Olivia de Havilland, Hollywood patriot (1916-2020)

American Thinker ^ | 07/29/2020 | Lloyd Billingsley

[SeekAndFind]

Olivia de Havilland, who passed away in Paris at 104 this week, is best known for her role as the genteel Melanie Hamilton in the 1939 Gone with the Wind. In reality, Olivia de Havilland was anything but a pushover, on and off the screen.

Before Gone with the Wind, she cavorted with Errol Flynn in The Charge of the Light Brigade and The Adventures of Robin Hood. At the time, studio bosses locked down stars in seven-year contracts, and Olivia de Havilland was the first to push back in force.

When she demanded more challenging roles, Warner Brothers suspended her for six months, then claimed that the suspension automatically extended her contract. In 1943, de Havilland risked her career by filing a lawsuit, and her victory shook the studio system to its foundations.

Olivia de Havilland was a liberal Democrat and in 1944 she joined Humphrey Bogart, Judy Garland, and other stars in a radio broadcast for Franklin Delano Roosevelt. After World War II, de Havilland networked with other stars in the Hollywood Independent Citizens Committee for the Arts, Sciences and Professions, but this group had a problem.

Like many Hollywood guilds and unions of the time, HICCASP was controlled by the Communist Party, a force in the studios since the 1930s. De Havilland was given a speech written by Dalton Trumbo, a dutiful Communist screenwriter who joined the Party during the Nazi-Soviet Pact.

Olivia de Havilland tossed Trumbo’s pro-Soviet speech and had screenwriter Ernest Pascal write another. That surprised fellow HICCASP member Ronald Reagan, who thought de Havilland was one of the communists. She thought the same about him, but they duly teamed up on a letter rejecting communism and championing American free enterprise.

Communist Party straw boss John Howard Lawson promptly exploded and smeared the dissenters ...

[SeekAndFind]

OLIVIA DE HAVILAND IN THE ADVENTURES OF ROBIN HOOD (1938)

According to Metro News, She still rode her bike everyday way past age 100

[dp0622]

Robin Hood?

[SeekAndFind]

RE: Robin Hood?

Yes, she starred as Lady Marian in that movie with Errol Flynn as Robin Hood.

[dp0622]

I must have seen that movie 20 times.

Great movie.

That PC one with kevin costner with his sidekick muslim friends SUCKED.

[Jemian]

was anything but a pushover,

If anyone thinks that Melanie was a pushover, they need to look harder at that character. Melanie was a tough fighter, looking reality square in the face, and forcing situations to bend to her will.

1. She helped kill that Yankee looter (but I repeat myself).
   
2. ,She got her man, in spite of him being a weak, lily-livered wimp who thought with his small head.
   
3. She buckled down and did hard labor when necessary.
   
4. Melanie refused to give in to her personal needs but took care of grossly-wounded soldiers. She was found once by Scarlett vomiting in a closet, quietly, while at the hospital.
   
5. Melanie acted and embraced Scarlett as a sister, even though she knew Scarlett would steal Rhett given the chance.
   
6. She did not give up her personal standards and moral values although everyone else had long since abandoned theirs. Her childhood friend (not Scarlett) became slovenly in appearance even to the point of dipping snuff. That was unheard of in that class of people.

I wish I was as much of a pushover as Melanie.

[SeekAndFind]

RE: That PC one with kevin costner with his sidekick muslim friends SUCKED.

And Costner’s Robin Hood had an American Accent ... :)

[dp0622]

the Robin Hood in the mel brooks movie said “unlike other Robin Hoods, I can speak with an English accent” :)

[Calvin Locke]

Costner did a remake?

Before or after “Men in Tights”?

[dp0622]

yes. morgan freeman was the muzzie

Men in Tights was funny :)

[petitfour]

Correction to #5. Scarlett would steal Ashley.

Otherwise, you are right on. Melanie was the strong one. :-)

[Jemian]

You are right. I meant Ashley. I just never liked that character, ... because he had none! He just glommed on to what he knew was right and prayed temptation wouldn’t come his way.

[petitfour]

Ashley was weak.

[Sans-Culotte]

I think The Adventures of Robin Hood is the greatest adventure film of all time. Looks magnificent in technicolor.