LETTERS OF NOTE: Frankly My Dear...

For some months now I've been subscribed to a great website called Letters of Note. Run by a great guy called Shaun Usher, it posts and emails you correspondence from famous authors and public figures past and present, whether it be lists, diaries, reviews etc. - anything of note. If you subscribe you get an email every week day which is guaranteed to put you in a good mood.

Today's entry is particularly interesting from a film point of view. Entitled simply 'Damn', it looks at the battle between producer David O. Selznick and the American censors to allow the use of the word 'damn' in the famous (near-)final lines of Gone with the Wind. Under the Hays Production Code, which persisted in Hollywood until the 1950s, there were certain words or images you couldn't have in a film, and Selznick, in a rare moment of creative brilliance, managed to get the Board to change its mind.

You can find the full text of Selznick's argument here.

You can also find my full review of Gone with the Wind here.

Thanks for reading.

Daniel