Cinema
The Wizard of Oz
Victor Fleming · 1939
Synopsis
Dorothy lives on a farm in Kansas with her Aunt Em and Uncle Henry. A neighbour, Miss Gulch, gets Dorothy's dog Toto handed over to her so that he can be put down; the dog escapes, Dorothy runs away with him, then returns. A tornado carries off the house, with her inside, to the land of the Munchkins, where the house crushes the Wicked Witch of the East. Glinda, the good witch of the North, puts the ruby slippers on her feet; the Wicked Witch of the West, sister of the dead one, threatens her. Dorothy follows the yellow brick road towards the wizard who might send her home.
Context
Richard Thorpe shot for about ten days before being replaced; George Cukor advised without filming anything; Fleming shot most of it, then was called to another production, and King Vidor, uncredited, filmed the Kansas scenes, the tornado and the song Over the Rainbow, which won an Oscar. Margaret Hamilton, the witch, was burned on the face and hands by a fire effect, and the aluminium powder in the Tin Man's make-up sent Buddy Ebsen to hospital. A loss on release, the film became profitable only with its 1949 re-release; CBS broadcast it for the first time in 1956.
Who it is for
A musical film running one hour forty, of which the first part, set in Kansas, is in sepia and the rest in colour.
Prizes and reception
Added in 1989 to the National Film Registry and later to UNESCO's Memory of the World Register, it is reputed to be one of the most watched films in history.
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