"What did it look like? Are there cut glass chandeliers and plush curtains and dozens of gilt mirrors? And are there girls?"
"Good heavens, Mrs. Meade! Remember yourself!"
"But this is the only chance I've ever had to hear what a bad house looks like."
A behind-the-scenes one: In Olivia de Havilland's autobiography, she recalls that there was a great amount of anticipation by the crew for the scene where Melanie is forced to strip off her nightgown, expecting her to be naked underneath just as the character is in-universe (though frame-censored). They were all very disappointed to see she was actually wearing a short sleeved top and rolled up trousers underneath.
In the book, Melanie takes in an old scruffy homeless man who becomes a sort-of bodyguard, and is absolutely devoted to Melanie despite his rather gruff misanthropic and misogynist manner:
India to Melanie: "I think he’d really like for somebody to insult you, so he could kill them to show his respect for you."
Scarlett getting mad at Rhett during the escape from Atlanta when he tells her they will be parting ways. She starts hurling insults at him and he just laughs and gives this awesome reply:
Rhett: Never mind the rest, I follow your general idea.
Grandpa Merriwether suffering the meetings of the ladies' associations in his house, especially when the ladies argue over whether to care for local graves of Yankee soldiers:
Grandpa Merriwether, who had been banished to the kitchen, reported afterwards that the noise sounded just like the opening guns of the battle of Franklin. And, he added, he guessed it was a dinged sight safer to be present at the battle of Franklin than at the ladies’ meeting.
Scarlett's impulsive response when Rhett propositions her to become his mistress. She gets pissed off not because he insulted her honor, but because he insulted her with a deal she would get nothing out of (besides maybe a bunch of brats).
Even funnier, she storms off into the house and attempts to slam the door on him, but it's too heavy for her to do so. He offers, in a very gentlemany fashion, to assist her. She stomps up the stairs and hears him slamming the door hard on her behalf.
In a dark example, Scarlett's first husband and Melanie's brother dies in the war... from a case of pneumonia and measles. The letter of the news says he died a heroic death nonetheless.
And in the scene right afterward Scarlett cries on her bed, not for her deceased husband, but because she has to wear black and can't go to parties because she's in "mourning".
The moment between Rhett and Dr. Meade, when the good doctor remarks that "Old Joe" will hold the Yankees off at the mountains, nevermind how outnumbered the Confederate army is, because mountains have been the stronghold of people under attack since ancient times.
Dr. Meade: Think of Thermopylae!
Rhett: They died to the last man at Thermopylae, did they not?
When Dr. Meade then gets angry, Rhett calmly claims he wasn't being insulting, merely seeking information.
The soldier Dr. Meade is tending to when Scarlett arrives to ask him to come help deliver Melanie seems to be in a spectacular mood given the circumstances. When the good doctor begins cursing the Yankees, the soldier rather cheerfully exclaims: "Give 'em hell, doctor!" He also seems to get rather invested in Scarlett and Melanie's predicament during the short period of time Scarlett is around him.
Mammy is a fountain of hilarity every time she’s on screen.
Scarlett fainting after she and Melanie put out the fire in the house together and waking up in a soot-coated Melanie's lap. The first thing she says is, "You look like a nigger." Melanie replies, "And you look like the end man in a minstrel show."
Ashley turning out to be fully aware of the "surprise" party Melanie is planning for him. When Scarlett asks who told him, he says, "Practically every man she invited."
"General Gordon was the first. He said it had been his experience that when women gave surprise parties they usually gave them on the very nights men had decided to polish and clean all the guns in the house. And then Grandpa Merriwether warned me. He said Mrs. Merriwether gave him a surprise party once and she was the most surprised person there, because Grandpa had been treating his rheumatism, on the sly, with a bottle of whisky and he was too drunk to get out of bed and - oh, every man who's ever had a surprise party given him told me."
"The mean things!" cried Scarlett but she had to smile.
