Trailer of the (Retro) Hour: Gone with the Wind (1939)

I’m still out of town, so here’s another old trailer. Enjoy, me hearties.

I have no idea when this trailer was actually released- probably not before the movie, since it references Gone with the Wind‘s 10 Oscars. And, incidentally, this video appears to have been uploaded by some dude who’s very right-wing, as if Gone with the Wind were a patriotic movie at its heart and not a movie about American selfishness crumbling under the weight of the Civil War. Anyway, this trailer is pretty straightforward. The scenes they show between Rhett Butler and Scarlett O’Hara are fascinating, because Vivien Leigh and Clark Gable were fascinating. And they place a large emphasis on its link to Mitchell’s classic book. But the most interesting thing about the trailer is that the first thing it boasts about is its stars, in big bold letters. It just goes to show how different things are now; trailers now begin by trying to sell a high concept, special effects, or a mood. Movies now don’t have stars the way they did back then, and this trailer is proof.