Victor Fleming received sole directorial credit for "Gone With the Wind". But throughout the making of GWTW there were two other directors who were at some point working on the picture: George Cukor and Sam Wood. Each of the three directors contributed to the success of the film. The task of directing GWTW was hard, exhausting but eventually rewarding.

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George Cukor was one of Hollywood's best directors. Prior to 1939 he'd directed such great movies as: "The Bill of Divorcement" (1932), "Little Women" (1933), "David Copperfield" (1935) and "Camille" (1936) and was Selznick's first choice for the director of "Gone With the Wind". From the moment Selznick International bought the right to film the novel, Cukor was involved in all kind of preparations: he went South numerous times to talk to Margaret Mitchell and get the general feel of the South, to hold open auditions for the role of Scarlett; he made hundreds of screen tests with actresses and was always consulted by Selznick in matters concerning casting, script and preparatory work on GWTW.

The faster the beginning of shooting approached, the more misunderstandings between the producer and director sprouted up.

First hint of a "Cukor situation" was mentioned by Selznick in September 1938. In a confidential letter to Dan O'Shea he wrote that something had to be done about Cukor because he was costing the company too much. Selznick was afraid that he would eventually end up paying Cukor $300 000, whereas Cukor wasn't willing to work on other pictures produced by Selznick International. ("... We have a period of time before George will be required on Gone With the Wind - time enough for a director in the business to make a picture. We have only one picture for him to direct, and that is Intermezzo. George doesn't like it...") Selznick mentioned that he was willing to renegotiate the deal with Cukor, but pointed out (bringing up the name of Victor Fleming for the first time) that there could be benefits from signing other contract directors.

Once the shooting started, Selznick was less and less happy with Cukor's work (even though he never questioned his talent and skills); his greatest concern was the length of the film and he was afraid that Cukor's pacing was too slow. (In 1947, in New York Times Magazine, Selznick was quoted as saying "We couldn't see eye to eye on anything. I felt that while Cukor was simply unbeatable in directing intimate scenes of the Scarlett O'Hara story, he lacked the big feel, the scope, the breadth of the production".)

Selznick wanted to have each re-written scene rehearsed and discussed together with Cukor before shooting on it. He often wanted to get his way and he wanted no suprises in the projection room. In February 1939 this system of prior consultations didn't work and there came the final issue of the script: dialogues were rewritten on a daily basis but whereas Selznick often changed the lines himself, Cukor wanted to work on Sidney Howard's script.

The exact circumstances behind Cukor's resignation remain unknown and leave room for speculation. 

According to one widely spread version, Clark Gable had his part in firing Cukor. Cukor was known in Hollywood as 'a woman's director' and Clark was afraid that George would undermine Rhett's role in the story and shift the focus of the film too much to Scarlett and Melanie. Olivia de Havilland believes that it might have been the case "It would be logical for Clark, who had never worked with George, to be concerned. After all, he was the King - the biggest star in Hollywood. He felt an immense responsibility to the public to fulfill the public's image of Rhett Butler that they had from reading the book. And I think he was afraid that, with George, the women would dominate the film". 

George Cukor however said later that "it is nonsense to say that I was giving too much attention to Vivien and Olivia. It is the text that dictates where the emphasis should go, and the director does not do it. Clark Gable did not have a great deal of confidence in himself as an actor, although he was a great screen personality and maybe he thought that I did not understand that. My own theory is after all these years in that for David Selznick Gone With the Wind was the supreme effort of his career; he was enormously nervous about the whole thing..."



The other account of what happened was presented by Susan Myrick in a letter of February 14th to Margaret Mitchell: "George finally told me all about it. [...] he felt responsible for getting me into this mess and wanted me to know the truth. [...] For days, he told me, he has looked at the rushes and felt he was failing. He knew he was a good director and knew the actors were very good ones, yet the thing did not click as it should. Gradually he became more and more convinced that the script was the trouble. [...]So George told David he would not work any longer if the script was not better and he wanted the Howard script back. David told George that he was a director, not an author, and he (David) was a producer nd the judge of what is a good script (or words to that effect) and George said he was director and a damn good one and he would not let his name go out over a lousy picture and if they didn't go back to the Howard script he, George, was through. And bull-headed David said "OK, get out!". 

