GONE WITH THE WIND different openings

[Frank Angel]

Can anyone shed some light on the two different openings of GWTW -- the last two times I ran it, we got the print that has the title with those hokey trails on the letters supposedly to indicate wind (or so I always assumed) and the lettering moves from right to left across the screen. Then there were release prints that had the title as just a static card. I believe both releases were identical other than that difference in the opening title animation, although I am thinking one may have had more Roadshow music than the other. Just a question that came up among a few friends and I had no definitive answer. I believe the version that is now on HBO is the "traveling" GWTW title.

[Mark Ogden]

Gone With The Wind was shot 1.37, but In the late sixties there were 70mm 2.20 prints made of the film, and also 2:39 35mm prints, obviously severely cropped. I remember Robert Harris saying somewhere that since the scrolling title in the original aspect ratio takes up most of the screen, there was no way to crop it down to 'scope without cutting the top and bottom off, and so a static card was photographed using a still of the first frame of the sequence as a background.

[Mark Gulbrandsen]

Mark is correct about the two versions! However, GWTW seems to have been shot, or at least printed in it's own format. I have had several I.B. prints over the years, all from the 54 re-release, and it seems to be somewhere a little shorter height than a standard 1.37 frame is, Also, none of my 1.37 full size plates ever covered the entire frame vertically. I also want to add that the pseudo-stereo sound track on the 70mm prints was GAWD AWFUL!

[Jim Cassedy]

I also want to add that the pseudo-stereo sound track on the 70mm prints was GAWD AWFUL!

I remember running one of those 70mm "stereo" re-releases some time in the mid or late 1970's.
I think that particular re-release of GWTW is generally considered to be one of the worst "restoration"
re-releases in all of film history. I even recall one movie reviewer at the time making a comment
something to the effect that they had manged to turn a beautifully photographed film with a mono
track, and turn it into a badly cropped re-release with lousy, sometimes unintelligible stereo sound.

> Just by total coincidence, I was reading some issues of BOXOFFICE magazine from late
1939 online over the weekend, and there was one of those little 'column filler' paragraphs
about how MGM & Technicolor managed to set a new world record in distribution fulfillment
by managing to rush several prints of GWTW from Hollywood to Australia in time for the
premiere there. The "record breaking rush shipping" took 'only' 16days. They didn't mention
if the prints traveled by air or went by ship, or perhaps a little bit of both.
~and remember, those nitrate prints were considered "hazardous material" so shipping
was often restricted to only certain flights orcargo vessels and not allowed on some regular
passenger modes of transit

[Mark Gulbrandsen]

Yea, I actually saw it at the D-150 theater that was in Oakbrook, IL. I can't remember if it was full 2.2 or cropped to 1.85. But it was certainly nasty to sit through. I think it was only the second movie to play at that D-150 location. The first was Oliver, and it played for ever, about a year...

[Jim Cassedy]

Oh, geez, Mark- - you just jogged my memory, and I now remember that I ran that awful
GWTW "restoration" at the Syossett, D-150 which has been extensively mentioned in
another thread. As I recall GWTW was one of the flicks they brought back on a regular
basis between the big "road-show" & premiere engagements. I can't remember how
many times I drove past that place and saw GWTW on the marquee. I think they might
have just kept a print at the theater they played it so much.

☞ This ad was from 1976, and I probably ran several of the shows
during this engagement. I was doing some 'fill-in' work at the Syosset
back then and the union would send me there on the regular guys night off

"Bigger, But Not Better!"
GWTW_70Syos.jpg
(& "MetroColor" was no match
for the original Technicolor!)

[Mitchell Dvoskin]

Just some useless trivia…

The first LaserDisc release of GWTW was a Japanese import. It was pan & scanned from a 35mm scope print! The top and bottom of the image was cropped to make the print, then the sides were cut off from that source to make the 4x3 video.

[Rick Raskin]

I ran a 1.37 print in 1968 at Ft, Benning Ga that included the intermission music reel. That was about the same time the 70mm version was released. Sadly, Theater #1 at Ft, Benning, which was a full stage house, was demolished.

[Mike Blakesley]

In 1990 we played a version of GWTW that was apparently zoomed and cropped -- which I didn't realize was "wrong" at the time. I don't rememer if it was flat or scope. But it did have the scrolling title, I remember that.

Then, some years later we played that "restored" version, and I thought it looked awful to have that squarish picture in the middle of our 30' wide screen, so I went to the enormous hassle of draping black cloth over the exposed areas, which made the picture look a lot better. I promoted it with "Shown in the original aspect ratio!" thinking it would prompt a lot of people to ask me what aspect ratio was, and give me the chance to explain it. But the only thing that happened was, I got a few gripes because the picture was so small. Sometimes ya just can't win.