wind,"

now in the exciting
new medium of

70-millimeter widescreen and
full stereophonic sound.

- The film was
nominated for 13 Oscars,

with nods for David O.
Selznick and Vivien Leigh.

And Hattie McDaniel, after
petitioning Selznick to put

her forward, received
the first nomination for

a Black performer in history.

- By the time "Gone with the
Wind" was released,

Selznick's control freakery
was completely vindicated.

It was an enormous success.

- It made money like no other
film had up until that point.

Many, many people go to see
it.

But also, they charge
extra for the tickets.

It costs $1 to go and see
it, rather than a quarter.

The first year "Gone with the
Wind" wa release,

it made something
like $18 million.

And at this time, a
big hit was $5 million.

So it was a success that
was really off the scale.

- When adjusted for
inflation, it is still the
most

successful movie of all time.

It broke all box
office records,

and David O.
Selznick carried home

his Oscar for Best Picture.

- 1939.

The Academy Dinner.

- Enthusiastic
reports from the time

show just how delighted
David O. Selznick

and Vivien Leigh were.

- Scarlett O'Hara,
her glorious self.

Vivien Leigh, escorted by
producer David Selznick.

- The moment Vivien won
the Oscar, the feeling

was overwhelming.

- Miss Vivien Leigh.

- Vivien gave a gracious and
moving acceptance speech.

- Please forgive me if my words
are inadequate in thanking you

for your very great kindness.

If I were to mention all
those who've shown me

such wonderful generosity
through "Gone with the Wind,"

I should have to entertain
you with an oration

as long as "Gone with the Wind"
itself

- And when she thanked the
man who gave her the part,

it was clear how much she
credited him for her success.

- So if I may, I should
like to devote my thanks

on this occasion to that
composite figure of energy,

courage, and very
great kindness

in whom all points of
"Gone with the Wind" meet,

Mr. David Selznick.

- Vivien got the Oscar
for Scarlett O'Hara,

and Larry did not get
the Oscar for Heathcliff.

- The one feeling that
Laurence Olivier had when
Vivien won

the Oscar was deep
resentment.

Because Larry was
manic to be number one.

He wasn't a sharer.

- And when they were
driving away, he said--

to me, it's not been
written about-- he

said he was so jealous, he
simply couldn't bear it.

And he held her Oscar,
and it was all he could

do to restrain himself from--

anyway.

He was very jealous,
indeed, as a character.

He didn't like to be competed
with on stage or on screen.

He always had to be
number one, which was one

reason he became number one.

- That was part of
what destroyed him.

It made him, but it
also destroyed him.

It made Vivien, but
it also destroyed her.

- Hattie McDaniel's Oscar
night was an entirely

different experience.

- When she went to the
Academy Award presentation,

she was seated separate
from the white actors

in the film, which, you
know, speaks to the fact

that she's not
considered an equal.

- Selznick had to
call it a favor

to get her into the
Ambassador Hotel, at the
Cocoanut Grove,

and she had to sit in
the back of the room

with her escort and her agent.

- For a contemporary
audience, I mean, that

seems particularly egregious.

But that was common.

That was not the
exception in 1939, 1940.

That was the norm.

- So she's sitting in
the back of the room,

she's nervous about the
moment, and they called her
name.

- To Hattie McDaniel.

[applause]

- And she strolled up
there majestically,

and from the first word
in her acceptance speech

you can hear the
quiver in her voice.

She's already choked up.

She's already in tears.

- Academy of Motion
Picture Arts and Science,

fellow members of the
motion picture industry,

and honored guests.

This is one of the happiest
moments of my life.

And I want to thank
each one of you who

had a part in selecting
me for one of the awards.

For your kindness, it has made
me feel very, very humble.

- It brings a
combination of pain and--

and-- and joy, for
what she went through.

Even though she had to sit
at the back of the room,

she gets through that speech.

My heart pulls from many
different directions

because of that.

