Vivien Leigh

by Anne Edwards

  The last being the scene where Rhett leaves Scarlett to continue on to Tara with Melanie, Prissy, and baby Beau after the burning of Atlanta.

  On March 1, they resumed shooting. Vivien did not like Fleming personally, and liked him even less as a director. She began to visit Cukor at his home every available moment, working with him on her scenes. Selznick never got wind of this, though she did it through the entire production. Nor did he discover that Olivia de Havilland was doing the same thing (unbeknown to Vivien), which meant Cukor’s influence on the end result of the film was considerable.

  Vivien was most concerned with the delay in the shooting schedule caused by all these machinations, which meant she would have to remain longer than anticipated in Hollywood. While waiting for Fleming to take the helm, she had moved into a house at 520 North Crescent Drive. The lovers were as discreet as possible, still they managed to achieve some semblance of domestic life.

  But Olivier was soon to finish Wuthering Heights and would have to spend one week on the road and then return to Broadway to appear opposite Katharine Cornell in S. N. Behrman’s No Time for Comedy. She had come all this distance and gone to extreme lengths to be with Olivier, and now they would once again be separated. She was not happy that he had accepted the role, but she was unable to deter him. And Olivier, seeing Vivien settled in a house with a good staff, removed from their English pressures, and with the greatest female role in film history to occupy her time, felt convinced she could manage alone. To Vivien’s credit, she understood that Larry had to return to the stage after a long, trying film experience like Wuthering Heights, as the stage for him was like air to a long-distance swimmer.

  She appeared at the studio each morning after his departure earlier than her call, hoping she could hurry the film along and feeling more disdain than ever for film making and the role of being a film actress. No one else, however, possessed her dedication, and her eagerness was to no avail.

  Fleming considered himself a man’s man. He had been a cameraman, big game hunter, and an air force pilot before becoming a director, and he always spoke about giving up the industry to return to shooting tigers. He regarded Cukor’s sensibility and deep involvement in his work as effeminate and from the start treated Vivien in a chauvinistic manner. He named her “Fiddle-dee-dee” (a line Scarlett used frequently in the film) and told Walter Plunkett, the costume designer, “For Christ’s sake, let’s get a good look at the girl’s boobs!” directly in front of Vivien. Plunkett was coerced into forcing Vivien to have her breasts taped to press them closer together and thrust them forward and upward, resulting in deeper cleavage. She was furious about the entire incident.

  She regarded Gable as lazy, not too bright, and an unresponsive performer (though she was always laudatory about his kindness and good manners to her). She could not understand how he could leave the set promptly each day at six P.M. as though he held an office job. She seldom left the studio until eight or nine at night and worked six, often seven days a week. “What are you fucking about for?” she would complain to Gable and Fleming when Gable took time out to rest. Gable admired his leading lady’s vocabulary, as did Fleming, but otherwise he was a bit put off by her intellect and her dedication to work. Nonetheless he took it upon himself to teach her the game of backgammon. She proceeded to beat him each time they played. She then taught him a naval war game of strategy using graph paper, but Gable did not stand a chance. A sense of competition grew between the two that carried over into their scenes together.

  But it was Gable’s bad breath caused by his false teeth that was the most unpleasant aspect of their working together for Vivien. Vivien’s good manners held her back from mentioning it to him, while at the same time it kindled her hostilities.

  Her primary hostility was to Selznick, who she was convinced had engineered Olivier’s role in No Time for Comedy in order to separate them and avoid any grist for Hollywood’s gossip mill. Vivien felt desperately lonely, but also found it emotionally difficult to achieve consistency in her film character’s psychological development.

  Owing to the episodic method of film making, scenes were seldom shot in chronological order, and Vivien was faced daily with having to skip from a sixteen-year-old Scarlett to Scarlett at twenty-seven within a matter of hours. In one case she worked twenty-two hours without rest, filming the famous scene when Scarlett falls to her knees in the fields of Tara vowing never to be hungry again. She then slept four hours and returned to the studio to portray a giddy Scarlett visiting Aunt Pitty at the start of the war. Unlike any of the other characters, she was in a good percentage of the footage and seldom had a day when her services were not required.

  The occasional few hours she was able to escape to George Cukor’s house for a swim and a rest in the sun by his pool offered her short periods free from the tensions of the film. Cukor had grown very fond of Vivien and became quite concerned about her state of health as the film progressed. One day she had been so exhausted that she had fallen asleep in her wet suit by the pool, and hating to wake her—so exhausted had she seemed to him—he had tossed a blanket over her when the sun went down and let her sleep. He was relieved when Olivier managed to fly back to Los Angeles for one day directly before his play was to open in New York.

  Vivien was ecstatic to see him and Selznick and Fleming agreed not to interfere with the twenty-four hours the lovers had together.

