Hollywood: The Selznick Years

Henry Fonda hosts this retrospective on the career and films of iconic filmmaker David O. Selznick, who epitomized the era of the auteur producer in 30s and 40s Hollywood. It follows Selznick's early career at Paramount, RKO and MGM, where he had to overcome talk of nepotism on the part of father-in-law Louis B. Mayer. After earning a reputation of literary fidelity with critically acclaimed adaptations of classic novels: 'David Copperfield,' 'Little Women,' 'A Tale of Two Cities,' and 'Anna Karenina,' the dynamic producer founded his own studio, Selznick International, where he produced pictures of depth and scope including Best Picture winners 'Gone with the Wind' and 'Rebecca.' Clips from many of his films are shown as are interviews with many of his contract artists (Gregory Peck, Ingris Bergman, Dorothy McGuire, Alfred Hitchcock, Joseph Cotten, and Ingrid Bergman.)