Wizard of Oz

[agayguy]

Any Wizard of Oz movie fans?
Who are your favorite character(s), favorite scenes(s), memories ?

Mine- Loved Dorothy, timidness of Lion, Glinda looks stoned during Munchkinland musical numbers. Margaret Hamilton was excellent as Wicked Witch. She scared me as a little kid. Anyone else experience that?

Make up, Costumes and Special Effects were outstanding for back then.
Loved the cyclone scene as it is starting out, and as it picks up the house.

I don't know if they still show it on t.v. on a regular basis, but as a kid and younger adult it was a yearly fixture on t.v. Normally Sunday nights.
Anyone else have good memories to share?

 

[goldenmoth]

Of course there are fans here!

Favourite character: Glinda the good witch. Which leads to my fave scene
Favourite scene: when Dorothy says "why didn't you tell me sooner" and Glinda says "because you wouldn't have believed it. You had to work it out on your own"
Favourite memory: watching the tornado scene as a kid and being absolutely enthralled

 

[kallipolis]

There is much wisdom to be appreciated in this film:

Dorothy: How do you talk if you don't have a brain?

Scarecrow: Well, some people without brains do an awful lot of talking don't they?

and, never let others pull your strings. Do it all, yourself.:

Wizard of Oz: Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain!

 

[IowaGuy]

One of my all time favorite movies! I bought the DVD and yes they do continue to show it on TV. Love everything about it.

 

[vacancy3]

Bluray looks stunning

 

[EddMarkStarr]

A movie masterpiece that became an annual television spectacular.

The Wizard of Oz is a cultural icon that spans generations.
But the era of broadcast commonality is going away. The Wizard of Oz was the one movie we all had in common but I'm already meeting kids that are unfamiliar with Dorothy and her Oz friends. We may already be at a point where The Wizard of Oz becomes a relic of the past, only favored by the generation passing.

Well I'm still here and I come from one of those generations that looked forward to the annual broadcast. My oldest memory of watching The Wizard of Oz goes back to 1961. As the years have gone by my favorite scenes have changed as I "see" the film with older eyes.

Do you guys know about the accident Margaret Hamilton suffered during her appearance as the Witch of the West in Munchkinland? Margaret herself retold the story many times on talk shows and interviews, up til her death in 1985.

The accident was a "miscue" on the giant MGM soundstage set for Munchkinland. As the witch, Margaret would appear and disappear by means of a trap door elevator built into the stage floor.

After saying her famous line - "and your little dog too", the miscue caused the trap door to open prematurely accompanied by the smoke to help her vanish in a final fireball. Margaret suffered burns on her face and hands as a result of being exposed to the fireball while descending below the soundstage.

Take a look at this scene again. There's a mark on the stage floor, identifying the location of the elevator. Margaret has to "hit that mark" before the smoke emerges and the elevator descends. You can clearly see that the sequence begins too soon!

 

[gsdx]

Loved the cyclone scene as it is starting out, and as it picks up the house.

A bit of trivia for you. The special effects department had to come up with a cyclone for the film, but any footage they could find was unusable or not realistic enough. They came up with their own cyclone.They used a woman's stocking attached securely at the top while the bottom was twisted into a funnel shape and attached to a movable turntable. After filming it, they added some debris and the swirling dust cloud at the bottom and voila - man-made twister.

When I was a kid, we had a black & white TV, and we watched that movie many, many times with everything in varying shades of grey. It was wonderful seeing it in colour for the first time.

I don't watch it on TV anymore. It's too edited to fit the time slot and it's slaughtered by commercial breaks. I have it on DVD, but the Blu ray version must be spectacular. I may invest in it.

 

[EddMarkStarr]

Scene by scene - you can pull The Wizard of Oz apart and still be amazed at the skill each scene required.

The tornado was the one element that all my friends in middle school could not stop talking about.
"How did they do it?" The answer seems unbelieveable!

Thank you gsdx.

When combined into the final film, the tornado is awesome to behold.
Even in this low res YouTube clip the tornado is flat-out amazing.

 

[gsdx]

The tornado was the one element that all my friends in middle school could not stop talking about.
"How did they do it?" The answer seems unbelieveable!

Thank you gsdx.

You're welcome. I read about it a long time ago, and the story was told by one of the 'wizards' who worked on the special effects for the film. The story stuck with me.

There was also the true story of Buddy Ebsen (Jed Clampett) cast as the Tin Man and having a near-deadly reaction to the aluminum make-up. He had to step down from the role which was recast with Jack Haley. Ray Bolger, the Scarecrow, was originally cast as the Tin Man and Ebsen was cast as the Scarecrow, but Bolger convinced the producers that he really wanted to portray the Scarecrow. They allowed Bolger and Ebsen to switch roles.

Also, it's no secret that Shirley Temple was the first choice to play Dorothy, but her studio wouldn't release her from her contract. Judy Garland was, of course, ultimately given the role.

Speaking of Dorothy, there is also the true story that the producers, upon seeing the film, wanted the song 'Over the Rainbow' to be cut from the film. They felt it slowed down the momentum of the film too much. Fortunately, they were convinced otherwise.

