David O. Selznick

by

Nathan Platte

• LAST MODIFIED: 17 April 2025
• DOI: 10.1093/obo/9780199791286-0383

Introduction

David O. Selznick (b. 1902–d. 1965) exemplified the role of the creative producer during Hollywood’s studio era through comprehensive involvement in the development, production, and promotion of film. Drawn to the high production values and literary orientation of “prestige films,” Selznick produced diligent adaptations of 19th- and 20th-century novels by authors like Louisa May Alcott, Charles Dickens, Daphne du Maurier, and Mark Twain. He was particularly committed to “women’s films,” a genre featuring female protagonists and marketed to female moviegoers. Gone with the Wind (1939), which set longstanding box office records and received ten Academy Awards, marked the zenith of his career. His obsessive management of the film’s development and release—known as “Selznick’s Folly”—came to define his legacy and continues to overshadow much of the producer’s other work. It was framed by productions that received considerable popular and critical acclaim, including Little Women (1933), David Copperfield (1935), Anna Karenina (1935), The Prisoner of Zenda (1937), A Star is Born (1937), Rebecca (1940), Since You Went Away (1944), Duel in the Sun (1946), and The Third Man (1949). Selznick’s career extended from the rise of the studio era in the 1920s through its decline in the 1950s. His total filmography comprises roughly eighty films. After assisting with his father’s production companies during the silent era, Selznick worked at three major Hollywood studios (M-G-M, Paramount, and RKO) from 1926 to 1935, where he rapidly ascended the ranks from script supervisor to executive producer. Afterwards he managed his own production company. Selznick International Pictures (corporate reorganizing prompted several variations to the name) touted its films as embodying a “tradition of quality.” Selznick’s influence on Hollywood filmmaking extended beyond his own films. In addition to advocating for nondiegetic music in the early sound era and promoting Technicolor, he used his distribution company, Selznick Releasing Organization, to explore new models for film marketing and exhibition. In the postwar era he pursued European co-productions and experimented with television. He cultivated talent across the industry by recruiting and cultivating partnerships with distinguished writers (Ben Hecht), actors (Katharine Hepburn, Ingrid Bergman, Jennifer Jones), directors (George Cukor, Alfred Hitchcock), artists (William Cameron Menzies), musicians (Max Steiner, Franz Waxman), and producers (Val Lewton, who worked as a story editor for Selznick, and Dore Schary), among others. While the complex production and controversial reception of Gone with the Wind has prompted considerable scholarly discourse, Selznick’s massive archive fuels an expanding range of production histories, adaptation studies, industrial studies of film studios, and critical studies of Selznick’s collaborations with filmmaking personnel.

Archives, Archival Studies, and Published Primary Sources

The David O. Selznick Collection has profoundly affected scholarship devoted to the producer, his films, and the accomplished personnel he brought to his production company. The incredible breadth and depth of the collection offers an extraordinarily detailed view into the artistic, financial, and interpersonal complexities that shape filmmaking. Items include memos, daily calendars, contracts, scripts, production logs, storyboards, musical scores, financial records, publicity materials, and sound recordings, among others. Such materials have allowed researchers to clarify Selznick’s role within his films (an otherwise difficult task, as producers manage the work of others, making it hard to discern where a producer’s ideas leave off and those of specialists begin). The archive also constitutes a tremendous testament to the distinct collaborative energies and tensions that characterize Selznick’s films. The archive serves as the principal source for Behlmer 2000, a frequently cited source across studies of the producer. Another substantial cache of Selznick’s memos are reprinted in Selznick, et al. 2001. Two of Selznick’s more manifesto-like memos on film music are included in Wierzbicki, et al. 2012. Other primary sources include Brownlow 1968, with Selznick’s reminiscences of the silent era, and Howard 1989, a published edition of the shooting script for Gone with the Wind. Although many studies of Selznick draw from his papers, several center on the archive itself. Bonifazio, et al. 2019 demonstrates how the Selznick Collection may be used to illuminate different dimensions of a single production that eventually became two distinct films, Stazione Termini and Indiscretion of an American Wife. Wead, et al. 1986 offers a collage of archival studies that show the breadth of Selznick’s career to be comparative with the depth of his papers. Gansky 2013 explains how archival materials from Spellbound inform and direct scholars’ engagement with the film’s production.

• Behlmer, Rudy, ed. Memo from David O. Selznick. Introduction by Roger Ebert. New York: Modern Library, 2000.

  A selective, edited collection of hundreds of Selznick’s memos (and other correspondence) that engage with the craft, financing, and interpersonal logistics of filmmaking. Although drawn from across his career, the vast majority of documents date from after 1935, when he became an independent producer. Originally published without Ebert’s introduction, New York: Viking, 1972.