  “I’m quite shocked to find how exaggerated stage acting is after the films,” Olivier told her. “I simply didn’t notice it before, but now it seems to me that in the theatre audiences swallow dialogue and acting conventions which on the screen would draw howls of derisive laughter.”

  It seemed to her that Larry was gone almost as soon as he had arrived, and she was once again back at war with Fleming. Days on the set would often end with Vivien in tears and Fleming in a rage. Vivien felt he was attempting to reduce Scarlett to a one-dimensional character—a bitch-shrew without any motivating forces. She had Margaret Mitchell’s book with her on the set at all times and would argue against changes in Scarlett’s original characterization. Fleming felt the film should be a melodrama and concentrated on the spectacle rather than the characters. One day she inquired how she should play a scene. “Ham it up,” Fleming answered. She retorted sharply and began quoting Cukor’s advice.

  “Miss Leigh, you can stick this script up your royal British ass!” he shouted at her and walked off the set, refusing to return for three days. It was, however, only a short time before they had another confrontation; and Fleming, threatening first to drive his car off a cliff, left for his beach house at Malibu and could not be talked into returning to the studio.

  Sam Wood (A Night at the Opera) was called in to replace him, and William Cameron Menzies shot most of the second-unit material, but from the time of Fleming’s second walkout, Selznick truly took over the film and it nearly did him in. He was driving himself too hard, gambling too heavily (he was a compulsive gambler and lost huge sums), and watching his marriage disintegrate. On April 14, he wrote his wife, Irene, who was still in New York:

  I wish I could just be with you somewhere away from money, habit of work, drive of years’ silly hopes. Maybe—oh, I hope so—we can map a program, months, eight or ten of hard work and drive for financial freedom, then some place where there is neither . . . Clover Club nor synopses. I don’t think any more my Fate is millions and Leadership. I hope it isn’t (as though the hope were not gratuitous!). I’m damned if I know quite what’s the alternate hope.

  Vivien was torn by the terrible pressures of the film, her need for Olivier’s presence, and by her fear of an inevitable war in Europe. In April she wrote Leigh:

  It is dreadful being so far away from everything. One only gets such a vague picture of things. The American attitude seems to be changing considerably—two months ago one dared not mention politics—they were so wildly against us—and they’re a little cowed now, thank God.

  She had made friends with Miriam Hop
kins and her husband, director Anatole Litvak, and occasionally visited them at their beach house and saw Ronald Colman and his wife, Benita Hume. She continued her secret meetings with Cukor at his house, but otherwise she kept to herself in her rented house, tended by “two very good German servants. They are so nice—and I have the opportunity of speaking German—also their cooking is a treat after the American food which seems quite tasteless,” she wrote Leigh.

  Wuthering Heights opened in New York during this time, and Olivier suddenly found himself besieged by fans who mobbed him after every performance. Though they spoke on the telephone often and Vivien wrote him daily, no matter how exhausted she was, both of them feared the separation would give birth to singular experiences such as each was having, experiences that might become some kind of barrier to their mutual understanding. Therefore, as soon as Vivien knew when her last scenes for Gone With the Wind were scheduled, Olivier gave notice that he would have to be replaced from that date in No Time for Comedy. Part of their plan was to meet in New York, return to England, and remain there about a month, until mid-Au-gust, when Vivien had to be available in Hollywood for possible retakes and Olivier was to begin work on Rebecca (also to be produced by Selznick and Selznick International). What they hoped was that they could convince Leigh and Jill to give them respective divorces during the time they were in England so that they could marry. And they hoped that they could in the meantime convince Selznick that Vivien should be cast opposite Olivier in Rebecca (the lead was still uncast and the major contenders for the role were Anne Baxter and Joan Fontaine).

  On June 27, 1939, Selznick telegraphed John Hay Whitney:

  SOUND THE SIREN. SCARLETT O’HARA COMPLETED HER PERFORMANCE AT NOON TODAY.

  Vivien had gone that same afternoon to another set and tested for Rebecca. But it was not a good test and she knew it. She had no time to develop the character before she stepped before the camera and nothing was done to “deglamorize” her. Vivien was too beautiful to play the role without heavy makeup. Selznick followed his telegram to Whitney that evening with a letter:

  Vivien is still anxious to play Rebecca for obvious reasons. She really thinks she could knock us dead in another test and that the former test was unfair in that she had to hop right out of Scarlett O’Hara into the girl in Rebecca in ten minutes. It is my personal feeling that she could never be right for the girl, but God knows it would solve a lot of problems if she was right, and I have too much respect for her ability as an actress, too much consideration for my own peace of mind during the months of August and September when a certain young man [Laurence Olivier] is in these parts, and too much appreciation of how good it would be for her future with us if she were to play Rebecca, to close the door on the possibility of her being right for it. I have therefore said that we would not close with anybody to play the role for a period of ten days from today, during which time she could if she wishes make a test with Larry Olivier in New York.

