GWTW Virgins

If you want a truly unique experience watching Gone with the Wind, go with a) someone who's never seen it before and b) in a theater full of people who laugh at the wrong moments. Like today's Movie and Mimosas show at the Bowtie.

I didn't realize my friend hadn't seen it before or that her impression was that it had a happy ending.

She was totally unprepared for the rapid-fire deaths of Frank Kennedy, Bonnie Blue and Miss Melly and just as disturbed by how much she grew to dislike the Scarlett character as the movie wore on.

She didn't even realize she'd committed to a four-hour extravaganza, commenting on our way out, "Well, this day's gone now." Yes, but you're a better person for it, I assured her.

The crowd reacted oddly to the movie, laughing at a scene where a man fights having his leg amputated and at almost everything Mammy said, whether it was humorous or not. At the close of the first half when Scarlett vows never to be hungry again in the fields of Tara, they cackled.

To their credit, they gasped when Bonnie broke her neck falling off her pony and when Scarlett fell down the steps miscarrying, so maybe they were just first-timers, too. What else would explain laughing out loud at "Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn"?

But it had been at least ten years since I'd seen GWTW on the big screen and Bowtie not only played the overture, but the intermission and exit music as well to give us the full 1939 experience. So I was glad to have devoted most of my afternoon to it.

Truth be told, I'm entranced by a man who woos and proposes by saying, "I can't go all my life waiting to catch you between husbands."

Count me as a fan of Rhett Butler-type men: black-hearted varmints with no need for a reputation who appreciate the same.

His emphasis on frequent kissing doesn't hurt, either.