The Wizard of Oz (1939 movie)
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Template:Infobox Movie The Wizard of Oz is a 1939 musical fantasy film produced by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. It is based on L. Frank Baum's turn-of-the-century children's story The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, in which a resourceful American girl is snatched up by a Kansas tornado and deposited in a fantastic land of witches, talking scarecrows, cowardly lions, and more. It stars Judy Garland, Frank Morgan, Ray Bolger, Jack Haley, Bert Lahr, Billie Burke and Margaret Hamilton. While not the first feature film produced in Technicolor, The Wizard of Oz makes conspicuous use of the technique; its Kansas bookend sequences are in sepia-toned black-and-white, while the Oz scenes are in full three-strip Technicolor.
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History
L. Frank Baum (born Lyman Frank Baum on May 15, 1856) published his book The Wonderful Wizard of Oz in 1900. Over the following years it sold millions of copies, and Baum wrote thirteen more Oz books before his death on May 15, 1919.
In January 1938, MGM bought the rights to the book. The script was completed on October 8, 1938. Filming started on October 13, 1938 and was completed on March 16, 1939. The film premiered on August 12, 1939, and went into general release on August 25.
The movie's script was adapted by Noel Langley, Florence Ryerson, and Edgar Allan Woolf. Several people assisted with the adaptation without official credit: Irving Brecher, William H. Cannon, Herbert Fields, Arthur Freed, Jack Haley, E.Y. Harburg, Samuel Hoffenstein, Bert Lahr, John Lee Mahin, Herman J. Mankiewicz, Jack Mintz, Ogden Nash, and Sid Silvers. It was directed by Victor Fleming, Richard Thorpe (uncredited), George Cukor (uncredited), and King Vidor (uncredited).
It won Academy Awards for Best Music, Original Score and Best Music, Song (Harold Arlen and E.Y. Harburg for "Over the Rainbow").
Casting the film was problematic, with actors shifting roles repeatedly at the beginning of filming. One of the primary changes was in the role of the Tin Woodsman. The Tin Man was originally slated for Ray Bolger, and Buddy Ebsen was to play the Scarecrow. Bolger was unhappy with the part, and convinced producer Mervyn LeRoy to recast him as the Scarecrow. Ebsen didn't object to the change at first, but just 9 days into filming, he suffered an allergic reaction to the metallic makeup and had to leave the movie. Jack Haley was given the part the next day. The makeup used on Jack Haley was quietly changed to nonmetallic. Ironically, despite his near-death experience with the makeup, Ebsen well-outlived all the principal players.
The role of Dorothy was given to Judy Garland on February 24, 1938. After the casting of her role, a few executives at MGM contemplated replacing her with Shirley Temple, but were not able to get Fox to comply with the "loan" of the young actress. Other MGM officials vetoed the idea of using Temple.
Originally, Gale Sondergaard was cast as the Witch. She became unhappy with the role when the Witch's persona shifted from a sly glamorous witch into the familiar ugly hag. She turned down the role, and was replaced on October 10, 1938 with Margaret Hamilton.
On July 25, 1938, Bert Lahr was signed and cast as the Cowardly Lion. Frank Morgan was cast as the Wizard on September 22, 1938. On August 12, 1938, Charlie Grapewin was cast as Uncle Henry.
The songs were recorded in a studio prior to filming. Several of the recordings were completed while Buddy Ebsen was still with the cast. So, while he had to be dropped from the cast, his singing voice remained, in the group vocals of "We're off to See the Wizard". His voice is easy to detect. Ray Bolger and Bert Lahr (and also Jack Haley, who had a solo but was not in the group vocal) were speakers of non-rhotic accents from the Northeast, and did not pronounce the r in wizard. Buddy Ebsen was a Midwesterner, like Judy Garland, and pronounced the r.
Filming began on October 13, 1938, with Richard Thorpe directing. Thorpe was fired and George Cukor took over. He changed Judy Garland and Margaret Hamilton's makeup and costumes, which meant that all of their scenes had to be discarded and re-filmed. Cukor had a prior commitment to direct the movie Gone with the Wind, so he left on November 3, 1938, and Victor Fleming took over for him.
