Set in the South against the backdrop of the Civil War, Gone with the Wind tells the story of Scarlett O’Hara (Vivien Leigh), the strong-willed daughter of a plantation owner. It follows her pursuit of Ashley Wilkes (Leslie Howard), who is married to his cousin Melanie Hamilton (Olivia de Havilland), and her subsequent marriage to Rhett Butler (Clark Gable). MoMA curator Dave Kehr attempts to solve the secret of the film’s timeless appeal: “I’d guess it has something to do with the elaborate mechanisms fate, history, and sex brought to bear on Scarlett, whose overweening libido must be punished as magnificently as it has been celebrated.” Producer David O. Selznick’s passion project won 10 Oscars and remains the most successful film in box-office history. Victor Fleming signed it, but as Kehr points out, “there were many, many fingers in this particular pie.”