Another epic David Selznick production (we heard him shouting 'More horses! There aren't enough horses in this scene!' - I wrote that as a joke, but it's actually in one of his famous memoranda - 'I wish we had more horses'...). Luckily this one's only just over two hours. It's a strange and overheated film - the ending is just somehow hysterically funny and overwrought. (Q's comment: "Oh how ridiculous, but marvellous.") Jennifer Jones overacts somewhat, though was awarded an Oscar nomination - beaten by Ethel Barrymore for None But the Lonely Heart. It ran into all sorts of censorship problems. Gregory Peck is a bad guy, for a change. With Joseph Cotten, Lionel Barrymore, Lillian Gish, Butterfly McQueen, Charles Bickford, Walter Huston, Harry Carey, Herbert Marshall, Joan Tetzel, Otto Kruger, with opening narration from Orson Welles.
Selznick repeatedly rewrote scenes and fiddled with Vidor's direction to the point where he walked out. William Cameron Menzies directed that amazing single crane shot take at the party, and William Dieterle was brought in to do retakes following a disastrous preview of a then four hour film. Hal Kern led the editing. It was based on a sensational novel by Niven Busch.
It looks amazing. Lee Garmes and Selznick must have had a complicated relationship - Selznick memorably fired Garmes after he'd shot the first hour of GWTW, but then hired him back on other projects like Since You Went Away. Here he's credited as the lead cameraman, with Ray Rennahan and Harold Rosson, with additional (uncredited) footage from W Howard Green and Charles Boyle. Jack Cosgrove adds his customary trick skies.
Selznick and Jones were not married until 1949.
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