Ironically, on February 12, 1939, Victor Fleming again replaced George Cukor in directing Gone With The Wind. The next day King Vidor would be assigned as director to finish the filming of the movie (mainly the sepia shots of the Kansas farm).
The movie's filming was completed on March 16, 1939. On June 5, 1939 it had its first sneak preview. After this preview, as a response to several audience members, some scenes were deleted. Audience members thought the movie was too long; others found some of the witch's scenes too scary.
On August 7, 1939, The Wizard Of Oz, a movie that cost $2,777,000 to make, unheard of at the time, was officially and legally copyrighted. It premiered at the Strand Theatre in Oconomowoc, Wisconsin on August 12, 1939, and in Hollywood's Grauman's Chinese Theater on August 15.
On August 17, 1939, the movie opened nationally. Judy Garland and her frequent film co-star Mickey Rooney performed after the screening at Loews Capitol Theater in New York City, and would continue to do this after each screening for a week.
In spite of the publicity, the movie was only moderately successful in its initial theatrical run. It achieved its iconic status after decades of television showings, beginning on November 3, 1956. The viewing audience for this broadcast was estimated at 45 million people, and was the beginning of a tradition. For decades to follow, the movie was aired in the United States on or near Easter, although today with the Turner cable networks now holding the television rights, the film is generally shown during the summer and Christmas seasons. As of now, the rights to its distribution are held by Warner Bros. Family Entertainment.
Plot
(Also including deleted scenes and other filming information.)These opening scenes were the last ones to be filmed. They were filmed from late February - March 16, 1939. Dorothy is an orphan from Kansas, raised by her Aunt Em and Uncle Henry. At the beginning of the film, Dorothy is telling the three farm hands about her conflict with a local rich, stern and humorless woman, Almira Gulch (played by Margaret Hamilton, who also plays the Witch of the West). Each hand advises her in his characteristic way, foreshadowing their appearance in Dorothy's dream of Oz. One suggests that it's not smart to walk with Toto near Gulch's property (Scarecrow). The next starts making a passionate speech, straight from the heart (Tin Woodman), but is stopped in mid-speech by Aunt Em, his right arm upraised. The last recommends a more aggressive approach, as he would do... then is found to be afraid of hogs (Cowardly Lion).
Dorothy's dog, Toto, gets in trouble for biting her, and Gulch comes to Dorothy's house with an order from the sheriff allowing her to take the dog, presumably to be put to sleep. Dorothy's aunt and uncle argue unsuccessfully with Ms. Gulch about the ordeal, and Toto is taken away, as the exasperated Dorothy calls her "a wicked old witch" (foreshadowing her role in Dorothy's dream). Toto escapes by jumping out of Ms. Gulch's basket, unnoticed by her. When the dog gets home, Dorothy decides that they should run away from home, because Ms. Gulch would be coming back for him.
Dorothy and Toto begin their journey, and they soon encounter Professor Marvel (played by Frank Morgan, who also the plays the Wizard of Oz, the doorman, the cabbie, and the guard; all of his characters are essentially a "humbug", in his own words, i.e. a fraud). He leads Dorothy into his trailer, and after sneaking a peak in her basket and finding a family photo, he pretends to see her Aunt Em crying, in his crystal ball. Dorothy is convinced, and she and Toto hurry home. On her way out of the trailer, though, a cyclone begins to form ("a 'whopper', speaking in the vernacular of the peasantry"). When she gets home, her whole family is already down in the storm cellar and cannot hear her stomping on its door. Seeing the tornado approaching (a very convincing special effect, made from a large muslin stocking spinning on a sliding track, accompanied by poweful off-screen fans that nearly knock her off her feet at one point), Dorothy rushes inside the house and gets to her bedroom, but the "Gale" wind blows the window out of its frame, hitting her in the head, knocking her out.
Although Dorothy is lying unconscious, the audience (and Toto) already begins to see various objects, stirred up by the cyclone, starting to appear in the window. (There is also a very noticeable edit in the audio track. A three-CD collection of all the music from the film, issued in 1995 with remastered music, contains a fuller version of this track).
