Vivien Leigh friendship developed after he congratulated her on her performance. Olivier and Leigh began an affair while acting as lovers in "Fire Over England" (1937), but Olivier was still married to actress Jill Esmond. During this period, Leigh read the Margaret Mitchell novel "Gone with the Wind" and instructed her American agent to recommend her to David O. Selznick, who was planning a film version. She remarked to a journalist, "I've cast myself as Scarlett O'Hara", and "The Observer" film critic C. A. Lejeune recalled a conversation of the same period in which Leigh "stunned us all" with the assertion that
Gable and Lombard plane crash while promoting the purchase of defense bonds during World War II. In his review in "The New York Times", Vincent Canby called the film Roger Ebert of the "Chicago Sun-Times" described the film as a "mushy, old-fashioned extravaganza" and added, "Variety" called it "Time Out London" says, "TV Guide" awarded it one out of a possible four stars, calling it Gable and Lombard Gable and Lombard is a 1976 American biographical film directed by Sidney J. Furie. The screenplay by Barry Sandler is based on the romance and consequent marriage of screen stars Clark Gable and Carole Lombard.