The 1939 film by George Cukor, Sam Wood and Victor Fleming is "the result of three directors, over 20 uncredited writers (including F. Scott Fitzgerald), and the luminous Vivien Leigh, who provided one of the most complex performances in an era of stereotypic female images," Kinn and Piazza write. "She transforms Deep South soap opera into something resembling Greek myth."
The nation was captivated before production started by the search for an actress to play main character Scarlett O'Hara.
According to the , during that search, a woman traveled to producer David O. Selznick's home on Christmas Day inside a version of the novel's cover and stepped out in full costume, telling him, "I am your Scarlett O'Hara!"