Dorothy awakes suddenly, to find that her house is being carried along, inside the cyclone. She sees some familiar faces out of the window, including the wicked Miss Gulch. In a dramatic, terrifying moment (underscored by the audio track's sudden and powerful mood change), Miss Gulch transforms into a witch and her bicycle into a broomstick. She cackles her famous Eeeeh-heh-heh-heh-heh-heh! associated with witches today and flies away. Minutes later, Dorothy and Toto land in Munchkinland, a county in the land of Oz. (The dramatic footage of the house falling toward the camera was actually a reversed piece of film, of a model house being dropped toward a floor painted to resemble sky and clouds). The movie transitions from sepia-toned to beautiful Technicolor as Dorothy and Toto walk out of the house.
Shortly thereafter, Glinda, the Good Witch of the North (played by Billie Burke), arrives in an iridescent bubble. She asks Dorothy whether she is a good witch or a bad witch, and despite Dorothy's repeated explanation, Glinda appears not to quite understand who Dorothy is nor where she came from. She informs her of where she is, and that she killed the Wicked Witch of the East with her house. She introduces her to the Munchkins, a small community of little people who sing and dance in order to thank Dorothy for freeing them from the Witch's reign of tyranny.
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The Munchkin Land scenes were filmed from December 10 - 23, 1938.
On December 23, 1938, during a second filming of her departure from Munchkinland the lift Margaret Hamilton was standing on did not go down fast enough. When the fire started she nearly got caught in it. Her green makeup did catch fire, she was severely burned and she was out of the filming for six whole weeks, spending time in the local hospital. She returned to the set on February 11, 1939.
Glinda tells Dorothy that the only way to get back to Kansas is to follow the yellow brick road to the Emerald City, where she can ask the mysterious Wizard of Oz for help. Before Glinda disappears in her bubble, she tells Dorothy never to take off the slippers, and to "just follow the Yellow Brick Road".
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Two scenes filmed along the way were cut. First was about 2 minutes of Ray Bolger's "If I only had a brain" song scenes. The second one was a scene where the witch follows up on her threat to turn the Tin Man into a beehive. Originally there was a scene with dozens of bees flying around the Tin Man.
Just before the group reaches the Art Deco-style Emerald City, the Wicked Witch casts a spell to stop them. She produces a giant field of poppies that put Dorothy, Toto and the Lion to sleep. The Scarecrow and the Tinman (who are not conventional organic creatures and are immune to the spell) cry for help, and Glinda produces a counterspell in the form of a snow shower to wake everybody up. They immediately arrive at the Emerald City, where they are only allowed in after Dorothy proves that Glinda sent her there.
(Originally it was "SURRENDER DOROTHY OR DIE SIGNED WWW"; the last few words were cut after the first preview. A lot of the witch's scenes were cut, or script ideas never filmed, because MGM executives felt it made the witch too scary for children. Given the full text of that message, arguably the executives also felt some ideas were too silly.)
When the party meets the Wizard, they find him to be a terrifying floating head surrounded by fire and smoke. He bellows that he will only help them if they can obtain the broomstick of the Witch of the West. On their way to her castle, flying monkeys, sent by the Wicked Witch, capture Dorothy and Toto and take them to the castle.
Here was another deleted scene that the witch hints at when she says "They'll give you no trouble; I promise you that. I've sent a little insect on ahead to take the fight out of them" she sends a fictitious bug, "the jitterbug", that bites or stings them, causing Dorothy and friends to dance helplessly until the flying monkeys arrive to take Dorothy and Toto away. It, too, was cut after an early preview. (The only archival evidence remaining of this scene is the sound recordings and a backstage home movie filmed during rehearsals. Any original footage appears to have been lost. Some critics have pointed out that the bouncy song was inappropriate to the mood of the scene, as well as "dating" the movie, so that cutting it was a wise decision).
Once Dorothy gets to the witch's castle, the Witch demands the ruby slippers, but it turns out that the shoes actually cannot be removed... as long as Dorothy is alive. In a fury, the Witch orders one of her monkey slaves to kill Toto. The latter, however, escapes. He finds their friends and leads them to the castle to save Dorothy.
