The Wizard of Oz (1939) Undoubtedly one of the most seen, most well known, most beloved films of all time, it is the first full-scale version of Baum's 1900 fairy tale. Now over 60 years old, the movie has lived through generations becoming a fabric of childhood like Mother Goose, Christmas, and Halloween are all embedded in our earliest childhood memories. This film technically gave birth to the stardom of Judy Garland.
Plot
Review
Cast
Trivia
Plot Dorothy comes running home with Toto, fleeing from the nasty Ms. Gulch. She comes home to the apathetic and busy Uncle Henry and Auntie Em, and receives pieces of advice from the farm hands. The lovely Ms. Gulch drops by to tell the Gale's she is taking Toto to the sheriff's to be destroyed. How lovely.Gulch takes Toto, but Toto escapes and run homes to Dorothy. Dorothy runs away and finds the charlatan, Professor Marvel. Marvel realizes she is runaway and cons her into believing Auntie Em is sick, thus sending her home. By this time, however, a tornado is brewing.
Dorothy comes running home, a tornado heading towards the farm, and she is greeted by an empty house [everybody is already in the cellar]. She runs into her room and the window breaks off the wall and smashes into her head knocking her unconscious.
Thus begins Dorothy's Dream...
Dorothy's house goes swirling up into the tornado and she looks out her window and sees people grinning and smiling as they are tossed about the deadly whirlwind. Ms. Gulch flies by on her broomstick and transforms into the Wicked Witch of the East [WWE].
The house comes crashing down on the WWE, killing her. Dorothy exits out of her house and is greeted by technicolor! She is greeted by the Munchkins who were slaves for the WWE, and Glinda appears. Glinda informs Dorothy she has killed the WWE and points out that the two feet protruding from the house are "all that's left of the Wicked Witch of East."
WWE's sister, the infamous Wicked Witch of the West [WWW], appears and threatens Dorothy. Glinda uses magic and puts the ruby slippers on Dorothy's feet. Enraged the WWW vows revenge on Dorothy and leaves. Glinda sets Dorothy on the yellow brick road telling her to go to the Emerald City and see the Wizard of Oz. Glinda leaves, and Dorothy starts her journey.
Dorothy journeys down the yellow brick road [with Toto] until they come upon the Scarecrow. He has no brains and he does a little ditty to tell her so and she takes him along for company.
Continuing down the road they are attacked by apple trees and in fleeing from these trees they find the well rusted Tin man. They oil him and he does a little ditty to tell them he has no heart. They decide to take along after being threatened by the WWW [what a meanie].
Pretty soon they are in the middle of the woods when they are attacked by a lion that walks on his hind legs. He tries to scare them but Dorothy slaps him silly and confesses what a coward he is [he does a little ditty for them too]. They take him along seeing how cowardly he is.
Suddenly the woods end and they are greeted by a vast field of poppies that have been enchanted by the WWW and they start running through it to reach the Emerald City. They barely get to the end of the field when Dorothy, Toto, and the Lion collapse into what could be described as an attack of narcolepsy.
Glinda, from a distance, uses magic to create a snowstorm which awakens the narcolepts, and they head off to the Emerald City.
They are stopped at the gate by the Guard who interrogates them for their validity of entry. Dorothy flashes her feet and they gain immediate entry [see! The limb is mightier than the thumb!]. They are taken inside and groomed and cleaned up for entry to the Wiz when the WWW flies overhead writing in the sky: Surrender Dorothy!
The Ozmites freak and run to the Wizard who refuses to see them. Dorothy and Co. ask to see the Wizard because she is "The Witch's Dorothy". The guard goes in and they little troupe is anxious to see the Wizard. The Lion breaks out into a song of bravery and he is interrupted when the Wizard denies them to be seen. Dorothy breaks down crying and the Guard starts to cry too and he lets them in.
The troupe has a session with the Wizard and he agrees to grant their requests if they bring back the broom of the WW. They set out on M:I-3.
They go through the Haunted Forest until they are attack by the flying monkeys. In the end Dorothy and Toto are kid-and-dognapped and taken to the WWW, and the Scarecrow lies in assorted piles of straw.
The WWW taunts Dorothy and tries to get the ruby slippers back but comes to no avail when she realized the shoes will only come off if the person is dead. So, she flips over an hourglass and informs Dorothy that's how long she has to live. Toto escapes and flees from the castle.
Meanwhile, the Lion, the Tin man, and the now reassembled Scarecrow set off to save Dorothy when Toto rushes up and greets them. Toto then leads them to the Witch's castle and they devise a scheme. They knock out three Winkie Guards and steal their Guard outfits and get into the castle. They run upstairs and knock on a door and ask if that's Dorothy in there. She tells them to hurry and they chop down the door and they rush to leave the castle.
