Editing Olivia de Havilland (section)

=== 1935–1937: Early films ===
De{{nbsp}}Havilland made her screen debut in Reinhardt's ''[[A Midsummer Night's Dream (1935 film)|A Midsummer Night's Dream]]'' (1935),{{sfn|Thomas|1983|p=28}} which was filmed at Warner Brothers
studios from December 19, 1934, to March 9, 1935.<ref name="tcm-midsummer-op"/> During the production, de{{nbsp}}Havilland picked up film acting techniques from the film's co-director [[William Dieterle]] and camera techniques from cinematographer [[Hal Mohr]], who was impressed with her questions about his work. By the end of filming, she had learned the effect of lighting and camera angles on how she appeared on screen and how to find her best lighting.<ref name="tcm-midsummer-miller"/> Following premieres in New York City and [[Beverly Hills]], the film was released on October 30, 1935.<ref name="tcm-midsummer-op"/> Despite the publicity campaign, the film generated little enthusiasm with audiences.{{sfn|Thomas|1983|p=28}} While the critical response was mixed, de{{nbsp}}Havilland's performance was praised by ''[[The San Francisco Examiner]]'' critic.{{sfn|Thomas|1983|p=58}} In his review in the ''[[Brooklyn Daily Eagle]]'', Winston Burdett wrote that she "acts graciously and does greater justice to [[Shakespeare]]'s language than anyone else in the cast".<ref name="brooklyn-daily-burdett"/> Two minor comedies followed, ''[[Alibi Ike]]'' (1935) with [[Joe E. Brown]] and ''[[The Irish in Us]]'' (1935) with [[James Cagney]].{{sfnm|1a1=Thomas|1y=1983|1p=28|2a1=Brown|2y=1995|2p=125}} In both films, she played the sweet and charming love interest{{nsmdns}}a role into which she would later become typecast.{{sfn|Kass|1976|p=22}} After the experience of being a Reinhardt player, de{{nbsp}}Havilland felt disappointed being assigned these routine heroine roles.{{sfn|Thomas|1983|p=28}}{{sfn|Kass|1976|p=24}} In March, de{{nbsp}}Havilland and her mother moved into an apartment at the Chateau des Fleurs at 6626 Franklin Avenue in Hollywood.{{sfn|Matzen|2010|p=13}}

[[File:Olivia de Havilland Publicity Photo for Captain Blood 1935.jpg|thumb|upright=0.75|alt=Climbing a ladder wearing a pirate's outfit|Publicity photo, 1935]]
Although [[Warner Brothers]] studio had assumed that the many costumed films that studios such as&nbsp;[[MGM]] had earlier produced would never succeed during the years of the [[American Great Depression]], they nonetheless took a chance by producing ''[[Captain Blood (1935 film)|Captain Blood]]'' (1935).<ref name=Gerstner>Gerstner, David A., and Staiger, Janet. ''Authorship and Film'', Psychology Press (2003)</ref>{{rp|63}} The film is a [[swashbuckler]] action drama based on the novel by [[Rafael Sabatini]] and directed by [[Michael Curtiz]].<ref name=Gerstner/>{{rp|63}} ''Captain Blood'' starred a then little-known contract bit-part actor and former extra, [[Errol Flynn]], with the equally little-known de Havilland.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MXb1QqmrRNc| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140316150724/http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MXb1QqmrRNc| archive-date=March 16, 2014 | url-status=dead|title=Captain Blood (1935) Original Trailer|last=TheTrailerGal|date=January 18, 2010|via=YouTube}}</ref>{{sfn|Matzen|2010|p=19}} According to film historian [[Tony Thomas (film historian)|Tony Thomas]], both actors had "classic good looks, cultured speaking voices, and a sense of distant aristocracy about them".{{sfn|Thomas|1983|p=68}} Filmed between August 5 and October 29, 1935,<ref name="tcm-cb-opi"/> ''Captain Blood'' gave de{{nbsp}}Havilland the opportunity to appear in her first costumed historical romance and adventure epic, a genre to which she was well suited, given her beauty and elegance.{{sfn|Thomas|1983|p=29}} 