Dorothy, meanwhile, is locked inside a chamber with an hourglass and a crystal ball. When the hourglass runs out, Dorothy will die. As she waits and cries, she sees her Aunt Em in the crystal ball, wondering where her niece is. Dorothy cries out to her aunt, but the image of Aunt Em fades out as the image of the Wicked Witch fades in, cackling and mocking Dorothy, terrifying her; then turning and looking into the camera, continuing her devilish laughter before fading out.
(Originally, during these scenes there was a reprise of Dorothy, in terror, singing "Over the Rainbow" with slightly altered lyrics. It too was cut after an early preview of the film).
When they finally get inside the castle, they find Dorothy and try to escape (to the tune of Moussorgsky's A Night on Bald Mountain). The Witch stops them, and once she and her soldiers have them cornered, sets the Scarecrow on fire. Dorothy grabs a nearby bucket of water and, in throwing the water on her friend, she also hits the Witch and causes her to melt down to nothing (presumably dropping through that infamous trap door again), leaving just her dress, her pointed hat, her broomstick, and steam rising. To the travelers' surprise, her soldiers are delighted. They give Dorothy the broomstick and graciously send them on their way.
Originally, the crew returned to the Emerald City to a "hero's welcome", with everyone singing "The Wicked Witch is Dead". This too was cut after early previews. Footage of this scene no longer exists, except for a few frames seen in a later re-issue trailer. Once they are in the Wizard's room they present the broom to a shocked Wizard, who did not expect them to return. He tells them to come back later. Having just defeated the evil Witch, the four feel empowered, angry and bold; even the Lion. The previously "small and meek" Dorothy scolds the Wizard for lying, and they soon discover, thanks to Toto's exploring, that the Wizard is just a "man behind a curtain" (also played by Frank Morgan), not really a wizard at all, just a "humbug". The four friends are horrified, but the Wizard solves their problems through psychology rather than magic. He gives the Scarecrow a diploma, the Tinman a heart-shaped clock (he calls it a "testimonial"), and the Lion a badge of courage.
He explains to them that his presence in Oz was an accident, that he was lost in a hot air balloon, and that he is, in fact, from Kansas as well (which seems strange since the text on his balloon reads "Omaha", a town in Nebraska). He promises to take Dorothy home in the same balloon that got him there in the first place. He announces to his people that he will leave the Scarecrow, the Tinman and the Lion in charge of the Emerald City. Just before takeoff, though, Toto jumps out of the balloon's basket to chase a cat. Dorothy goes after him, and the Wizard accidentally takes off, unable to get back to the ground, and once again proving to be a humbug: "I can't come back! I don't know how it works!" Given that admission, it's anyone's guess how he would have found his way back to Kansas.
Just as Dorothy is resigning herself to spending the rest of her life in Oz, Glinda appears. She tells Dorothy that she can use the ruby slippers to return home... both herself and "Toto too!" She didn't tell her at first, though, because Dorothy had to learn a lesson. When her three friends asked what she has learned, a tearful Dorothy replies that, if she can't find what she's looking for in her own backyard, then she never really lost it to begin with.
Dorothy and Toto say goodbye to their friends, and Glinda instructs her to click her heels together and repeat the words, "There's no place like home." There is a montage of her face, her shoes clicking heels, and the house again falling toward the camera, all transitioning from Technicolor back into the same sepia tones that had begun the film. She awakens in her Kansas house surrounded by her family and friends. She tells them about her journey, and they tell her it was all a bad dream, although Dorothy protests that it was real. The movie ends with Dorothy hugging Toto and exclaiming to her Auntie Em that there really is no place like home.
Differences from the book
The film's basic plot is not very different from the original novel, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, but quite a bit less detailed. Baum originally provided complex back stories for all the characters and locations, which are largely omitted in the film. The book featured several sub-plots (including a confrontation with the belligerent Hammer-Heads and a visit to a town with inhabitants and structures constructed of china) that, though relevant, weren't integral to the main plot. Numerous other abridgments occur: for example, the mice have no involvement with the band's escape from the poppies in the movie; a blizzard is used instead. It is also worth noting that in the original book the enchanted slippers were silver, not ruby. This was changed to show off the film's sophisticated color technology.
