How exactly does one direct two of the most popular and beloved and critically acclaimed films of all time - in the same year - and still work it so that nobody knows your name? Ask Victor Fleming.
 He’d probably tell you that when you’re working for producer David O. Selznick, it’s a Selznick picture - particularly when it’s “Gone with the Wind.” Besides, Fleming was brought in as a replacement director because his pal Clark Gable wouldn’t even speak with the director George Cukor.
Ironically, too, he was Cukor’s replacement on “Wizard of Oz,” but didn’t finish that film because he was needed on GWTW. Fleming, though, is the only credited director on either film, and the one who walked away with the Oscar in 1939, when The Wind blew away at least a dozen of the finest films ever made and totaled up ten Academy Awards.
In 1939, directors were not above the title. Fleming was an MGM contract director, a regular Joe, a professional craftsman, the go-to guy when you’re in a fix. A family man (he agreed to take on the troubled production of “Oz” for  his kids), Fleming seems to have escaped the volumes of lore still swirling around the two epics he helped bring to the screen.
A professional race-car driver and mechanic, he started in the film business as a stunt driver. He became an assistant for D.W. Griffith and started his directing career with Douglas Fairbanks Sr. on “When the Clouds Roll By” in 1919. Born in Pasadena in 1889, Fleming was a real Westerner. His first big hit was “The Virginian” in 1929, which was also Gary Cooper’s first big hit. During the ‘30s, Fleming succeeded with several Westerns and Adventures, such as “Red Dust,” (1932) and “Treasure Island” (1934), and got a reputation as a man’s man and a man’s director. (This was a guy who gave Gable and Gary Cooper macho lessons.)
But, Victor Fleming was also a ladies’ man and a ladies’ director. The “It Girl,” Clara Bow, was in love with him, as was Norma Shearer and Ingrid Bergman. Vivian Leigh’s Scarlett is still one of the most mesmerizing characters in film. And though her accent is preposterous in “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde,” Bergman is stunningly emotive.
Fleming died in 1949, only ten years after his triumphant Year of the Classics. “Dr. Jekyll” was his only success in his last decade. Though other earlier films are appreciated by cinephiles, they would, of course, pale in comparison to the two “ghost-directed” ones.
He worked for a studio that maintained, “Our only star is Leo the Lion.” He was a frequent companion of, a lover of, and admired by stars whose immortality would far eclipse his own. He probably realized it at the time, but just shrugged his big shoulders, and got down to the business at hand.
-- Nate Lee
GREAT FILMS:
Wizard of Oz
Gone with the Wind
Treasure Island
The Virginian
Red Dust
GREAT SCENES:
THE WIZARD OF OZ - Literally dozens: there is probably only one dud scene, and that’s the Lion’s number while waiting for the Wizard. - The scenes inside the Emerald City are the most visually interesting, particularly the long walk through the art deco halls and finally reaching the Wizard’s courtroom. - Frank Morgan handing out the “gifts” to the Lion, Scarecrow and Tinman: some of the best, most poignant writing anywhere. - The Special Features contains a bunch of interesting material, particularly revealing as to how the project was almost scrapped.
GONE WITH THE WIND - Again, pick any twelve great scenes. Even the cliché scenes are fun to watch: “… and you, madam, are no Lady”; “I don’t know nuthin’ about birthin’ no babies…”; the train station scene with all of the wounded; driving the horse and carriage through a burning Atlanta; and, of course, “Frankly, my dear…”
DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE - Though it’s portrayal of an “evil” Mr. Hyde is far too tame for today’s audiences, it’s still fun to watch Spencer Tracy play at Hyde: starting a barfight; scaring ruffians; intimidating Ingrid Bergman.
THE VIRGINIAN - Watch a young Gary Cooper literally make his persona onscreen.
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