- I sincerely hope I shall
always be a credit to my race

and to the motion
picture industry.

My heart is too full to
tell you just how I feel.

And may I say thank
you, and God bless you.

[applause]

- She's the first Black person
to win an Academy Award.

It would be many years
before a second Black person

would win an Academy Award.

To have a Black person
recognized in this way

is significant, but
at the same time,

it's a situation where
you're kind of weighing

the personal
advancement and success

of Hattie McDaniel against the
problematic nature of the

role itself.

- I'm grateful that she
still has a place in history.

She's still being talked about.

She's still relevant.

There's still lessons
to be learned from--

from her story, from her life.

She was trying to make
nuanced moves, as far as
advancing

the Black performer.

And I think this film,
because it was the biggest

film at the time,
was a perfect place

to start, as far as
laying a foundation-- even

a small little
victories-- as far

as the Black person, how
they should be treated,

and how they should be viewed.

- Coming up, Hollywood's
most belligerent director

reinvents the Western.

- Where do you think that
short fuse came from?

- Family trait.

If you think he's bad,
you don't know me.

[laughs] Many of the men in
my family are cantankerous.

Many of the men in my
family have short fuses.

Many of the men in my
family are assholes.

- In 1939, Hollywood's
most celebrated director,

John Ford, was about to
make a film that would

change cinematic history.

- What's notable
about 1939 is not just

they were great films,
but they were great films

by great directors.

Some of the greatest
directors in Hollywood history

were making movies at that
time, including, of course,

John Ford, one of the
greatest film artists who
ever lived.

- Two cameras?

Jesus Christ.

Am I looking at you or am
I looking at the camera?

- You're looking at me.

- OK.
- [inaudible]

- Who was John Ford?

In our family, you
know, he was God.

He was the king.

But to the larger
community, he was respected,

if not always liked.

- To this day, he's
probably the most honored

director in American pictures.

He won, I think, six Oscars.

I was asking Orson
Welles who was the best

director he had worked with.

Best directors are John Ford,
John Ford, and John Ford.

With Ford at his
best, you get a sense

of what the Earth is made of.

- In 1939, his breakout year,
he made four very successful

movies all in succession.

I can't name a director who
has had such a good year.

- John Ford's biggest film
of 1939 was "Stagecoach,"

but for an A-list director
like him, making a Western

was a strange choice.

- Westerns had been so
done in the silent era

that a lot of people were
just kind of tired of them.

They were very
popular with kids,

and they were very popular
with-- with a rural, less

sophisticated
audience, and they were

looked down on by Hollywood.

With the development
of sound, Westerns

were relegated to B-movies.

My father Pat had found this
short story called "A Stage

to Lordsburg," and he
said to my grandfather

at the dinner table,
I think this would

make a pretty good movie.

So my grandfather read it,
and he said, I think you're
right.

- In 1939, John Ford
introduced the world to a
little-known

actor called John Wayne.

- John Wayne was born with
the name of Marion Morrison.

Now you know, if your
name is Marion Morrison,

you're going to
change your name.

[horses whinnying]

- Hold it!

- The introduction to
John Wayne in "Stagecoach"

is a very unusual shot
for Ford, actually.

The camera moves
in from a medium

long shot to a close-up.

- And it's out of focus, too.

And his cameraman
told him, he said,

you know, I think I lost
focus on that, Jack.

I think we ought
to do it again.

He said, no, leave it.

You know, it-- it--

people will notice it more.

Most directors would
have reshot it.

- Hello, Curley.

- It's announcing, this
is going to be a big star,

and this is his
introduction, and all

the rest of the shit he's
done so far doesn't count.

This is it.

- Hiya, Buck.

How's your folks?

- Wayne worked on a lot of Ford
films at Fox as a prop man,

as a crew member,
as a stunt man.

He was pretty well-known
in the B-movie world.

And he was good-looking.

He was a ladies' man.