In the movie, Glinda is the name of the Good Witch of the North who returns to show Dorothy how to use the Ruby Slippers to go home. In the book, however, the Witch of the North's name is not given; and Dorothy must journey to visit Glinda, the Good Witch of the South, to learn how to use the silver shoes. Also the Tin Woodsman's name is changed to simply the Tin Man.
Some fans believe that the book tends to be a lot darker and in some places even gruesome, greatly diverging from the movie. For instance, in the book there is a scene in which the Tin Woodsmen chops the head off a tiger. He also uses his axe to chop off all the limbs of anthropomorphized trees, which are not capable of speaking as in the movie. The trees then shake in pain and terror. In the movie, the only time he wields his axe is to chop through the door of the room where the witch is holding Dorothy captive. The fans who have this opinion generally tend to agree that Return to Oz, the 1985 semisequel to The Wizard of Oz, is much closer to the feel of the original books and blame The Wizard of Oz for spreading misconceptions of the book, and the unpopularity of the image of Oz Return to Oz portrays.
The main point of contention with Baum's fans is the ending, which they feel strongly goes against the nature of the original. In Baum's novel, there is no hint that Oz is anything but a real place, to which Dorothy returns repeatedly (she eventually moved to Oz permanently and was joined by her aunt and uncle) in the numerous sequels. A counterargument to that complaint is that this was not necessarily an ordinary dream -- her uncle comments that "for awhile there we thought you were going to leave us" -- and that her experience might have been "real", but in another dimension. The movie is just vague enough on that point to leave the door open to such an explanation.
Fame
The Wizard of Oz has generated many rumors and stories, some of which have reached the level of urban legends. The most common of these, which refuses to die, claims that one of the cast or crew hanged himself on the set, and can be seen in the Enchanted Forest scene. This is not true. It is in fact an animal handler recapturing an escaped bird. The re-release of the movie to theaters for a time in the late 1990s settled this issue, as the picture was large enough to reveal the truth that the small TV screen had made to seem ambiguous.
Additionally, the large group of "little people" cast to play the Munchkins were rumored to have held wild drunken orgies, but these stories are likely to have been exaggerated. This rumor was enhanced significantly by Judy Garland herself. On a late-night talk show in the 1960s, seemingly a little "medicated" herself, the host started to ask about the little people, and she blurted out, "They were drunks!" The audience roared, and that episode fed fuel to the story.
According to another story, which appears to be true, the coat Frank Morgan wore as Professor Marvel, which was handpicked from a second-hand clothing rack, once belonged to L. Frank Baum (the author of the Oz series of books). The inside pocket had his name on it. After completion of the film, the coat was presented to Baum's widow who confirmed it was indeed his. Ironically, Morgan died in the late 1940s, the one major player who did not live to see the great esteem in which the film would ultimately be regarded.
There was occasional talk of a sequel with the original characters, but it never materialized. One story holds that Margaret Hamilton's witch was to be resuscitated somehow. Hamilton, who in real life was a kind and gentle woman, refused to revive that role, saying it would frighten children too much to see the seemingly really-dead, most-sincerely-dead, evil witch come back to life.
The movie continues to generate a cult following, despite its age and original creative intent as a musical cinematic fable for children. Director John Boorman utilized aspects of the film in his 1974 science fiction classic Zardoz. Wizard of Oz collectibles, such as autographs and props from the film, are among the most sought-after of all movie memorabilia. On May 24, 2000, a pair of ruby slippers worn by Judy Garland in the film (with red sequins; seven pairs are believed to exist) sold at auction for $666,000.
