A Kansas farm girl swept by a tornado into the magical land of Oz teams up with a Scarecrow, Tin Man, and Cowardly Lion to seek help from the Wizard, only to learn she had the power to go home all along.
SHOW ESSENTIALS
Director:Victor Fleming (uncredited: Cukor, Vidor, Thorpe, Taurog)
Stars:Judy Garland, Frank Morgan, Ray Bolger, Jack Haley, Bert Lahr, Billie Burke,Margaret Hamilton
Studio:MGM | Runtime: 101 min | Released: Aug 25, 1939
Format:Sepia B&W (Kansas) / three-strip Technicolor (Oz)
Awards:Best Original Song ("Over the Rainbow") & Best Original Score;inaugural National Film Registry inductee (1989)
TRIVIA
Ray Bolger swapped roles with Buddy Ebsen to play the Scarecrow; Ebsen's Tin Man aluminum-dust makeup poisoned his lungs and he was hospitalized and recast without explanation — his voice survives in the group vocals of “We're Off to See the Wizard.”
W.C. Fields turned down the Wizard over pay; Frank Morgan took it. Gale Sondergaard, cast as a glamorous Witch, dropped out when the role became the familiar green hag, and Margaret Hamilton stepped in.
Five directors touched the film: Richard Thorpe (fired for rushing scenes, and for giving Garland a blonde wig and baby-doll makeup), George Cukor (briefly reset her look), Victor Fleming (left to rescue Gone with the Wind), and King Vidor (uncredited, shot the last ten days — including “Over the Rainbow”).
Margaret Hamilton suffered second- and third-degree burns when a fire effect misfired; her stunt double, Betty Danko, was later injured in a similar smoke-effect accident. Winged Monkey performers were hurt when their rigging wire snapped.
Bert Lahr's real-fur Lion costume weighed about 90 pounds and became a sauna under the lights; crew dried it out nightly. Garland reportedly found the ruby slippers painful and wore soft rehearsal shoes off-camera.
The tornado was a 35-foot muslin windsock with fuller's earth blown at it. The Tin Man's “steam” was talcum powder; his joint oil was chocolate syrup. The “horse of a different color” was colored with gelatin, filmed fast before it could belicked off.
Asbestos created the Witch's broomstick flame and the poppy-field “snow.”
MGM nearly cut “Over the Rainbow” as too slow and sophisticated for children; it went on to win the Oscar.
The film lost money on its 1939 release and didn't turn a profit until a 1949 re-issue. Its 1956 TV premiere drew a 53% audience share and helped make it, per the Library of Congress, the most-viewed film in history.
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