I defy any romantic to watch this film and not love it! In my list of favourite films, it’s right near the top. I love the colours (of course, released in 1939, it was one of the first films shot in colour), the music, the characters, the vivid settings – the heartbreaking and passionate story. It has all the ingredients for compelling romance: naivety, intrigue, power, adversity, attraction, love. And the actors excel in their roles – this was the film that cemented Vivien Leigh’s career, and it is hard now to imagine anyone else playing the part. And Clarke Gable – what a male protagonist! When I first saw this film as a young girl, I fell promptly in love with Rhett Butler, as I’m sure did many female viewers.

I have always been fascinated by the history of America – it’s such a young country relative to many others in the world, and yet so much has taken place. I read the book on which Gone with the Wind is based, by Margaret Mitchell, and found it easy to see why this story had captured the imagination of a generation and secured Mitchell the Pulitzer Prize. Beneath the romance is a vivid portrayal of the civil war era – not realistic for some, who have criticised the film’s racial stereotyping – but certainly groundbreaking for its time.

If I have one reservation about the film, one reason that keeps it from the top spot of my list of favourite films, it is the ending. I love a happy ending! Though Rhett’s final line, ‘Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn’, echoes through the decades as a fabulous cinematic climax, whenever I watch it I feel just a little frustration that we don’t see Scarlett and Rhett together. Of course, I understand that the film would be weaker for a happy-ever-after ending, but I can’t help longing for it. Perhaps some day a film studio will make a sequel, and my wish will come true at last…