Hollywood’s Weird “Twin Film” Habit
It’s never really an accident when two different movies have the exact same plot
The Great Depression was dragging on, World War II was appearing on the horizon, and American theaters were showing the second movie about the Grand Old South in less than two years. Gone with the Wind was much more popular than its predecessor, the less iconic antebellum romantic drama Jezebel, but U.S. audiences decidedly loved them both. They each starred the day’s most beloved starlets: Bette Davis in Jezebel, Vivien Leigh in Gone with the Wind. Both are self-destructive heroines with a sharp wit and who are hopelessly in love with proper Southern gentleman; both have national disasters at their center (Jezebel’s yellow fever in New Orleans, and Gone with the Wind’s burning of Atlanta); and both idealized the Old South pre–Civil War. Undeniable box office smashes, the two movies were released in consecutive years. If they sound like the exact same movie, it’s because they practically are.
While Jezebel was released 10 months before Gone with the Wind had even started shooting, their timing in the grand scheme of history was almost identical. MGM had already announced Gone with the Wind and began drumming up massive publicity for it well before the movie’s inevitably postponed release. Hype was swirling, and competitive…
