THE movie Gone With The Wind has entered cinematic history for so many reasons.

From its actual length (President Roosevelt fell asleep when it was especially run for him at the White House), to the number of Oscars it won in 1939, the money it grossed, and the fight ambitious producer David O Selznick had with the Hay's Office, who strictly controlled what could and could not be done and said on film, to permit Clark Gable to say the line "Frankly, I don't give a damn".

But's it's a miracle that it ever got made at all.

Ben Hecht's memoirs tell the story, and while he was always one to embellish a tale, events certainly sound unbelievable even by Tinsel Town Standards.

With no fewer than 17 writers already having tinkered with the script, the film had been in production for three weeks when perfectionist workaholic Selznick stopped the filming of this most expensive spectacular.

He fired the director, pulled in Victor Fleming, who was just finishing filming The Wizard of Oz, to direct, and hired hard-boiled newspaper man Ben Hecht to write a new screenplay.

Hecht was a respected script doctor with a reputation for breathing life into the most moribund screenplay.

Trouble was, he had not read Margaret Mitchell's 1,000 page book, and Selznick wanted a 130 page screenplay so that he could resume filming in five days.

So, Selznick locked himself in his office with Hecht and Fleming and, sustained only by bananas and peanuts which Selznick believed constituted "brain food", they acted out all the events of the novel for Hecht.

And after five days they emerged with the new draft.

That frenetic five-day period forms the thrust of the play Moonlight and Magnolias, which the Tamaritans perform in the Drum Theatre from July 21 to 25.

Written by Ron Hutchinson, himself a hugely successful Hollywood writer, it hilariously incarcerates the audience with Hecht, Fleming and Selznick plus his assistant Miss Poppenghul.

The fast paced script is littered with the snappy one-liners so much a feature of those screwball thirties and forties comedies.

But it also holds underlining tensions because of the imminence of the Second World War and the fact that Hecht and Selznick were Jews.

Conflict increases because the leftist Hecht and Fleming had no faith in the project, and also actually hated each other.

It's a miracle that not only did they survive, but that they ended up with such an iconic film.

Only just released for amateurs, Brian Finch's production is among the first, if not the very first staging.

In a play with only four roles every performer has to be at their peak, and the Tams have an especially strong team.

Selznick is played by Clive Lovatt, Kevin Romaine is Ben Hecht, Trevor Hampton takes on the role of Victor Fleming, and Rebekah Ash is lone female, Miss Poppenghul.

Prophesying success in the theatre is a foolish game – look how often Cameron Mitchell has been wrong – but Moonlight and Magnolias bids fair to be a highlight of the amateur year.