In four years, Menzies had recreated the canals of Venice, casinos of Paris, British India, the Old South and Victorian London, and the designs were alle received with true admiration. But this was just the beginning, and Menzies’ next project would be the successful one that would kickstart his career and make him the most influential art director of Hollywood.
Douglas Fairbanks, known for his energetic, high-concept period pieces, which were recognized by size and splendor, and that were the most expensive to make for their time, was about to create the film The Thief of Bagdad. He used to immerse himself in research before going forth on an idea, and sketched through elements of the plot on the back on an envelope, before he wold talk it
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Nevertheless, it wasn’t until nearly forty years after he started to design for screen, in the end of the 1930’s, when collaborating with directors Sam Wood, Victor Fleming, George Cukor and producer David O. Selznick on the decade’s most important production, Gone With the Wind, that he would finally receive credit as a production designer. Selznick wanted someone who was uniquely qualified to give the film a graphic togetherness that he thought most American films were lacking, and that is when he decided Menzies would be the right man for the job. Menzies composed and sketched every shot in the movie prior to filming, to give it a dominant visual style that hid the fact that directing was done by three different directors. It also allowed him to create a distinct overall tone and mood to the film, while also giving him more control of the entire production than a typical set designer. Hundreds of staff were involved in the motion picture, yet there were only two people working on it from the beginning til the end, and that was Selznick and Menzies. To enhance just how committed Menzies was to his designing, Menzies wife Suzie Menzies once said: «I’d see him out in the backyard. He’d wash his hair and then dry it in the sun. He’d sit with that sketchbook and stare into space. And then he’d draw something; sometimes it was my mother’s rear end, and other times it was Tom Sawyer or Gone With the Wind. He was a great one for staring into
Nevertheless, it wasn’t until nearly forty years after he started to design for screen, in the end of the 1930’s, when collaborating with directors Sam Wood, Victor Fleming, George Cukor and producer David O. Selznick on the decade’s most important production, Gone With the Wind, that he would finally receive credit as a production designer. Selznick wanted someone who was uniquely qualified to give the film a graphic togetherness that he thought most American films were lacking, and that is when he decided Menzies would be the right man for the job. Menzies composed and sketched every shot in the movie prior to filming, to give it a dominant visual style that hid the fact that directing was done by three different directors. It also allowed him to create a distinct overall tone and mood to the film, while also giving him more control of the entire production than a typical set designer. Hundreds of staff were involved in the motion picture, yet there were only two people working on it from the beginning til the end, and that was Selznick and Menzies. To enhance just how committed Menzies was to his designing, Menzies wife Suzie Menzies once said: «I’d see him out in the backyard. He’d wash his hair and then dry it in the sun. He’d sit with that sketchbook and stare into space. And then he’d draw something; sometimes it was my mother’s rear end, and other times it was Tom Sawyer or Gone With the Wind. He was a great one for staring into