The Wizard of Oz movie — Page 3

It's always been one of my favorite movies. The witch scared the crap out of me when I was younger -- probably well into my teens actually. I'm fascinated by Oz trivia (have heard most of the stories told on here already at some point, but still love hearing them again).

Question -- do you think anyone would ever DARE to try to make a new Wizard of Oz film?
I wouldn't have a problem with it if they tried sticking closer to the book (a la Charlie and the Chocolate Factory), but a remake would be a disaster. The biggest problem would be that no one today would buy Jim Carrey or whoever in a lion suit -- even though even that conceit doesn't seem dated at all watching the film now. They would go CGI probably, and THAT would be depressing.

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Sorry, my bad. I forgot that particular alias doesn't accept PMs.

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Updated On: 10/22/06 at 09:11 PM

Bert Lahr (the Cowardly Lion) nearly fainted several times a day, lost a lot of weight, and was always drenched in sweat when he removed his costume--it consisted of a real lion skin PLUS padding.

He still managed to be tremendously funny, though. Watch the scene where Judy Garland slaps him and he bursts into tears--she's obviously biting her lip and hiding her face in Toto to keep from bursting out laughing. You can't blame her--imagine being two feet away from THAT for the first time ever!

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haha, wow, i deff just watched this tonight and then saw this thread. wierd! lol.

but i love it!

I'm a fan of "Return to Oz" as well... but I agree it was a muddled mess. I particularly love the David Shire score (which is out of print and very hard to find).

I don't think we'll see a Wizard of Oz remake anytime soon, with a film version of "Wicked" looming in the not-too-distant future. But Wicked might open a floodgate of Oz-related projects, particularly if it's successful on the big screen.

Who knows?

We'll always have the 1939 MGM film... and as the old song goes, "They can't take that away from me."

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It was a mixture of the 2nd and 3rd Oz books, "The Marvelous Land of Oz" and "Ozma of Oz."

But the Kansas sequences in the hospital, as well as those characters in Kansas, are not part of either book, and were written for this film. Pretty dark and scary stuff.

They took the Queen of Ev (who changes her heads whenever she's bored) from "Ozma of Oz" and old Mombi the hag from "The Land of Oz" and blended them together into one evil witch called Princess Mombi.

And the storyline of all the inhabitants of Oz being turned to stone and the city falling into ruins... well, that isn't part of the books either.

It was a noble attempt... and there is much to enjoy... but it is what it is... an ambitious failure.

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Ah, The Wizard of Oz. One of my favorite movies to this day. The Wicked Witch of The West used to scare the pants off me when I was younger. When I was around 4 or 5, I used to cover my eyes every time she appeared. My favorite scene in the whole movie is when the Witch dies and she's screaming: "You cursed brat! Look what you've done! I'm melting! Melting!". At first it used to scare me, but now I just crack up during that part.

As for a remake, I don't thing they will simply because anyone who tries to play Dorothy would have some HUGE shoes to fill. Plus the movie is great as it is, so why mess with near perfection?

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Oz-ophile here as well.

Re: THE JITTERBUG...

If I'm not mistaken, I don't believe they immediately threw away the prints/recordings of the number right after they filmed it. No, I think THAT happened during Kirk Kerkorian's liquidation of the studio in the late 60s. The studio was being prepped for sale, and they had extensive recordings, alternate takes, scripts, notes, etc. etc. of every film that MGM had produced. It all was trashed: either burned, buried, thrown away, etc. It makes me cry to think about it -- can you IMAGINE what was lost, and the film history that was destroyed needlessly? I bet the Jitterbug footage -- and god-knows-what-else OZ related -- was included.

Change the subject: have any of you ever noticed Judy about to break character during the "Lion Slap" scene? It's just a glimmer, but noticeable if you watch for it. She thought Bert Lahr was hilarious.

Flippancy---You certainly may be right about when those materials were thrown out. My point is they WERE thrown out, and it was before anyone realized they might be valued as archival "gold." Even in Kerkorian's liquidation time (late '60s to early '70s), this was all viewed as "excess goods" and many things were trashed, burned or given away.

