This article brought to you by Valor of the Lake Alarms
Article by Nathan Hurlbut
It’s probably safe to say that you would have to have been living under a rock to have never seen the classic movie The Wizard of Oz (1939). Its frequent airings on television over the years, as well as its subsequent release in every home viewing format imaginable, has earned it the title of, “the most watched movie in film history.”
I can remember as a kid that about once a year one of the television networks would air the movie, making it an annual tradition. It has ensured that since its original release in 1939, the movie has had the opportunity to constantly reach a new generation of enthusiastic viewers.
Interestingly, this classic movie didn’t even turn a profit for MGM on its initial release. It was only after the movie was re-released ten years later in 1949 that the studio actually made any money on the movie. Of course, the fantasy film’s expensive budget of $2.8 million meant that it had to sell a lot more tickets to turn a profit. However, the movie’s enduring appeal has meant that it is more popular today than ever before.
The movie’s initial production successfully contradicts the common assumption that, “too many witches spoil the brew.” Seven different writers, including director Victor Fleming, contributed to the film’s screenplay, and a succession of different directors were at the helm over the course of the film’s shoot.
This usually signals a troubled production, and advance word of such problems frequently permanently taints a movie, resulting in a box-office failure. Yet, however modest the movie’s initial theatrical run was, there’s no denying the success of the film has only continued to grow over the years.
That is partly due to the fact that the movie features some of the most memorable movie songs ever committed to celluloid. Titles like Follow the Yellow Brick Road, If I Only Had a Brain, and Ding Dong, the Witch is Dead immediately recall their catchy melodies, having insinuated themselves into your brain for them to repeat over and over again in your head.
Not forgetting, of course, the classic Over the Rainbow, which, ironically, was almost cut from the movie. When an early edit of the movie ran over two hours, the studio decided it needed to cut the movie’s running time down for release, and felt the Kansas sequence of the film was too long. Fortunately director Victor Fleming and producer Mervyn LeRoy fought to keep the song in the movie, and they succeeded. It went on to win the Academy Award for Best Original Song and has subsequently been voted as the greatest song in the history of American movies by the American Film Institute.
Meanwhile the film’s dialogue has proven to be equally as memorable. Movie quotes like “There’s no place like home,” “Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain,” and “Toto, I have a feeling we’re not in Kansas anymore,” have all entered into the public consciousness and become a permanent part of our American culture.
The movie also has plenty of interesting details behind its creation. For example, the snow that fell onto Dorothy and her companions in the field of poppies that made them fall asleep was actually asbestos, even though its harmful effects were already known. Also, Buddy Epson was originally cast as the Tin Man, but had such a serious reaction to his aluminum powder makeup that he was hospitalized in critical condition and had to be replaced with Jack Haley. Meanwhile in another makeup mishap, Margaret Hamilton’s distinctive green makeup as the Wicked Witch accidentally caught on fire in one sequence and ended up giving gave her third degree burns. Interestingly, many of her Wicked Witch scenes also had to be cut from the movie, as the studio thought she was too scary for the younger viewers that were the movie’s target audience.
They were certainly right about one thing: that young people would indeed be the movie’s target audience. After all, this film from 1939 has been entertaining multiple generations of children (and adults) for eighty years and running now and shows no sign of losing any of its popularity. If you were looking for the definition of the term, “classic movie,” you couldn’t do much better than The Wizard of Oz.
Rated PG.
“The Wizard of Oz” is playing for one night only at Blue Jay Cinema as part of its Classics Series on Wednesday, August 14th.