The Wizard of Oz is a 1939 American musical comedy-drama fantasy film produced by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. The most well-known and commercially successful adaptation based on the 1900 novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum, the film stars Judy Garland as Dorothy Gale. The co-stars are Ray Bolger, Jack Haley, Bert Lahr, Frank Morgan, Billie Burke, and Margaret Hamilton, with Charley Grapewin, Pat Walshe and Clara Blandick, Terry the dog (billed as Toto), and the Singer Midgets as the Munchkins.
Plot[]
The film begins in Kansas, depicted in a sepia tone. Dorothy Gale lives with her dog Toto on the farm of her Aunt Em and Uncle Henry. Dorothy's dog gets in trouble with a mean neighbor, Miss Almira Gulch, when Toto bites her. However, Dorothy's family and the farmhands are all too busy to pay attention to her. Miss Gulch arrives with permission from the sheriff to have Toto destroyed. She takes him away, but he escapes and returns to Dorothy, who then decides to run away from home, fearing that Gulch will return.
They meet Professor Marvel, a phony but kindly fortune teller, who realizes Dorothy has run away and tricks her via his crystal ball into believing that Aunt Em is ill so that she must return home. She races home just as a powerful tornado strikes. Unable to get into her family's storm cellar, she seeks safety in her bedroom. A wind-blown window sash hits her in the head, knocking her out. The house is picked up and sent spinning in the air by the twister. Inside the storm outside the window, she awakens and sees an elderly lady in a chair, several farm animals, two men rowing a boat, and Miss Gulch (still pedaling her bicycle), who transforms into a cackling witch flying on a broomstick.
The farmhouse crashes in Munchkinland in the Land of Oz, where the film changes to Technicolor. Glinda the Good Witch of the North and the Munchkins welcome her as their heroine, as the house has landed on and killed the Wicked Witch of the East, leaving only her stocking feet exposed. The Wicked Witch of the West arrives to claim her sister's ruby slippers, but Glinda transports them onto Dorothy's feet first. The Wicked Witch of the West swears revenge on Dorothy for her sister's death. Glinda tells Dorothy to follow the yellow brick road to the Emerald City, where the Wizard of Oz might be able to help her get back home.
On her way, Dorothy meets and befriends the Scarecrow, who wants a brain, the Tin Woodman, who desires a heart, and the Cowardly Lion, who is in need of courage. Dorothy invites each of them to accompany her. After the Witch attempts to stop them several times, they finally reach the Emerald City. Inside, after being initially rejected, they are permitted to see the Wizard (who appears as a large head surrounded by fire). He agrees to grant their wishes when they bring him the Witch of the West's broomstick.
On their journey to the Witch's castle, the group passes through the Haunted Forest, while the Witch views their progress through a crystal ball. She sends her winged monkeys to harass Dorothy where they capture both Dorothy and Toto. At the castle, the Witch plans to have Toto drowned, but she tries to get the slippers off Dorothy, resulting the Witch to be painfully shocked by the slippers' magic shock, then remembers that Dorothy must be dead first. Toto escapes and leads her friends to the castle. After ambushing three Winkie guards, they march inside wearing the stolen uniforms and free her, but the Witch discovers them and traps them. However, the Scarecrow uses the Tin Man's axe to cut a rope nearby and send gigantic chandelier, swinging overhead, down onto The Witch's soldiers, knocking them to the floor and the quartet attempt to escape. The Witch and her guards chase them through the castle, across battlements and finally surround them. When the Witch sets fire to the Scarecrow, Dorothy puts out the flames with a bucket of water, accidentally splashing the Witch, causing her to melt away, leaving only her robes, pointed hat and the broomstick. The guards rejoice that she is dead and give Dorothy the charred broomstick in gratitude.
Back at the Emerald City, the Wizard delays granting their requests. Then Toto pulls back a curtain and exposes the "Wizard" as a normal middle-aged man who has been projecting the fearsome image; he denies Dorothy's accusation that he is a bad man, but admits to being a humbug. He then gives the Scarecrow a diploma, the Lion a medal, and the Tin Man a ticking heart-shaped watch, granting their wishes and convincing them that they have received what they sought. He then prepares to launch his hot air balloon to take Dorothy home, but Toto chases a cat, Dorothy follows, and the balloon leaves without them as the Wizard states that he is unable to bring it back down. Suddenly, Glinda returns and tells her that she can still return home by using the Ruby Slippers. Following Glinda's instructions, Dorothy taps her heels together three times and repeats, "There's no place like home". At the end of the film, Dorothy taps her heels together and wakes up, surrounded by her family, the farmhands, Professor Marvel, and Toto. Though her family and friends dismiss her adventure as a dream, Dorothy insists that it was all real, and that there really is no place like home.
Cast[]
- Judy Garland as Dorothy Gale
- Frank Morgan as Wizard of Oz/Professor Marvel/Doorman/Cabbie/Guard/Doctor
- Ray Bolger as The Scarecrow/Hunk
- Jack Haley as Tin Woodman/Hickory
- Bert Lahr as Cowardly Lion/Zeke
- Billie Burke as Glinda the Good Witch of the North
- Margaret Hamilton as Wicked Witch of the West /Miss Almira Gulch
- Clara Blandick as Aunt Em
- Charley Grapewin as Uncle Henry
- Pat Walshe as Nikko (the Winged Monkey King)
- Terry as Toto
- Mitchell Lewis as the Winkie Guard Captain (credited only in the IMAX version)
Munchkins[]
- Charlie Becker as Munchkin Mayor
- Meinhardt Raabe as Munchkin Coroner
- Jakob "Jackie" Gerlich as Lollipop Guild/Munchkin
- Jerry Maren as Lollipop Guild/Munchkin
- Billy Curtis as Braggart Munchkin
- Harry Monty as Soldier/Winged Monkey
- Mickey Carroll as Fiddler/Town Crier/Soldier
- Karl Slover as Lead trumpeter/Soldier/"Sleepyhead"/Villager
- Olga C. Nardone as the Littlest Lullaby League
- Margaret Pellegrini as "Sleepyhead"
- Ruth Duccini as a Munchkin Villager
- The Doll Family as Munchkin Villagers
- The Singer Midgets as the Munchkins
Uncredited[]
- Billy Bletcher - Additional Voices
- Pinto Colvig - Additional Voices
Release[]
The film's first sneak preview was held in San Bernardino, California. The film was previewed in three test markets: on August 11, 1939, at Kenosha, Wisconsin and Cape Cod, Massachusetts, and at the Strand Theatre in Oconomowoc, Wisconsin, on August 12. The Hollywood premiere was held on August 15, 1939, at Grauman's Chinese Theatre. The New York City premiere, held at Loew's Capitol Theatre on August 17, 1939, was followed by a live performance with Judy Garland and her frequent film co-star Mickey Rooney. They continued to perform there after each screening for a week, extended in Rooney's case for a second week and in Garland's to three (with Oz co-stars Ray Bolger and Bert Lahr replacing Rooney for the third and final week). The movie opened nationally on August 25, 1939.
Reception[]
On the film critic aggregator site Rotten Tomatoes, 99% of 109 critics gave the film a positive review, with an average score of 9.4/10. The consensus reads: "An absolute masterpiece whose groundbreaking visuals and deft storytelling are still every bit as resonant, The Wizard of Oz is a must-see film for young and old." At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the movie received the maximum score of 100, based on four reviews, indicating "universal acclaim".
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