He was a man's man.

But nobody thought he
was a serious actor.

- Wayne was stuck
doing cheap, low-budget

Westerns for almost a decade.

And I think Ford saw that
he had potential as a star.

[dramatic music]

And when Ford came
to make "Stagecoach,"

he decided he wanted
to use John Wayne.

And the studio, the
producer, didn't

want him to use Wayne at all.

But Ford insisted.

- That's what "Stagecoach" did.

It showed him he could
take the next step.

- Take it easy, Gatewood.

- Wayne became the biggest
Western star in the world,

actually, but it took a
while.

- "Stagecoach" might have
catapulted John Wayne

into stardom, but
working with a director

like John Ford
wasn't always easy.

- John Ford's
approach to filmmaking

was simplicity, KISS,
keep it simple, stupid.

Know what you want, be on
time, shoot it, move on.

- I was just a kid.

I'd never been on
the set before.

He was very difficult. He
could be very tough on you.

He was intimidating, to say
the least, thinking back on it.

I was scared shitless.

- Where do you think that
short fuse came from?

- Family trait.

If you think he's bad,
you don't know me.

[laughs] Many of the men in
my family are cantankerous.

Many of the men in my
family have short fuses.

Many of the men in my family...

are assholes.

Ford could be
rough, particularly

with a young action
guy like John

Wayne, who was not
well-trained in, you know,

the theatrical arts.

Ford would taunt Wayne.

He says, oh, can't you
walk like a cowboy?

You're skipping like a fairy.

What are you doing?

You know, when you grab the
woman, you know, grab her.

Don't grab her like
you're afraid of her,

grab her like you love her.

- John Ford's difficult
personality was also

putting him at odds
with the studio

who were paying for the film.

To keep his production away
from studio interference,

Ford decided to shoot
at a location 500 miles

away from Hollywood,
in a desert

1,500 meters above sea level.

- "Stagecoach" was the first
film shot in Monument Valley.

[dramatic music]

And "Stagecoach" has some
wonderful scenes there.

It's visually stunning.

It's very majestic.

It's very open.

It's very unique.

- It's an
extraordinary location.

He did about seven films
in Monument Valley.

- Ford liked it because
he could go there

and nobody would bother him.

He's in control.

Nobody had ever used it
because it's so hard to get to.

It's one of the most remote
places in the United States.

- "Stagecoach" features one
of the most impressive

chase scenes in film
history, which set the bar

for all future Westerns.

- The climax of "Stagecoach" is
an extraordinary Indian attack

on the stagecoach as it
races across the plain.

It's done at great
speed and at great risk,

and it has wonderful stunts,
and it has wonderful falls,

wonderful shooting,
people falling off horses,

and people running
out of ammunition.

[gunshots]

- Because all those
shots are real.

It's very well-shot
and very well-edited.

- There's one sequence where
John Wayne fires one shot

and about seven guys go down.

- That great stunt that,
uh, Yakima Canutt does,

he wouldn't let John
Wayne do that shot.

That'd be too dangerous.

[dramatic music]

- The stuntman playing
the Indian jumps

onto the lead horse,
and Wayne shoots him.

And he's hanging on, and
Wayne shoots him again.

And he falls, and he has
to lie absolutely still,

and he keeps his
elbows in real tight

because there's only about
three feet of clearance.

And he said the horses have
to be going fast, and
absolutely straigh

and they were.

[dramatic music]

But it was a very daring
stunt.

They probably paid him an
extra $50 for it, you know?

- But the chase scene
has a brutal backstory.

- They used a technique
that's outlawed today.

You can't do it.

It's called a running W.
And a running W is,

you shackle a horse's
two front legs together,

and you tie a rope to
those two front legs.

The end of the rope goes
into a stake in the ground,

and you get the
horse to run all out.

And when the horse runs
out the line of wire, boom,

he goes down.

And it usually kills the horse.