  Six days later Vivien was “secretly” in New York (without the press being alerted) and attended Olivier’s last performance of No Time for Comedy (he was being replaced by Francis Lederer). That was July 3. They spent the weekend of the fourth with Katharine Cornell at her house at Sneden’s Landing. Then Vivien filmed another test for Rebecca. She had worked on her concept of the part, but she could not persuade anyone in New York to allow her to go through the test without makeup. On July 11 they sailed on the He de France and docked in Plymouth five days later. They disembarked and were shocked to find air raid shelters being dug in parks and training in the use of gas masks being announced on large signs outside town halls. People talked of “the state of emergency” that existed, but no one spoke openly about the threat of a war.

  The international situation overshadowed their short holiday, which otherwise was an exceptionally happy one. Leigh and Jill had not yet agreed to divorce, but the path was now open. They were certain their love was stronger than ever and they both had high hopes that Vivien would be cast in Rebecca so that they could appear together in the film.

  On August 17 they boarded the lie de France with Gertrude, who they thought needed a holiday, leaving Suzanne in the total care of Leigh and Nanny Oake. They were only one day out at sea, when the following two radiograms were received:

  AUGUST 18, 1939

  VIVIEN HOLMAN

  ILE DE FRANCE

  NEW YORK RADIO

  DEAR VIVIEN: WE HAVE TRIED TO SELL OURSELVES RIGHT UP UNTIL TODAY TO CAST YOU IN “REBECCA,” BUT I REGRET NECESSITY TELLING YOU WE ARE FINALLY CONVINCED YOU ARE AS WRONG FOR ROLE AS ROLE WOULD BE FOR YOU. YOU MUST REALIZE IT IS THIS SAME PATIENCE, CARE, AND STUBBORNNESS ABOUT ACCURATE CASTING THAT RESULTED IN PUTTING YOU IN MOST TALKED-OF ROLE OF ALL TIME IN WHAT EVERYONE WHO HAS SEEN IT AGREES IS GREATEST PICTURE EVER MADE. IT WOULD HAVE BEEN VERY SIMPLE TO CAST BETTE DAVIS AS SCARLETT, THEREBY SATISFYING MILLIONS OF PEOPLE INCLUDING EVERYONE IN THE PROFESSION. IT WOULD BE MUCH SIMPLER TO CAST YOU, WHO ARE UNDER CONTRACT TO US, IN “REBECCA” LEAD, AND THEREBY HAVE SAVED US ALL GREAT DEAL OF EXPENSE AND AGONY SEARCHING FOR RIGHT GIRL. AND EVEN THOUGH YOU MUST BE COMPLETELY WRONG CASTING, WE MIGHT STILL HAVE PUT YOU IN IT HAD WE THOUGHT IT WAS GOOD FOR YOU, REGARDLESS OF THE PICTURE. BUT I AM POSITIVE YOU WOULD BE BITTERLY CRITICIZED AND YOUR CAREER, WHICH IS NOW OFF TO SUCH A TREMENDOUS START WITH SCARLETT, MATERIALLY DAMAGED. ALTHOUGH HITCHCOCK FEELS EVEN MORE STRONGLY THAN I DO ON THIS QUESTION, I WAS STILL NOT SATISFIED AND THEREFORE RAN THE TESTS OF ALL THE CANDIDATES FOR [playwright and screenwriter] ROBERT SHERWOOD, WHO IS WORKING ON SCRIPT, WITHOUT GIVING HIM ANY HINT OF OUR FEELINGS. HIS FIRST AND IMMEDIATE REACTION WAS HOW COMPLETELY WRONG YOU WERE FOR IT. STILL NOT SATISFIED, I REPEATED THE PROCEDURE WITH GEORGE CUKOR, KNOWING HIS HIGH REGARD FOR YOU, AND GEORGE’S FIRST AND IMMEDIATE REACTION WAS IDENTICAL WITH SHERWOOD’S. AM HOPEFUL OF HAVING SOMETHING SOON FOR YOU THAT WE WILL BOTH BE HAPPY ABOUT, AND ALSO HOPEFUL YOU WILL RECOGNIZE THAT SAME CARE THAT HAS GONE INTO “WIND” AND “REBECCA” WILL GO INTO SELECTION AND PRODUCTION OF YOUR FUTURE PICTURES, WHICH IS SOMETHING I HAVE NO HESITANCY IN SAYING DOES NOT EXIST IN MANY STUDIOS. AFFECTIONATELY,