I'm friends with a lady who used to work for Liza Minnelli years ago, and when Spielberg was filming "Hook" on the old MGM soundstage (where some of Oz was filmed), they invited Liza to come take a look. She'd been asked to do a cameo in the film, but her schedule wouldn't permit it. So, she decided to show up on the set that day to say hi in person and thank Spielberg for thinking of her, regardless.

While they were walking around, one of the makeup people grabbed them (my friend and Liza) and said, "Come here, I want to show you something." She took them to a makeup room, and sitting on an old dusty Styrofoam head was a tangled reddish-brown, long wig. The make up person flipped it over and it said "Judy Garland: Esther/Meet Me in St. Louis" sewn into the wig seam. She said it had been sitting up there for years, and they were thinking of throwing it out recently. Instead they gave it to Liza that day, and she was SO grateful they hadn't trashed it.

And that wasn't even very long ago... 1990, in fact.

TimWarp--I remember very well just how much of an EVENT it was, when the "Oz" film was shown annually on television. I would get excited for weeks in advance. And those introductory announcements saying, "please don't adjust your TV sets" when the first part of it comes on in B&W. I also remember when they had to "pad" the show with these introductions, because it clocked in at 101 minutes, and they needed to flesh it out to make it a 2-hour show. Then the intros disappeared, because they just showed more commercials, and started to advertise more on TV in general. Then, they actually began EDITING the film(!!!), trimming scenes down, to cram in even MORE commercials. Those were the bleakest days. And finally, this film was deemed a historical treasure, became protected, and it was (and still is) illegal now to edit or alter this film in any way for commercial release. Thank GOD for that.

And, boy, have times changed.

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The annual showing of OZ was a big event, for those of you who have only known videocassettes and DVD. Once every year, that's it. When I was really young, I think it was around Christmas, and then it got switched to the spring, I think.

And yeah, I was petrified of the witch and the monkeys. That shot with the witch in the crystal ball -- when they zoom in? Fugeddaboudit...nightmare inducing.

Hey, I grew up with the video and it's STILL a huge event whenever it's broadcast on TV! (Which is more than once a year now.)

I have been in love with the movie for my entire life. I don't remember ever being scared of it. We had the 35th (I think) anniversary video, with a whole bunch of extra footage at the end. You know, before DVDs with their fancy-schmancy menus. When I was little, I used to sit through the entire movie, the credits, and all the stuff. I knew all the words to the deleted songs, as well as all the bits of trivia that were included in the booklet on the video case.

I've been in The Wizard Of Oz twice, once as the Scarecrow and again as the Wicked Witch. The latter was the most fun I have ever had on stage. The script we were using was written for low-budget school productions, so there was no melting. Instead, the witch shrank (which allowed the school to use a cheap puppet). I begged the director (who was a teacher I'd had for all four years of middle school and knew pretty well) to let me melt. I said, "It's not The Wizard Of Oz if the witch doesn't melt!" He said, "Okay, how do you propose you melt?" I said, "Easy. I stand on a platform with a hole in the middle and slowly ease down the hole, leaving my hat behind."

The next day, I came to rehearsal and there was a big hole sawed out of the middle of one of his classroom tables! That was pretty cool, and my melting was awesome.

To pay homage to my love of all things Oz, I got a tattoo of ruby slippers on my ankle a year and a half ago. It's very pretty. I'll post a picture here later.

Does anyone remember the concert version with Joel Grey and Jewel that used to play every Christmas? There was no set, just the actors standing at microphones, with an orchestra behind them, and they read through the entire production. I loved that and would watch it every year, but I can't find it anymore.

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Actually, that's exactly the concert I was just talking about.

I loved it, and I think it's really striking to see the show without actually "seeing" the show. It shows just how strong the story is, and proves that it doesn't need the big sets and bright colors.

Plus, I just love Joel Grey and will watch him in anything. Jewel is an odd choice for Dorothy, but she's really sweet and surprisingly believable.

As for being worth it, it's up to you. But I recommend it.

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From what I remember, they go through the whole dialog as well. But it's been a while.

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