Several film scholars have written interesting interpretations of the film, including several attempts by structuralist semiologists suggesting that the film was intended to prepare America for entry into war, although this ignores the fact that the Second World War had not yet started. Such obscure and esoteric interpretations usually posit Dorothy as representing a depressed, monochrome America, turning to Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal (the flimflam magician) for hope. She enters a more colourful Europe (Munchkinland), threatened by the Wicked Witches of the East (Stalinism) and West (Fascism). She defeats Stalinism when her house falls upon the Eastern Witch early on, which suggests the overwhelming power of commercial capitalism and its precedence in Western Europe. To defeat Fascism, she receives the aid of Britain (Glinda), the naive peasantry (the Scarecrow), the dehumanized Proletariat (the heartless Tin Man), and the emasculated nobility (Cowardly Lion). The Wizard who encourages and profits from the defeat of the Western Witch turns out to be another version of the same flimflam man she met at home, a cynical politician who realizes that none of Dorothy's allies truly require anything that they didn't already have. He is both a supreme humanitarian and a misanthrope, in that he excels at detecting the weaknesses of others, because he knows his own so well. He is, in fact, the spirit of democracy. And the seemingly "muddled" good witch, Glinda, appears to represent God: all-knowing, all-powerful... and, of course, on the side of the Allies. There is also a similar theory that portrays the elements of the story together as a populist allegory.
There are also several coincidences between this movie and the Pink Floyd album, Dark Side of the Moon. For more detail about this, see Possible film and music synchronizations.
The film has been deemed "culturally significant" by the United States Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the National Film Registry.
The film is #6 on the American Film Institute's 100 years, 100 movies list, and two songs from the film are on the 100 years, 100 songs list ("Ding, Dong, the Witch is Dead" was #82 and "Over the Rainbow" was #1). It is also consistently in the top 100 on the IMDB Top 250 Films List.
A 2005 poll by the AFI ranked Dorothy's line "Toto, I've got a feeling we're not in Kansas anymore" as the fourth most memorable line in cinema history [1] (http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200506/s1398449.htm).
In 1977, Aljean Harmetz wrote The Making of The Wizard of Oz, a detailed description of the creation of the film based on interviews and research; it was updated in 1989. ISBN 0-7868-8352-9
Perhaps the most astonishing aspect of the film is that it was considered a failure in its initial release. The last thing on the minds of its creators, cast and crew would have been the legendary and beloved status it has achieved in the decades since then.
Cast
- Judy Garland - Dorothy Gale
- Frank Morgan - The Wizard of Oz, The Wizard's Guard, Professor Marvel, Emerald City Doorman
- Ray Bolger - Scarecrow, Hunk
- Bert Lahr - Cowardly Lion, Zeke
- Jack Haley - Tin Man, Hickory
- Billie Burke - Glinda
- Margaret Hamilton - The Wicked Witch of the West, Miss Almira Gulch
- Charles E. Grapewin - Uncle Henry Gale
- Clara Blandick - Aunt Emily Gale
- Pat Walshe - Nikko
- Meinhardt Raabe - The Munchkin Coroner
Sequels and related works
- The Wizard of Oz has an official sequel, the animated production Journey Back To Oz (made by Filmation Studios in 1964 but not released until eight years later), featuring the voice of Liza Minnelli, Garland's daughter, as Dorothy.
- The 1974 musical and 1978 film The Wiz were adapted from the same story.
- The considerably darker Return to Oz, was made by Walt Disney Studios in 1985 starring Fairuza Balk as Dorothy.
- In 1995, Gregory Maguire released the critically acclaimed novel, Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West, a the-other-side-of-the-story look at the witches of The Wizard of Oz: Glinda and Elphaba (the Wicked Witch of the West). Stephen Schwartz and Winnie Holzman turned it into a musical entitled Wicked in 2003 with Kristen Chenoweth as Glinda and Idina Menzel as Elphaba. The show opened to rave reviews from both critics and public, and even better box office. In 2004, it was nominated for 9 Tony Awards, winning 3 (including one for Idina Menzel).
See also
External link
| The world of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz The film adaptations (The Wizard of Oz | The Wiz | Return to Oz)
Wicked (The books | The musical)
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de:Das zauberhafte Land
fr:Le Magicien d'Oz (film, 1939)
sv:Trollkarlen från Oz