The Wizard of Oz (1939)

Dorothy Gale is swept away to a magical land in a tornado and embarks on a quest to see the Wizard who can help her return home.

Director:

Victor Fleming

Writers:

Noel Langley (screenplay), Florence Ryerson (screenplay),

Stars:

Judy Garland, Frank Morgan, Ray Bolger

Top 250 #149 | Won 2 Oscars. Another 6 wins & 11 nominations.

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Judy Garland	...	Dorothy
Frank Morgan	...	Professor Marvel / The Wizard of Oz / The Gatekeeper / The Carriage Driver / The Guard
Ray Bolger	...	'Hunk' / The Scarecrow
Bert Lahr	...	'Zeke' / The Cowardly Lion
Jack Haley	...	'Hickory' / The Tin Man
Billie Burke	...	Glinda
Margaret Hamilton	...	Miss Gulch / The Wicked Witch of the West
Charley Grapewin	...	Uncle Henry
Pat Walshe	...	Nikko
Clara Blandick	...	Auntie Em
Terry	...	Toto (as Toto)
The Singer Midgets	...	The Munchkins (as The Munchkins)

Storyline

In this charming film based on the popular L. Frank Baum stories, Dorothy and her dog Toto are caught in a tornado's path and somehow end up in the land of Oz. Here she meets some memorable friends and foes in her journey to meet the Wizard of Oz who everyone says can help her return home and possibly grant her new friends their goals of a brain, heart and courage.

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Plot Keywords:

witch | dog | wizard | home | heart | 

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Taglines:

The Greatest Picture in the History of Entertainment

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Genres:

Adventure | Family | Fantasy | Musical

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Certificate:

G

Details

Official Sites:

Warner Bros. (1998 rerelease)

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

25 August 1939 (USA)

Also Known As:

El mago de Oz

Filming Locations:

Culver City, California, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$2,777,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend:

$5,354,311 (USA) (6 November 1998)

Gross:

$14,792,232 (USA) (1 January 1999)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), Loew's

Technical Specs

Runtime:

101 min

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Sound System: The Voice of Action) Dolby Digital (2005 re-issue)

Color:

Black and White (Sepiatone) Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Ray Bolger, Bert Lahr, and Jack Haley had to eat their meals in their dressing rooms, as the make-up they wore frightened the other diners in the MGM cafeteria. Ray Bolger commented in an interview on the reactions that other MGM actors had upon seeing these "weird-looking characters" in the cafeteria.

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Goofs

When the group is asking the Palace Guard if they can see the Wizard, his mustache suddenly goes from being pointed upward to being pointed downward between shots. This is the result of a deleted scene, "the changing of the guard."

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Quotes

[first lines]
Dorothy: She isn't coming yet, Toto. Did she hurt you? She tried to, didn't she? Come on. We'll go tell Uncle Henry and Auntie Em.

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Crazy Credits

Clara Blandick, who plays Aunt Em, Pat Walshe, who plays Nikko, and Toto are not listed at all in the opening credits, only in the closing ones.

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Connections

Referenced in How I Met Your Mother: Blitzgiving (2010)

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Soundtracks

"Munchkinland Medley: 'Come Out, Come Out, Wherever You Are', 'The House Began To Pitch', 'As Mayor of the Munchkin City', 'As Coroner, I Must Aver', 'Ding Dong The Witch is Dead', 'Lullaby League', 'Lollipop Guild' and 'We Welcome You to Munchkinland'"
(1939) (uncredited)
Lyrics by E.Y. Harburg
Music by Harold Arlen
Sung by Judy Garland, Billie Burke, The King's Men, Ken Darby,
Rad Robinson, Bud Linn, Jon Dodson, The Debutantes, Billy Bletcher,
, Pinto Colvig, Delos Jewkes, Abe Dinovitch, Betty Rome, Carol Tevis,
, Lois Clements, Zari Elmassian, Nick Angelo, Robert Bradford and Virgil Johanson (dubbing the Munchkins)

User Reviews

Still Has Its Magic

Judy Garland's portrayal of Dorothy, Dorothy's oddball Oz friends, "Somewhere Over the Rainbow", and the rest of this fine production of "The Wizard of Oz" have lost little of their magic over the years. While it has become oddly fashionable in recent years to deride this kind of classic, innocent fantasy, the movie itself has aged very well, and it is likely to retain an appreciative audience for some time to come.

There's no doubt that part of the appeal of the story and the characters comes from them being such old friends to so many cinema fans, but there are also good reasons why they have endured for so long, and have been able to hold up even after becoming so familiar. Although Dorothy is not a particularly complex character, she represents an innocent but deep yearning that is easy to identify with. Likewise, the 'Oz' characters are bizarre enough to remain interesting, but there is a core of substance that again is easy to believe in. Who does not feel that he or she could use at least one of the things that Dorothy's friends want?

The adaptation from the original story is done quite well, making fine choices for the characters and episodes that would work on film. The settings and visual effects may not impress the devotees of today's computer imagery, but in their time they certainly demonstrated a great deal of skill and planning, and even now, in their own way they are more believable than are most of the computer tricks that have become so overused.

The popular story has also been used for a number of more recent adaptations, and some of them have had some good points of their own. But this Wizard remains by far the most wonderful of the versions of the classic tale.