News about Cukor's resignation came on February 7th. It was a day when the Atlanta Bazaar scene was filmed. Vivien Leigh and Olivia de Havilland, both partisans of Cukor, were very upset and appropriately donned (in their mourning dresses) went to plead with Selznick but go nowhere. 
Vivien, who believed that Cukor was the only person who "could understand the subject perfectly", in a moment of indignation considered pulling out of the whole project, but only learned from her agent, Myron Selznick, that "if she quit the film, she would be in court till her last day on earth". She later wrote to her husband: "He was my last hope of ever enjoying this picture". 

The two leading actresses didn't give up on Cukor and kept on visiting him (unbeknownst to each other) on weekends to discuss scenes with him. Olivia de Havilland recalls: "We had to do it in secret. I felt terribly guilty about stealing up to George's house on Sundays, asking his counsel about how to play certain scenes. I only did it about three times and, finally, I told him that I felt this guilt. He said, 'Don' t. Vivien is doing the same thing.'''

Selznick and Cukor issued a joint statement on February 13th: "As a result of a series of disagreements between us over many of the individual scenes of Gone With the Wind, we have mutually decided that the only solution is for a new director to be selected at as early a date as is practicible". 

Victor Fleming was finishing "The Wizard of Oz" when he was pulled off the set and assigned to direct "Gone With the Wind". He was a great director, having directed "Test Pilot" (1938) and "Captain Courageous" (1937) he was known as the 'action director' with a flair for spectacular scenes and quick action. He showed up on the set on February 17th. He realized that there was no shooting script and the production was shut down for 17 days. When it resumed on March 23d, the shooting picked up speed. 

Some cast members took to him. He was Clark Gable's buddy. Ann Rutherford: "I just sort of snapped to attention whenever I saw Victor Fleming. He had a marvellous command. He was the head of the table wherever he was. He was the father image. He would brook no nonsense and we respected him deeply and liked him and tried to be very obedient in anything he wished us to do".

Others couldn't quite warm up to him. Marcella Rabwin: "I think he did not like almost everybody in the world except Clark Gable and himself. But he did something, he revitalized the whole theme of GWTW, and the girls didn't realize that they're crying for George but what's happened is that the film has spirit and tempo. He was a very fine director even though I personally couldn't stand the language that he used on the set, the way he treated Vivien Leigh, he was very harsh with her. I don't wonder that she cried for George Cukor [...] He allowed to be what she thought the role should be. But Fleming didn't. Fleming demanded of her that she be the b*tch that she was described as."

Fleming came on too short a notice and didn't have time to read the book, nor was he on top of the script problem which immediately earned him low marks with Vivien, who missed Cukor's devotion and understanding of the story. They often argued about the script and interpretation. During their fiery fights the crew was often asked to leave the set. Vivien resented his attitude, lack of directorial advice ("Ham it up") and the fact that he never read the book ("Miss Leigh, you can stick that script up your royal British a*s.")

On April 14th, Selznick wrote to Ginsberg and O'Shea: "I have for some time been worried that Fleming would not be able to finish the picture because of his physical condition". He suggested looking for a substitute director to relieve Fleming (possiblilities were Bob Leonard and Bill Wellman). 

On April 29th, after a hard day on the set Fleming walked off the picture. He suffered a nervous breakdown and took a two-weeks break from filming. Marcella Rabwin thought the underlying cause for this leave to be different: "It was simply a punishment for David Selznick. He was disturbed by the fact that Selznick would take over the filming. [...] You can't do it to a director, who's as competent as Fleming was". 

Meanwhile MGM again came to the rescue with Sam Wood, who had just finished "Goodbye, Mr. Chips" and had never minded being called in on a brief notice.

After two weeks Fleming came back and as Selznick noted: "expressed himself as ready to do anything and everything". Sam Wood stayed on and set up a second unit, which considerably speeded up the filming process.

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