“This is war, not a garden party!” Dr. Meade’s stern admonition to Scarlett O’Hara and Aunt Pittypat Hamilton during the siege of Atlanta. Meade reminds Scarlett that she must not abandon Melanie Wilkes and Pittypat that ordinary social customs don’t apply in war.  This episode is scripted for David Selznick’s Gone With the Wind and it is not Mitchell’s text.

Dr. Meade: Scarlett! What is this? You ain’t planning on running away?
Scarlett: And don’t you dare try to stop me. I’m never going back to that hospital. I’ve had enough of smelling death and rot and death. I’m going home. I want my mother. My mother needs me.
Dr. Meade: Now you’ve got to listen to me. You must stay here!
Aunt Pittypat: Without a chaperon, Dr. Meade? It simply isn’t done!
Dr. Meade: Good heavens, woman, this is war, not a garden party! You’ve got to stay. Melanie Needs you.

See Victor Fleming. Gone with the Wind (1939), Screenplay by Ben Hecht, among others not credited. Selznick International Pictures and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer; Margaret Mitchell. Gone With the Wind. New York: Macmillan, 1936. This dialog is not in Mitchell’s novel.

Featured Image: Dr. Meade (Harry Davenport) admonished Scarlett O’Hara (Vivian Leigh), while Aunt Pittypat Hamilton (Laura Hope Crews) looks on.

For discussion of the  Twelve Oaks barbecue episode see Picnicsonfilm.com.