In the film, she played Arabella Bishop, the niece of a Jamaica plantation owner who purchases at auction an Irish physician wrongly condemned to servitude. The on-screen chemistry between de{{nbsp}}Havilland and Flynn was evident from their first scenes together,{{sfn|Thomas|1983|p=29}} where clashes between her character's spirited hauteur and his character's playful braggadocio did not mask their mutual attraction to each other.{{sfn|Kass|1976|p=27}}{{#tag:ref|The on-screen attraction of the characters reflected the actual feelings of the actors at the time.{{sfn|Thomas|1983|p=29}} De{{nbsp}}Havilland would later admit that she had a crush on Flynn through the entire production, and he would later acknowledge the same.{{sfn|Thomas|1983|p=29}}|group=Note}} Arabella is a feisty young woman who knows what she wants and is willing to fight for it.{{sfn|Thomas|1983|p=72}} The bantering tone of their exchanges in the film{{nsmdns}}the healthy give-and-take and mutual respect{{nsmdns}}became the basis for their on-screen relationship in subsequent films.{{sfn|Kass|1976|p=27}} ''Captain Blood'' was released on December 28, 1935,<ref name="tcm-cb-opi"/> and received good reviews and wide public appeal.{{sfn|Thomas|1983|pp=71–72}} De{{nbsp}}Havilland's performance was singled out in ''[[The New York Times]]'' and ''[[Variety (magazine)|Variety]]''.<ref name="nytimes-cb-sennwald"/><ref name="variety-cb"/> The film was nominated for four [[Academy Awards]], including Best Picture.<ref name="tcm-cb-awards"/> The popular success of the film, as well as the critical response to the on-screen couple, led to seven additional collaborations:{{sfn|Thomas|1983|p=29}} ''[[The Charge of the Light Brigade (1936 film)|The Charge of the Light Brigade]]'' (1936), ''[[The Adventures of Robin Hood]]'' (1938), ''[[Four's a Crowd]]'' (1938), ''[[Dodge City (1939 film)|Dodge City]]'' (1939), ''[[The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex]]'' (1939, although de Havilland played a supporting role with [[Bette Davis]] as Flynn's leading lady), ''[[Santa Fe Trail (film)|Santa Fe Trail]]'' (1940), and ''[[They Died with Their Boots On]]'' (1941).

De{{nbsp}}Havilland appeared in [[Mervyn LeRoy]]'s [[historical drama]] ''[[Anthony Adverse]]'' (1936) with [[Fredric March]].{{sfn|Thomas|1983|p=75}} Based on the popular novel by [[Hervey Allen]], the film follows the adventures of an orphan raised by a Scottish merchant whose pursuit of fortune separates him from the innocent peasant girl he loves, marries, and eventually loses.{{sfn|Thomas|1983|pp=75–76}} De{{nbsp}}Havilland played a peasant girl, Angela, who after being separated from her slave-trader husband becomes opera star [[Marguerite Georges|Mademoiselle Georges]], the mistress of [[Napoleon]].{{sfn|Thomas|1983|pp=77–78}} The film earned six Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture.<ref name="tcm-aa-steinberg"/> It garnered de{{nbsp}}Havilland good exposure and the opportunity to portray a character as she develops over time.{{sfn|Thomas|1983|p=78}} Howard Barnes of the ''[[New York Herald Tribune]]'' found her later scenes as Mademoiselle Georges "not very credible",{{sfn|Kass|1976|p=43}} but Frank S. Nugent of ''The New York Times'' called her "a winsome Angela".<ref name="nytimes-aa-nugent"/> That same year, she was re-united with Flynn in Michael Curtiz's period action film ''The Charge of the Light Brigade'' (1936), featuring Flynn [[look-alike]] [[Patric Knowles]] (playing Flynn's brother) and [[David Niven]]. The picture was set during the [[Crimean War]]{{sfn|Kass|1976|p=81}}{{sfnm|1a1=Kass|1y=1976|1pp=27, 29|2a1=Thomas|2y=1983|2p=82}} and became a major box office hit.{{sfn|Thomas|1983|p=85}}

During the film's production, de{{nbsp}}Havilland renegotiated her contract with Warner Bros. and signed a seven-year contract on April 14, 1936, with a starting weekly salary of $500 ({{Inflation|US|500|1936|fmt=eq|r=-2}}).{{sfn|Matzen|2010|p=33}}{{#tag:ref|De Havilland hired the Ivan Kahn Agency to represent her in the contract negotiations with Warner Bros.{{sfn|Matzen|2010|p=32}} The contract she signed provided for yearly increases in her weekly salary, starting at $500 and then increasing to $750, $1000, $1250, $1500, $2000, and $2500 in her last year ({{Inflation|US|2500|1934|fmt=eq|r=-2}}).{{sfn|Matzen|2010|p=33}}|group=Note}} Toward the end of the year, 20-year-old de{{nbsp}}Havilland and her mother moved to 2337 Nella Vista Avenue in the [[Los Feliz]] section of Los Angeles.{{sfn|Matzen|2010|p=50}}