They are stopped at the front doors and are chased around the castle by the Witch and her lovely green men. They are finally cornered and the Witch decides then and there to kill them. She sets the Scarecrow on fire and Dorothy throws a bucket of water on him to douse out the flame, but most of the water hits the Witch. Turns out water is an instant solvent for Witches and so the WWW melts into a big puddle of mush. The Winkies rejoice at their freedom and they give Dorothy and Co. the Witch's broom and the troupe heads back to the Emerald City.
They return to the Wizard who is shocked they came alive, but does not hold up on his promise of granting their wishes. They start to protest when Toto pulls back a curtain revealing a fat little man working controls. The troupe angrily confronts this little unnamed man and he tells them how he came to Oz and became proclaimed a Wizard. He whips out a little black sack and gives the Scarecrow a diploma, the Lion a badge of courage, and the Tin man a heart. He has nothing for Dorothy so he offers to take her back to Kansas.
[Later] The Wizard he re-inflated a hot air balloon and he possess and he and Dorothy and ready to leave for Kansas when Toto jumps out of the darn basket to chase a cat. Dorothy jumps out to get Toto and the balloon leaves without her. Now Dorothy is broken hearted and bawling her eyes when Glinda returns and tells Dorothy that the ruby slippers could take her home at any time, but she had to learn a moral lesson first. Glinda tells Dorothy how to use the slippers and return to Kansas. Dorothy bids a tearful farewell to her friends and proceeds to click her heels three times repeating "There's no place like home."
Dorothy wakes up...
Dorothy wakes up in her bed in Kansas surrounded by Auntie Em, Uncle Henry, the three farm hands and Professor Marvel. She tells them her dream and they laugh at her, but she cuddles Toto and ends the movie by saying: "But, oh, Auntie Em, there's no place like home!" and then gazes blankly past the camera.
On a scale of 1-10 I actually give this movie a 7.5. I am a huge fan of the book, and although this movie doesn't follow suit it is still a classic. I am not too fond of some of the changes and additions [making it a dream, Ms. Gulch, ruby slippers...]. But it does offer a great moral lesson that most of the time the things we usually vie for we already have. The End
Review
Cast Judy Garland.........................................................................................Dorothy Gale
Margaret Hamilton...............................................................Ms.Gulch/WWE/WWW
Ray Bolger........................................................................................Hunk/Scarecrow
Bert Lahr....................................................................................................Zeke/Lion
Jack Haley..........................................................................................Hickory/Tinman
Billie Burke.......................................................................................................Glinda
Frank Morgan...................Proffesor Marvel/Guard at Gate/Cab Driver/Guard/Wizard
Clara Blandick............................................................................................Auntie Em
Charley Grapewin....................................................................................Uncle Henry
Bobbie Koshay..................................................................................Dorothy Double
Harry Master.....................................................................................Tin man Stand in
Harlan Briggs...............................................................................Uncle Henry Double
Betty Danko............................................................................Wicked Witch Stand in
Stafford Campbell.........................................................................Scarecrow Stand in
Trivia There are five pairs of ruby slippers in existence although it is speculated there are moreGale Sondergaard was originally cast as the WWW
Clara Blandick committed suicide shortly after the film
Billie Burke never sang during the film, Lorraine Bridges supplied Glinda's singing voice
along as the voice(s) of the Lullaby League.Adrianna Caselotti was the voice of "Juliet" in the Tinman's song ["where for art thou, Romeo?], but her movie debut was the voice of Snow White in Disney's "Snow White and the Seven Dwarves."
The tune for "If I Only Had a Brain", "If I Only Had a Heart, and "If I only had the nerve" was actually a song cut from "Paper Moon" and was originally entitled: "I'm Hanging On to You."
A reprise of "Over the Rainbow" was cut, only the audio exists.
Ray Bolger was originally cast as the Tin man and Buddy Ebsen as the Scarecrow, but Bolger argued his skills were better suited as a scarecrow, so Mayer switched the roles, and subsequently Ebsen got sick from his make-up and was hospitalized and Jack Haley took over the role.
Parts of Bert Lahr's costume were made from an actual lion hide and weighed over 90 pounds.
After the movie was finished filming all the costumes went into MGM's form of deep storage and weren't discovered until thirty years later when MGM was sold.
The original negatives for the Kansas sequences were destroyed in a fire in the late 70's, and when the movie was re-released by Warner Bros. in 1998 they had spent over two years digitally correcting copies of the Kansas sequence obtained by home video cassettes and canisters of previously re-released versions.
Judy's hair was mainly comprised of hair extensions.
During the cyclone sequence, when Ms. Gulch transforms into the Wicked Witch of the East, her skirt flies up above her feet and you can see she is wearing a pair of ruby slippers.
The yellow brick road was made of plywood.
The Emerald City was created from an unused design that was to be a new city in Germany [specifically for Hitler].
Margaret Hamilton's cackle caused sound tubes to break.
During the scene where Dorothy slaps the Lion on the nose, she reaches for a handkerchief, but her dress has no pockets. You can see her look down as it is handed up to her from somebody on the floor.