- While "Stagecoach" was a
huge success, to modern eyes

it's also a difficult
film to watch,

because it perpetuates
a stereotype

of savage Native Americans.

- One of the most problematic
aspects of "Stagecoach"

is its racial representation.

Gorgeous images
of Monument Valley

are suddenly disrupted
by ominous music

and threatening images
of the Native Americans.

We're left in no
doubt that these

are the villains of the film.

- But on "Stagecoach," the
Navajo actors got their own
back.

- Ford would be the
first one to admit

that we treated the Native
Americans, the Indians, badly.

They had a lot of
Indian dialogue scenes

that were cut out.

The Navajos knew that nobody
but them spoke Navajo,

so they would be
saying in Navajo,

you know,
this movie really sucks.

You know,
John Ford is an asshole,

and all these outrageous
things, all this profanity,

and nobody knew.

- Coming up, Hollywood
censors clamp

down on sex and violence.

- One of the things
people may have noticed

is that sometimes very
early talkies are a lot

more, I don't know, saucy.

A lot more dangerous.

- So a prime example would
be "Tarzan and His Mate,"

where you get to see a
nude swimming sequence,

a post-coital sequence as
well, that even to our eyes

today is quite exciting.

- Tarzan, you're a bad boy.

- In 1939, Hollywood was
ruled by censors determined

to cut depictions
of sex, violence,

and crime from the movies.

But this wasn't
always the case.

Just a few years
earlier, films reflected

much more liberal attitudes.

- Sometimes very early talkies
are a lot more, I don't know,

saucy, a lot more dangerous,
a lot more ambiguous,

a lot more challenging than
later golden-age Hollywood

movies in terms of sexual
license and things like that,

in silent movies even more
so.

- So a prime example of a film
that even to our eyes today

is quite exciting--

- Tarzan!

- --would be
"Tarzan and His Mate."

The characters' costumes
are pretty revealing.

You get to see a nude
swimming sequence,

a post-coital sequence as well,
where Tarzan and Jane are sort
of

relaxing together,
clearly having

just had fun, shall we say.

- Tarzan, you're a bad boy

- And also a really
interesting scene whereby Jane

decides to change her clothes
and nips into a tent,

which is backlit
so you can see her removing

her clothes in silhouette.

- Need any help?

- Do you always help
ladies to dress?

- When they're lovely enough.

- But by 1939,
Hollywood censors

had imposed the Production
Code, a strict set of rules

that all but eliminated
sex, violence,

and crime from the movies.

- His Production Code,
voluntarily adopted

by all major
producers, has been law

to Hollywood's movie makers.

- The Production Code
was finally implemented

in order to placate
the religious right,

particularly Catholics.

Hollywood was faced
with two choices.

It could either capitulate
to these external groups,

and possibly to
government censorship,

or it could self-censor.

And it decided to self-censor
so that it could maintain

its commercial viability.

- The Code prevented the
mention of, for example,

mixed-race marriages.

There was absolutely to be
no mention of homosexuality.

- Famously, married couples
didn't sleep in double beds.

They had two single beds.

- Religion mustn't be mocked.

Crime must be seen to not
pay.

People must be punished.

- The first time a lavatory
was ever shown to be used

was in "Psycho."

[toilet flushing]

- You couldn't portray
excessive or lustful kissing.

That would work the audience
into too much of a frenzy.

- You would think that that
would mean all films became

much more staid and moralistic,
but actually what happens

is, filmmakers find ways
to use suggestion to create

situations that sophisticated
audiences, at least,

will understand.

- This is one night
you're not turning me out.

- A prominent example would
be "Gone with the Wind,"

when Rhett Butler carries
Scarlett O'Hara up the
stairs,

and there's a fade-out.

And the next morning, we
fade in on Scarlett in bed,

seemingly very happy.

And I think adult audiences
know what happened in

between those two
scenes, but nothing

is said directly about
it, and nothing is shown.

