Page "George Cukor" Paragraph 13

Selznick had already been unhappy with Cukor (" a very expensive luxury ") for not being more receptive to directing other Selznick assignments, even though Cukor had remained on salary since early 1937 ; and in a confidential memo written in September 1938, four months before principal photography began, Selznick flirted with the idea of replacing him with Victor Fleming.

" I think the biggest black mark against our management to date is the Cukor situation and we can no longer be sentimental about it .... We are a business concern and not patrons of the arts ..." Cukor was relieved of his duties, but he continued to work with Leigh and De Havilland off the set.

Various rumors about the reasons behind his dismissal circulated throughout Hollywood.

Selznick's friendship with Cukor had crumbled slightly when the director refused other assignments, including A Star is Born ( 1937 ) and Intermezzo ( 1939 ).

Given that Gable and Cukor had worked together before, in Manhattan Melodrama and Gable had no objection to working with him then, and given Selznick's desperation to get Gable for Rhett Butler, if Gable had any objections to Cukor, certainly they would have been expressed before he signed his contract for the film.

Yet, writer Gore Vidal, in his autobiography Point to Point Navigation, recounted that Gable demanded that Cukor be fired off Wind because, according to Cukor, the young Gable had been a male hustler and Cukor had been one of his johns.

This has been confirmed by Hollywood biographer E. J. Fleming, who has recounted that, during a particularly difficult scene, Gable erupted publicly, screaming: " I can't go on with this picture.

I won't be directed by a fairy.

I have to work with a real man.