Moonlight and Magnolias

Moonlight and Magnolias by Ron Hutchinson 72 pages

 

In this play, movie producer David O. Selznick has shut down the making of that 1936 blockbuster novel, Gone With The Wind, three weeks after production begins. The burning of Atlanta has already been filmed and is in the can. However, the screenplay is not working. Selznick has fired director George Cukor and tapped Victor Fleming to take over. Fleming, however, is trying to direct that equally famous movie, The Wizard of Oz.

 

The Place:  David O. Selznick’s office. Day. And the next four days after that.

 

The Actors:  David O. Selznick, producer; Victor Fleming, maybe the movie’s new director; Ben  Hecht, famed screenwriter that can make any manuscript shine; Miss Poppenghul, Selznick’s secretary.

 

The Goal: To rewrite the screenplay for Gone With The Wind

 

Act 1: Word has gotten around that Selznick has stopped filming his high budget film.  He is fending off phone calls from the newspapers, everyone in Hollywood and Louis B, Mayer, founder of MGM studios and, more important, his father-in-law.

 

Selznick has called Ben Hecht and Victor Fleming to his office. He asks his secretary to being in bananas and peanuts, locks the door and tells the two Hollywood veterans that they have five days to come up with a shootable script. The only time the door will open is for more bananas and peanuts.

 

Problem number one: Hecht is the only person in Hollywood, probably the world, who has not read  Margaret Mitchell’s tale of the Old South.

 

Act II: Selznick and Fleming re-enact scenes from the novel to light Hecht’s imagination. Imagine if you will, the tall (6 foot), rotund Selznick prancing around his office in a high voice, pretending to be Scarlett, or even funnier, Prissy.

 

After five days, the script is finished. The office has been trashed. The men are falling asleep on their feet. The rest is history.

 

There is a lot that happens in these few pages that bounce between comedy and drama. Snippets of the play are in fact true, but mostly it’s fiction from the mind of author Hutchinson. I thoroughly enjoyed Moonlight and Magnolias and would love to see the play performed. The only real beef I had with it was that Louis B. Mayer was on hold for two solid days, waiting for an explanation from Selznick. That would never, ever happen in real life. Moonlight and Magnolias receive 4 out of stars in Julie’s world.