Another Gone With The Would-Be Wind

A Sock One Then, But Less So Now

So how would Paulette Goddard have played Gone With The Wind had she gotten the part of Scarlett O'Hara? Reap The Wild Wind supplies the answer, at least in part, for here is Goddard as a Southern belle, accent fitfully used, "Fiddle Dee Dee" as spoke by Louise Beavers as a Mammy after Hattie McDaniel example, but lacking depth the GWTW part had, these but portion of epic design by Cecil B. DeMille, who reaped for Paramount a highest-ever gross, according to Scott Eyman's C.B. bio (surpassed a couple seasons later by Going My Way). I've mentioned before Dr. Ellis Boatman, who college-taught and was a lifelong movie hound. He grew up in the late 30's, then 40's, so knew from film-going in that most glorious of eras. Dr. Boatman gave interim courses on film, bringing Reap The Wild Wind, among numerous others, to campus over a series of happy Januarys. He ran Wild Wind to his class and then again that evening for ones among a greater student body who'd care. How many did in 1974? A few anyway, as inveigled by me. Dorm-mates went along to humor my fascination with a relic they never heard of, John Wayne a sole familiar element beyond vague awareness of DeMille. How bitter is fruit of restless civilians sitting through an old movie you've dragged them to? I'd find out that night.

The good and the dull of Reap The Wild Wind was known to me before we sat down, bumps of the show stored with memory from a mid-60's TV broadcast (primetime and in color on High Point's Channel 8). Universal/16 had supplied Dr. Boatman with a lovely print. That alone should have sustained my group, but where was novelty of color for a generation taught to expect that from all moviegoing? Lots think impatience with oldies came lately, but I say it was as common in the 70's and way before. Reap The Wild Wind has spurts of action and a lively for most part spirit. My group perked at fighting on board ships and same being sunk for cargo, this done with DeMillish gusto. The squid was unexpected and the better for it. Reap The Wild Wind had suddenly become a monster movie, it seemed, but there was toll of a long and labored trial leading to that third act, toward which my crew got testy, some hot to depart despite my promise of squid-to-come. Reaction was mixed by the end, consensus that Reap The Wild Wind got by, even if the evening could better have been spent where there was beer. We are often told by wiser heads to keep politics and religion to ourselves, but I'd add love of old movies to the forbid list. You can lead horses to water, but just try, in 1974 or now, to make them drink.

Reissue Billing Could Be Cruel, In This Case for Ray Milland and Paulette Goddard

Not bragging, because it is long gone now, but I used to have a 35mm print of Reap The Wild Wind. Safety stock was assured for this being a 1954 print, product of a reissue that year that juggled billing to favor John Wayne and support-player Susan Hayward over Ray Milland and Paulette Goddard, latter pair on a wane from 40's peak. Technicolor of the time fairly oozed off the screen, especially as a 35mm collecting friend turned loose a carbon arc as used, then discarded, by projectionists of old. These Technicolor treasures, no matter how digitally preserved, vary from how first-run crowds received them. Even prints of a same title differed from one another according to vagaries of lab work and effort toward getting each right. Safety in 1954 was far afield from 1942 nitrate. Vet collectors maintain that no two prints of any film look exactly alike. We used to compare multiple 16mm of a same show and get crazily varied result, a game gone what with digital having final word (sport yet, however, in compare of improved Blu-Ray over standard DVD). DeMille benefits a best from enhanced clarity, several of his streaming in HD or on Blu (The Ten Commandments). There is also a Region Two of Unconquered that looks amazing, Reap The Wind and the B/W Sign Of The Cross also available on R-2. Reap The Wild Wind is also forthcoming from US distrib Kino Lorber on Blu-Ray.