Gone with the Wind has had its critical reputation somewhat tarnished in the last couple of decades. There are several reasons for that, one of which is the film's portrayal of happy black slaves who talk funny, and, especially in the case of the impertinent Prissy, are also both lazy and dimwitted.
Personally, I have great respect for the two black female characters in Gone with the Wind: in fact, both Hattie McDaniel's Mammy and Butterfly McQueen's Prissy are two of the most memorable screen characters I've ever seen. They're funny, touching, and very much their own persons. I see Prissy's "stupidity" and "laziness" as a form of rebelliousness � she does what she feels like doing � while Mammy doesn't let anyone boss her around the house.
Also, if blacks didn't have much visibility in Hollywood movies of the 1930s, that's neither Mammy's nor Prissy's fault. As individual characters, without generalizing them as screen representations of a whole ethnic group (Prissy/Mammy = blacks = contented slaves), they're outstanding examples of human beings, regardless of skin color, nationality, or what have you.
As far as I'm concerned, Gone with the Wind remains one of the greatest movies ever made. And I haven't even gotten into discussing the white folk in the film. Suffice it to say that Vivien Leigh may have been British, but she incarnates her Southern belle more convincingly than the vast majority of American-born actresses could have � then or now.
Sam Wood's work on Kitty Foyle (1940) may have inspired bits found in Orson Welles' Citizen Kane, but Wood's Goodbye, Mr. Chips is so sugary that I don't think it could inspire anyone except, perhaps, a doctor looking for a cure for diabetes. Even so, Oscar winner Robert Donat has some good moments as the young Mr. (as an old man he's much less convincing) while Greer Garson is her usual charming self as the Mrs. Both future Oscar winner John Mills and Casablanca leading man Paul Henreid have supporting roles in the film.
In my view, Leo McCarey's Love Affair worked better as An Affair to Remember, which McCarey himself directed in 1957. I also find Cary Grant superior to Charles Boyer in terms of debonairishness, though the Deborah Kerr vs. Irene Dunne match ends on a tie. (Same as Kerr in The King and I vs. Dunne in Anna and the King of Siam.) As always, Maria Ouspenskaya steals her brief moments on screen. Another Love Affair plus: Roy Webb's melodious romantic score.
