So much fiddle-de-dee

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MITCHELL'S novel has been translated into 27 languages, is distributed in 37 countries, and has been reprinted 31 times since 1974.

MGM executive Irving Thalberg said to company boss Louis B. Mayer, "Forget it Louis. No civil war picture ever made a nickel." The film has been seen by more than 300 million people.

Mitchell seriously suggested Groucho Marx for the role of Rhett Butler.

The film's scriptwriters made a change to Mitchell's words and gave us one of the most memorable lines in any movie. Rhett's famously dismissive "My dear, I don't give a damn" was altered to "Frankly, my dear ..." There were outcries about the profanity.

Mitchell, who died in 1949 after being run down by a taxi, refused to write a sequel, saying her story reached its "natural and proper ending."

The sequel appeared in 1991, authorised by her estate. Scarlett, The Sequel to Margaret Mitchell's Gone with the Wind, by Alexandra Ripley, was universally reviled by critics. The public snapped it up but the critics were right. It's rubbish.

Mitchell's estate was simply getting in first. In 2011 copyright on the original runs out and anyone could write a sequel.

Former Beverly Hills 90210 star Shannen Doherty played author Mitchell in the telemovie A Burning Passion, made to cash in on Scarlett. Doherty admitted she hadn't read the book but had seen the film. Critics hated that one too. Right again.

If you don't get to see the movie on the Civic's big screen you can always rent it on video and watch it tonight - or even tomorrow because, as we all know, "tomorrow is another day."