- But "Gone with the Wind"
was not immune to the
censors,

and producer David
O. Selznick came

up against them over one of
the film's most famous lines.

- Where shall I go?

What shall I do?

- Frankly, my dear,
I don't give a damn.

- The word damn was in the
book of forbidden words,

as far as the censor's
eye was concerned.

Now, David O. Selznick
was absolutely

determined to have the line,
and he fought tooth and nail.

But I've got a list here
of some of the suggestions

that the office and various
other people offered as--

as an alternative.

"Frankly, my dear,
I don't give a hoot."

That doesn't sound very
Civil War, does it?

"Frankly, my dear,
it is of no consequence."

"Frankly, my dear,
I don't give a continental."

What does that mean?

They did actually record
"Frankly, my dear,

I don't care," but Selznick
himself had come up

with the line,
don't give a damn,

and he absolutely
fought for it.

And he got it, so it stayed in.

But it did-- didn't
exactly cause

people to faint in
the cinema rows,

but it was shocking enough.

- The Production Code didn't
just apply to bad language,

sex, and violence.

The censors also went
for films that were

critical of American
politics.

- The Production Code, you
know,

wasn't just about
telling you what

you could and couldn't do.

You had to submit your scripts.

In the case of "Mr. Smith
Goes to Washington,"

the Frank Capra, James Stewart
film, there was a lot of,

oh, maybe you can't make
this.

Maybe it's representing
America as a place

with corrupt politics.

- Director Capra has
drawn on the almost

untouched wealth
of story material

on the national political
scene.

- The whole point of
the Production Code

was, films mustn't engage
with anything offensive.

When they read the script for
"Mr. Smith Goes to Washington,"

their concern is, this is
politically controversial.

- It might inflame
revolutionaries

and people who want to bring
the system down, you know.

So there was this kind
of almost Stalinist way

of vetting a script.

- But Frank Capra was
a powerful director.

He was not so easily reined in.

- Mr. James Taylor came
down here and offered me

a seat in this Senate
for the next 20 years,

if I voted for a dam that he
knew, and I knew, was a fraud.

But if I dared to open my
mouth against that dam,

he promised to break me in two.

- Jimmy Stewart is an
idealistic young senator

and is distraught to be
confronted with corruption

in American politics.

- More disturbing
in the film is

when Jimmy Stewart's
character, Jefferson Smith,

tries to get his own story
out.

He uses a kind of
Boy Scout organization

to distribute leaflets, and
then

they're attacked
by mobs organized

by the industrialists.

- Well, what are you
standing there for?

Get the boys out.
Kill it!

- Yes, sir.

- There's this idea
that there is actually

a kind of fascist
force in America

that's doing away
with free speech,

and it's determined to
maintain its hold on the U.S.
government.

It did cause a lot of offense.

You can imagine
in Washington, D.C.,

they didn't like it at all.

It was a really
daring film for 1939.

It's a pretty outspoken,
revelatory film,

even by today's standards.

- The Production Code also
insisted that Hollywood

didn't offend other
countries.

- And the reason
they didn't want

to offend any
international governments

was not because that was
"wrong," but because it was

commercially stupid,
because then you couldn't

sell your movies
in the country of

that international government.

- To make sure that they
didn't cause offense,

they would send the
script to the embassy

of the country involved.

- But Hollywood was happy to
make exceptions to the rule

when it suited them.

Russia didn't buy
American movies,

and so films like
Greta Garbo's "Ninotchka"

were free to directly
criticize the Soviet regime.

- Greta Garbo plays a Russian
official who is sent to Paris

on a government
mission, and she

is the most drab and humorless
official you can imagine.

- But you must admit that
this doomed old

civilization sparkles.

Look at it.

It glitters.

- I do not deny its beauty, but
it's a waste of electricity.

- What a city!

- Paris represents the
West as a place of bounty.

It's a place where
people are wealthy.