Working with the little people as the Munchkins was a virtual nightmare. Over 100 were required for the film and had to be brought in from all over the world. Many of them didn't speak or understand English.

Then, of course, there is the legend of the hanging Munchkin.

The entire film was well-cast, but none better than Margaret Hamilton. IMdB lists 122 credits beginning with her first film in 1933 and ending in 1982, only 3 years before her death. Still, only her real fans can name another film or television role. Her most famous role outside of the Wicked Witch is probably Cora, the store owner in a series of Maxwell House commercials in the 70s:

 

[EddMarkStarr]

While I grew up watching The Wizard of Oz, I never caught "Oz fever" until MGM celebrated the 50th Anniversary of the film in 1989.

Money was tight for me in the 80's and all I could do was admire all the goodies available at stores all over Seattle, with no cash to get anything except the 50th Anniversary Collectors Album, (the soft-bound version at that!).

That album was the first time I read about casting Shirley Temple as "Dorothy". As the most popular child star on the planet, Shirley was a natural first choice. But The Wizard of Oz was one of those projects where the music preceded the filming. Producer Mervyn LeRoy knew that his Oz musical needed a real singer with the chops to climb the musical mountain of "Over The Rainbow".

Shirley Temple was a cute kid but she was no singer with her characteristic "cherub" lyric delivery. There's no way Shirley could do "Over The Rainbow" justice. Mervyn LeRoy championed Judy Garland after he heard her at an audition for "Dorothy".

But beyond the voice, Judy Garland looked the part of the midwest, "All American Girl".

That scene where the house stops falling and we see Dorothy in color as she looks around Munchkinland - priceless!

 

[gsdx]

I just remembered another original casting hopeful. W.C. Fields was the original choice for the Wizard and, as it turned out, the Cowardly Lion. He was given the choice. He turned them both down.

 

[EddMarkStarr]

I just remembered another original casting hopeful. W.C. Fields was the original choice for the Wizard and, as it turned out, the Cowardly Lion. He was given the choice. He turned them both down.

Yes, that's what I read too. W.C. Fields could write his own ticket when it came to accepting roles. Can't help but wonder how his presence would have changed the "feel" of the movie.

But make no mistake, Frank Morgan earned his wings playing multiple roles in The Wizard of Oz. He didn't sing or dance, but I can't even imagine The Wizard of Oz without him.

Here's a clip with Frank Morgan as The Doorman. This clip includes that beautiful backdrop scenery of the countryside as it flows right up to the threshold towers of the Emerald City. Dorothy and her friends almost appear superimposed, but I think it's just the scale of the props used to fill the huge MGM soundstage.

 

[gsdx]

^ Frank was great and, in my opinion, far better than Fields would have been. Frank was also the coachman.

Anyway, there are a number of places in the film where you can see a definite line where the sound stage ends and the painted backdrop begin, but they are extremely well-done considering the scale. In the clip above, they are superimposed, or 'matted in'. I took a screen cap of it, then I cropped a portion of it and enlarged it. You can clearly see where the set and the matte don't quite line up. I've indicated the matte line with red arrows.

 

[EddMarkStarr]

Dude, You are amazing!

It never occurred to me to freeze frame and enlarge, lol. Thank you for confirming what my eyes were telling me, there's always something a bit "odd" as Dorothy and the boys approach the main doorway. Yes, I remember one of the signs of to look for with "blue screen" or "green screen" is strong vertical lines that don't always match up. The technique is workable only in scenes with no motion in the backfield. So no flowing rivers or flying birds.

Some of the comments on YouTube are interesting.

Take another look at the Doorman scene above but ignore Frank Morgan's character and watch Bert Lahr as the Lion. His face gear limits what he can emote while in-character but WOW, he sure knew how to show joy. Bert Lahr is Amazing!




Now here's a moment in the movie that always stood out to me when I was a little kid.

The movie's repeated road song is, "We're Off To See The Wizard", but Dorothy and the boys' version never hit me the way the Munchkins version did. The Munchkins were the first to sing the song and the way the scene plays out The Wizard of Oz doesn't really start until I see Dorothy skipping along the road as it leads away from Munchkinland.

Something about this scene grips me like nothing else I've seen over the course of my life.
Everytime I see it, I'm a kid again!

 

[Unicornia]

bumping

 

[MusicMan321]

That's a great movie to watch wether you are a kid or adult

 

[jjonn3]

Back in 2013 for the 75th Anniversary they did a frame by frame digital scan and release the movie to theaters in Imax 3D.

It was amazing the detail they were able to capture that I never saw on television.

It is the only time I have seen the Wizard of Oz in the theater and it was spectacular.

 

[m1thousand]

When I was a kid, I thought that color was invented and they decided to add it into the movie when Dorothy opens the door to her house to reveal Oz

I was occupied with the Munchkin suicide. Finally!! I saw that it was actually a bird and not a suicidal Munchkin ;-)

Im melting

Have you seen this? Judy Garland in Black face . . .

'The Wonderful Wizard of Oz' (Oldest Oz movie)

 

[ShadowCat]

Am I the only homo that doesn't care *girls start clutching those pearls now* about Wizard of Oz, Judy Garland, or Broadway Musicals?

 

[m1thousand]

yes . . . .