[[File:Olivia de Havilland in Call It a Day trailer.jpg|thumb|left|alt=Smiling|In ''Call It a Day'', 1937]]
De{{nbsp}}Havilland had her first [[Billing (performing arts)|top billing]] in [[Archie Mayo]]'s comedy ''[[Call It a Day]]'' (1937),{{sfn|Thomas|1983|pp=30, 89}} about a middle-class English family struggling with the romantic effects of [[spring fever]] during the course of a single day.{{sfn|Thomas|1983|p=89}} De{{nbsp}}Havilland played daughter Catherine Hilton, who falls in love with the handsome artist hired to paint her portrait.{{sfn|Thomas|1983|p=89}} The film did not do well at the box office and did little to advance her career.{{sfn|Thomas|1983|p=30}} She fared better in Mayo's [[screwball comedy]] ''[[It's Love I'm After]]'' (1937) with [[Leslie Howard (actor)|Leslie Howard]] and [[Bette Davis]].{{sfn|Thomas|1983|p=99}} De{{nbsp}}Havilland played Marcia West, a debutante and theater fan enamored with a Barrymore-like matinee idol who decides to help the girl's fiancé by pretending to be an abominable cad.{{sfn|Thomas|1983|pp=99–100}} The film received good reviews, with ''Variety'' calling it "fresh, clever, excellently directed and produced, and acted by an ensemble that clicks from start to finish" and praising de{{nbsp}}Havilland.<ref name="variety-ilia"/>

Also released during 1937 was another period film with de{{nbsp}}Havilland, beginning with ''[[The Great Garrick]]'', a fictional [[romantic comedy]] about the 18th-century English actor's encounter with jealous players from the [[Comédie-Française]] who plot to embarrass him on his way to Paris.{{sfn|Thomas|1983|pp=93–94}} Wise to their prank, Garrick plays along with the ruse, determined to get the last laugh, even on a lovely young aristocrat, de{{nbsp}}Havilland's Germaine Dupont, whom he mistakenly believes to be one of the players.{{sfn|Thomas|1983|p=94}} With her refined demeanour and diction,{{sfn|Thomas|1983|p=30}} de{{nbsp}}Havilland delivers a performance that is "lighthearted and thoroughly believable", according to Judith Kass.{{sfn|Kass|1976|p=45}} ''Variety'' praised the film, calling it "a production of superlative workmanship".<ref name="variety-gg"/><ref name="tcm-gg-arnold"/> Despite the positive reviews, the film did not do as well at the box office.<ref name="tcm-gg-arnold"/>{{#tag:ref|During the production, [[Brian Aherne]] found de Havilland "young and entrancing" and organized her 21st birthday party on the set. They also dated during the making of the picture.{{sfn|Thomas|1983|p=96}} He later wrote, "I little thought that I would one day marry her younger sister, Joan Fontaine."<ref name="tcm-gg-arnold"/> Aherne and Fontaine married two years later, on August 19, 1939.{{sfn|Fontaine|1978|p=104}}|group=Note}} The [[Michael Curtiz]]-directed [[romantic drama]] ''[[Gold Is Where You Find It]]''<!-- Released in 1938. -->{{sfn|Thomas|1983|p=103}} is a film about the late 19th-century conflict in the [[Sacramento Valley]] between gold miners and their hydraulic equipment and farmers whose land is being flooded.{{sfn|Thomas|1983|pp=103–104}} De{{nbsp}}Havilland played the daughter of a farmer, Serena Ferris, who falls in love with the mining engineer responsible for the flooding portrayed by [[George Brent]].{{sfn|Thomas|1983|p=104}} The picture also stars [[Claude Rains]]. The film was released in February 1938,<ref name="tcm-gold-opi"/> and was her first appearance in a [[Technicolor#Three-strip Technicolor|Technicolor]] film{{sfn|Thomas|1983|p=103}} but not her last. She would make three more Technicolor films within the next two years, two of which would arguably remain her most fondly remembered by audiences across the decades since their release.