They live fairly
frivolous lives.

- You mean Leon's bringing the
Bolshevik you told us about?

- Isn't it divine?

- I wouldn't have missed this
for anything in the world.

- By contrast, Russia is
a strikingly poor country.

It's politically oppressive.

- Comrades of the world,
never has there been

such a May Day parade as this!

- The studios felt
absolutely confident

in portraying Russia
and communism this way,

because Russia didn't
import American movies.

And so there was nothing
for them to lose.

- Very consciously,
the movie is

about a fight between
communism and capitalism,

and because of sex, and
a hat that she loves,

which is absolutely
ridiculous today.

- What's that?

- It's a hat, comrade,
a woman's hat.

- How can such a
civilization survive

which permits their
women to put things

like that on their heads?

- The hat kind of stands
in for all of the glamour,

and all of the luxury, and all
of the sensuousness of Paris.

She's seduced by
a man, and then

she's seduced by capitalism.

So basically, sex brings down
the Soviet Union in
"Ninotchka."

And Hollywood was
happy to do that,

because they weren't selling
films to the Soviet Union.

- Coming up,
shockingly, there was

one country that Hollywood
was happy to cozy up to in
1939.

- They were still
trying to make movies

that wouldn't offend Hitler.

- [speaking German]

- They stopped making
movies with overtly

Jewish characters.

They stopped using the
word Jew in their scripts.

- As 1939 came to an end,
the world was becoming

a very different place.

- [speaking German]

- While Europe was suffering
some of the darkest months

in its history, Hollywood was
enjoying incredible success

and looking the other way.

- The Hollywood studios were
faced with a problem,

which was that America
was officially neutral

and was trying to
stay out of the war.

The classical Hollywood
system was always

trying to please everybody.

That was kind of its
commercial model.

That meant that they steered
very clear of anything that

could be controversial,
anything that could

be seen as too political.

- But remarkably, Hollywood
studios did more than just

ignore the rise of fascism
and the specter of war.

- One of the most shocking
things that recent historians

have uncovered, in fact, is
the degree to which the
Hollywood

studio moguls were putting
commercial interests

above political or
even moral interests.

As late as 1939,
they were inviting

Nazi "ambassadors,"
representatives, for goodwill

tours of the major studios.

They were still
trying to make movies

that wouldn't offend Hitler.

They were trying
to make movies that

wouldn't offend Mussolini.

They stopped making movies
with overtly Jewish
characters.

They stopped using the
word Jew in their scripts.

So there was this attempt
to curry commercial favor

with the fascists.

- Hollywood's unwillingness
to explicitly deal with

anti-Semitism feels even more
ironic when we remember that

many of the studio
heads were themselves

Jewish and came from Eastern
European backgrounds.

- It's an unpalatable
truth, but there was

an awful lot of right-wing
feeling within America as well.

You know, a lot of
Americans supported Hitler.

A lot of Americans had a
real sort of right-wing bent.

- Hitler has said America
could be conquered from
within.

- Astonishingly,
in 1939, 20,000 Nazis

gathered for a rally at
Madison Square Garden.

- They had soldiers
in the aisles

that they called
stormtroopers,

and they had speakers
echoing the language

of Hitler and Goebbels.

The film footage from that
night is absolutely chilling.

You cannot believe that
you're not looking at a
Nuremberg

rally, and that you are
looking at Madison Square
Garden

in New York in 1939.

- But with the Nazi
threat at home and abroad,

one studio decided
to put morality

before money and
make a film that

was explicitly anti-fascist.

- By 1939, Hitler had been
in power for six years.

And for years before that,
Nazi stormtroopers,
Brownshirts,

had been marching up
and down the streets

and had been in the
newsreels.

So, you know,
for 10 years, people

had been aware of Nazism.

But-- but Hollywood had
never covered it, really.

It was only the Warner
Brothers who instantly

saw the threat of Nazism.