  DAVID

  AUGUST 18, 1939

  LAURENCE OLIVIER

  ILE DE FRANCE

  NEW YORK RADIO

  DEAR LARRY: PLEASE SEE MY WIRE TO VIVIEN. I KNOW YOU MUST BE DISAPPOINTED, BUT VIVIEN’S ANXIETY TO PLAY ROLE HAS, IN MY OPINION, BEEN LARGELY IF NOT ENTIRELY DUE TO HER DESIRE TO DO A PICTURE WITH YOU, WHICH WAS BEST DEMONSTRATED BY HER COMPLETE DISINTEREST IN PART WHEN I FIRST MENTIONED IT TO HER AS POSSIBILITY AND UNTIL SHE KNEW YOU WERE PLAYING MAXIM. YOU WILL, AFTER ALL, BOTH BE WORKING HERE, SO I THINK HER EAGERNESS HAS BECOME EXAGGERATED AND NOT RATIONALIZED. BECAUSE OF MY PERSONAL AFFECTION FOR VIVIEN AND MY HIGH REGARD FOR YOU BOTH, AM HOPEFUL YOU WILL RECOGNIZE THAT MY JUDGMENT HAS BEEN FAIRLY SOUND AND SUCCESSFUL IN THESE MATTERS FOR MANY YEARS. HOPEFUL WE WILL BE ABLE TO FIND SOMETHING FOR THE TWO OF YOU TO DO TOGETHER FOR US AT SOME FUTURE DATE. SCRIPT IS COMING ALONG SPLENDIDLY, AND GLAD BE ABLE TELL YOU ROBERT SHERWOOD IS DOING FINAL DIALOGUE REWRITE. BELIEVE WE ARE ASSEMBLING EXCITING CAST INCLUDING JUDITH ANDERSON AS MRS. DANVERS, GEORGE SANDERS AS FAVELL, REGINALD DENNY AS FRANK, AND NIGEL BRUCE AS GILES. POSSIBLE MAY BE ABLE TO LET YOU HAVE DAY OR TWO IN NEW YORK IF YOU WANT IT AND IF YOU WILL CONTACT US BEFORE LEAVING FOR COAST. CORDIALLY,

  DAVID

  This meant Vivien might be forced by her contract to accept a film that had to be shot on location (which is what she feared most) and away from Larry. “I simply won’t think about it now!” Vivien decided, making the most of the pleasures of the ocean crossing with Larry. Scarlett had a larger claim on her affections than she would have admitted and was, after all, not an easy person to cast off.

  Chapter Twelve

  Gertrude was now resigned to the fact that Vivien and Leigh would never be reconciled and that a divorce was imminent. No further appeals were made by her for Vivien to honor her marriage vows. She liked and admired Olivier. Yet she could not conceal her di
sapproval of Vivien’s cavalier attitude before plunging so headlong and headstrong into such an early marriage with Leigh. She did more than say, “I told you so”; her cry was “You knew divorce was the ultimate sin. You’ll have to make your own peace now.”

  Vivien seldom discussed this situation with Olivier. In spite of her apparent rejection of the Church, she did still think of herself as a Catholic, privately said her prayers, and carried a Bible whenever she traveled. “I’m Catholic in its truest and broadest sense,” she told an interviewer. Whatever interpretation one might make of that statement, one thing seemed certain—Vivien still had spiritual and emotional ties to the Church she claimed to reject, and Gertrude stood as an ever-present reminder of her broken vows.

  It was not an easy situation and Vivien was more than happy to accept an invitation extended to Larry, Gertrude, and herself to spend the Labor Day weekend with Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., his wife, and friends Nigel Bruce, David Niven, and Robert Coote on the yacht the Fairbankses had chartered to take them to Catalina Island, which lay about fifty miles from Los Angeles.

  The week had been filled with speculation and fear for their countrymen as well, for the news from home had not been good. The German-Soviet Pact had been signed on August 24, 1939. Until the time the chartered Fairbanks yacht sailed out on blue Pacific waters that sunny Saturday morning of September 2, the British were hopeful that a miracle would spare them.

  Almost all of the yachting party were British. On Sunday morning, September 3, they gathered around the ship’s radio to hear that at nine o’clock that morning, British Summer Time (nine hours ahead of California time), Sir Nevile Henderson had delivered the following ultimatum to the German Foreign Office: “If His Majesty’s Government has not received satisfactory assurances of the cessation of all aggressive action against Poland and the withdrawal of German troops from that country by 11 o’clock British Summer Time, from that time a state of war will exist between Great Britain and Germany.” The ultimatum was refused. Britain and France had been at war with Germany while the Fairbanks party had slept in comfort in the safe, calm waters of Emerald Bay, where the boat was anchored.