The Wizard of Oz

First of all, let me apologize for not finding a poster. You would think that a timeless, much beloved classic like "The Wizard of Oz" would have tons of art work, especially since its had 65 years to accumulate different posters through re-releases and such, but no, all I could find was what I assume was the original poster (with all the characters looking like they were made of melting wax) and a re-release poster, which was very small. Oh well, you will have to settle for this nice screen shot. I feel like this movie epitomizes the term "movie magic" more than any other movie ever. Even more so than a movie like "Gone With the Wind" which is more of a movie spectacle. But for pure movie magic, nothing can top "The Wizard of Oz". From that first, iconic shot of Dorothy opening the door of her house and stepping into Oz, from black-and-white into color, there is sheer magic going on onscreen. This particular shot alone, such a perfect example of the dazzling new technology of Technicolor, is one that I will remember for all my life. Dorothy has entered a new world, remarking to her dog Toto, "I've a feeling we're not in Kansas anymore" and as we follow her adventures down the yellow brick road the allure, the power of classical Hollywood movie making magic simply dominates the screen.

There is so much to talk about here, from the pitch perfect casting, to the brilliant art direction, to the eminently quotable screenplay, and somehow all of it comes together in expert fashion. Every little detail about this movie has a story, and all of it only enhances the legendary finished product. Since there is so much to delve into, I will try to go in some type of order. First of all, the cast: Judy Garland was a natural choice for the role of Dorothy. She was the biggest young star at the time in Hollywood, having already appeared in some Andy Hardy films, and also possessed a beautiful singing voice. Rumors of the studio preferring Shirley Temple have proven to be apocryphal, although at this point any deviation from what has become part of pop culture history now seems ridiculous and unbelievable, so who knows. The trio of Ray Bolger, Jack Haley and Bert Lahr as the Scarecrow, Tin Man and Cowardly Lion, respectively, was pretty much set from the beginning, with the key exception being comedic actor Buddy Ebsen originally cast as the Tin Man. Ebsen had an allergic reaction to the silver makeup necessary for the part and had to drop out, and was immediately replaced by Jack Haley. Frank Morgan, another great veteran comedic actor, was cast as most notably The Wizard and Professor Marvel, but also played several smaller roles, including the Oz gatekeeper and the driver of the "horse of a different color". There is a fun story, probably false, that the coat Morgan was given from the MGM costume department had a small tag inside which read L.F. Baum. When L. Frank Baum's widow visited the set one day, she confirmed that the coat had in fact belonged to her husband, who was the original author of the Oz story. And finally Margaret Hamilton as the wicked witch of the west was apparently not the original choice. The studio preferred veteran actress Gale Sondergaarrd, but she dropped out because she did not want to play an "ugly" witch, preferring the early draft version, where she resembled the beautiful but malevolent Evil Queen from "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs".

I have refrained from talking too much about plot mostly because it is so well known, but also because in a movie like this, the behind-the-scenes goings on are often times as entertaining as what was on screen. In today's Hollywood, and in today's society, where there is such a demand for information and gossip, it is unimaginable how a movie such as "The Wizard of Oz" would have fared. A movie with a gargantuan budget having five directors as this did? Something like that is unheard of today, but in 1939 Hollywood, whatever had to be done, and often times this was simply the whim of one of the bosses like Louis B. Mayer, would be done. This is why Richard Thorpe, George Cukor, Victor Fleming, King Vidor and producer Mervyn LeRoy all directed parts of this movie. Victor Fleming, the credited director, assumed largely the same responsibilities he did on "Gone With the Wind", another epic MGM production, where he stepped in to essentially "right the ship", directed the bulk of it, then stepped aside. Oddly enough in both instances he directly replaced George Cukor, however Cukor was pretty much fired from the set of "Gone With the Wind" whereas here he was simply helping to keep the film afloat after weeks of Richard Thorpe's material was scrapped. Other production notes of interest include the fact that the studio nearly cut "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" because they felt the opening Kansas scenes took too long, and the infamous, but mostly erroneous reports of the Munchkins debauchery on set. Somehow, through all of this chaos emerged something that can truly be considered a masterpiece of the cinema, a film deserving of its title as "greatest childrens film" of all time, and a key component of "the greatest year in movie history", 1939, which included both "Wizard of Oz" and "Gone With the Wind", as well as "Gunga Din", "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington", "Stagecoach", and "Goodbye Mr. Chips". Oh yeah, the plot: Dorothy remembers "there's no place like home".