• Bonifazio, Paola, Steve Eaton, Sam Gaglio, and Dylan Levy. Special Section: From ‘Stazione Termini’ to Indiscretion of an American Wife: A Collaborative Research Project on the David O. Selznick Collection. The Italianist 39.2 (2019): 217–266.

  DOI: 10.1080/02614340.2019.1591692

  An introductory essay and four articles represent the findings of a collaborative research project conducted at the Selznick Collection that considers a uniquely complicated co-production between Selznick and director Vittorio De Sica. Selznick’s protracted and troubled efforts to collaborate with the Italian film industry resulted in two differently titled edits of a single production (Stazione Termini and Indiscretion of an American Wife). Individual articles consider the competing values of American and Italian film industries, Selznick’s earlier failed attempts to collaborate with Italian filmmakers, his imbalanced attentions to the star roles, and Selznick’s (re)editing of the film following negative publicity.

• Brownlow, Kevin. The Parade’s Gone By. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1968.

  Oral history of the silent era that includes Selznick’s recollections from working on silent films at the start of his career. Recounts the work of directors like William Wellman, Paramount supervisor B. P. Schulberg, and the differing levels of creative control among studio producers and supervisors (pp. 430–434).

• David O. Selznick Collection. Austin: Harry Ransom Center. University of Texas.

  Expansive archival collection comprising over 5,000 boxes and other materials (2,388 linear feet). The Selznick Collection includes documents related to almost every stage of the filmmaking process, including script development, casting, production design, filming, editing, scoring, distribution, and publicity. The majority of the collection is devoted to projects developed at his independent production company from 1935 onward, including those that there were sold to other studios or left unfinished.

• Gansky, Paul. “Severed Objects: Spellbound, Archives, Exhibitions, and Film’s Material History.” Film History 25.3 (2013): 126–148.

  DOI: 10.2979/filmhistory.25.3.126

  Fascinating meditation on archival encounters with a distinctive prop—oversized scissors used in a dream sequence in Spellbound—that attracted significant attention and concern from director Alfred Hitchcock, artist Salvador Dali, and Selznick. Article reflects on how the subsequent (in)accessibility and representation of the scissors in documentaries raises questions about the nature of archival preservation and access.

• Howard, Sidney. Gone with the Wind: The Screenplay. Edited by Herb Bridges and Terryl C. Boodman. New York: Delta, 1989.

  In addition to a freshly formatted presentation of the final shooting script of 24 January 1939, the volume includes a brief introduction, summarizing the prolonged adaptation of Margaret Mitchell’s novel into a screenplay, which involved not only Howard, but also a considerable sequence of additional writers, including F. Scott Fitzgerald.

• Selznick, David O., Speer Morgan, Kristine Somerville, Richard Sonnenmoser, and Stefanie Wortman. “Selznick and the Stars.” Missouri Review 24.2 (2001): 69–149.

  DOI: 10.1353/mis.2001.0064

  Hybrid publication that includes a ten-page survey of Selznick’s career with particular emphasis on his role in casting and managing screen stars. Roughly sixty pages of reprinted memos from Selznick (along with extensive annotations from the editors) fill out the rest of the article. Although many of the memos concern onscreen stars, various matters, including story development and music, are also addressed. The earliest memos treat Gone with the Wind, with a large number of memos devoted to his final film, A Farewell to Arms (1957), and Tender Is the Night (1962), on which he provided substantial input.

• Wead, George, Charles Ramírez Berg, Cynthia George, John M. Miller, William Penn, and Eric Schaefer. Special Issue: Selznick Collection. The Library Chronicle 36 (1986).

  With an introduction and five scholarly articles, this issue devoted to the Selznick Collection represents an early effort to illuminate the expansiveness of the Selznick Collection and its capacity to offer remarkable levels of detail on the producer’s career and films. Topics include censorship and costumes in Gone with the Wind; Selznick’s unsuccessful efforts to initiate a production about the Titanic; a legal case alleging musical plagiarism in Spellbound; and Selznick’s involvement as co-producer for The Third Man. Published by the University of Texas to showcase materials in its libraries, this issue of The Library Chronicle features extended extracts of materials from the Selznick Collection.

• Wierzbicki, James, Nathan Platte, and Colin Roust, eds. The Routledge Film Music Sourcebook. New York: Routledge, 2012.

  Includes two lengthier memos from Selznick expressing his views on film music’s significance and proper placement within the filmmaking process. These topics, and a previously unpublished speech from composer Franz Waxman on writing music for Rebecca, receive editorial introductions and annotations.