They were Jewish,
the brothers Warner,

but so were the other
heads of studio.

- Warner Brothers ignored
the Production Code and its

competitors to make the first
explicit anti-Nazi film,

"Confessions of a Nazi Spy."

- But even then, it was
a closed set, as it's called.

It was secret.

No one knew what
the film was called,

and the Nazi
insignia was sort of

hidden from anybody looking.

- The national feelings
clause of the Code

said that countries
must be treated fairly.

You couldn't write
fictions that seemed

to be exposés of countries.

So what they did was use
the transcripts of a trial.

- Charged with the
crime of espionage

against the armed forces
of the United States.

- In which real Nazi spies were
found operating in New York,

and therefore they could
say, this is factual.

Yes, we're dramatizing it,
but this really did happen.

- Schneider offers his
services as a Nazi spy,

addressing his letter to
Hitler's personal newspaper.

- Hollywood tales of
espionage traditionally
centered

on the romantic
figure of the spy.

What"Confessions of a Nazi Spy"
does

is situate its story in a
far grittier environment.

Street corners, back rooms,
dingy apartment buildings.

- For hours, Renard caters to
Schneider's inflated vanity,

skillfully leading
him on to give

an account of his meetings
with Nazi spy contacts.

- "Confessions of a Nazi Spy"
emphasiz

its factual basis by having a
"March of Time"-style narrator.

- Nazi propaganda printed
in huge quantities.

- The newsreel
style of narration.

- Carefully devised to fit
the official German concept

of mass stupidity.

- Conveying that this is
news, this is what really
happened.

It portrays the militarism
of Nazism very vividly.

- I say that we must unite
all those of German blood

to believe in the German
destiny of America!

- We see a Nazi rally where
there are swastikas on flags

all around the room.

There are German-Americans
wearing Nazi uniforms.

- Our America!

[together]
Sieg Heil!

- It was the first movie
to show Nazi insignia.

- Groucho Marx was impressed.

Said that, you know,
Warner's was the only studio

with any guts, because
they were the only ones

who had done that.

- Nazi sympathizers picketed
cinemas, slashed seats,

and threatened exhibitors.

One cinema in Milwaukee was
even burned down for screening

"Confessions of a Nazi Spy."

- "Confessions of a Nazi Spy"
is the first Hollywood
anti-Nazi

film,
and in that respect, it opens

the door for so many films
that follow in its footsteps.

But I think it sets up a lot of
the stereotypes around Nazism

that will be used in later
films,

the militarism, the
doggedness, the snarling
vehemence

of the Nazi characters.

Those tropes survive well into
the war

- Despite the Nazi threat,
for the studios in 1939,

it seemed like the good
times would never end.

But just two years later,
America entered the war.

- 1939 was really a perfect
moment in Hollywood,

because it was this peak point
where everything's fallen

into place, everyone
knows what they're doing,

and the war hasn't come yet.

Because I think the war really
spoils the mood in Hollywood.

- The movies would never
again recapture the energy,

excitement, and magic of
1939.

- 1939 was a great year
for the Hollywood studios.

They were factories.

They were just humming.

- Hollywood's golden
year had produced

a staggering number of films.

- It's the year, really, where
you get to see the Hollywood

studio system at its height,
the real big hitters,

some absolutely amazing
films that go on to be

superb classics.

- From stars to scandals,
from yellow brick roads

to Southern belles,
this was a year

that no one would ever
forget.

- 1939 was the greatest
year in Hollywood history.

It was the point at which
they just suddenly hit their
stride

and produced just one
classic film after another.

- A year that left an
extraordinary lasting legacy

on movie history.

- 1939 is everything that
Hollywood

stood for, both good and bad.

But it did produce gold.

I'm not saying that,
you know, you should only watch

classic movies of that period.

That would be absurd.

But the ones that are worth
watching, my goodness,

they're worth watching.

[applause]

[upbeat music]

♪ ♪