The Wizard of Oz (1939 film)

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This article is about the 1939 film. For other uses, see The Wizard of Oz
(disambiguation).
The Wizard of Oz

Theatrical
release
poster
Directed by Victor Fleming

King Vidor
Produced by Mervyn LeRoy
Noel Langley
Florence Ryerson
Screenplay by
Edgar Allan Woolf
The Wonderful Wizard of
Based on Oz
by L. Frank Baum
Judy Garland
Frank Morgan
Ray Bolger
Bert Lahr
Starring Jack Haley
Billie Burke
Margaret Hamilton

Charley Grapewin
Music by Herbert Stothart
Cinematograph
Harold Rosson
y
Edited by Blanche Sewell
Production
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
company
Distributed by Loew's, Inc.[1]
Release date August 25, 1939
Running time 101 minutes
Country United States
Language English
Budget $2.8 million[2][3]
Box office $3 million
 (original release)
[2]

$23.3 million
(unadjusted, re-
releases)[3]

The Wizard of Oz is a 1939 American musical fantasy comedy-drama

film produced by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, and the best-known and most
commercially successful adaptation based on the 1900 novel The
Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum.[4] It stars Judy Garland as
Dorothy Gale. The costars are Ray Bolger, Jack Haley, Bert Lahr, Frank
Morgan, Billie Burke, and Margaret Hamilton, with Charley Grapewin, Pat
Walshe and Clara Blandick, Terry (billed as Toto), and the Singer Midgets
as the Munchkins.[5]

Notable for its use of Technicolor, fantasy storytelling, musical score, and
unusual characters, over the years it has become an icon of American
popular culture. It was nominated for six Academy Awards, including Best
Picture, but lost to Gone with the Wind. It did win in two other categories,
including Best Original Song for "Over the Rainbow" and Best Original
Score by Herbert Stothart. However, the film was a box office
disappointment on its initial release, earning only $3,017,000 on a
$2,777,000 budget, despite receiving largely positive reviews.[2][6] It
was MGM's most expensive production to date and did not completely
recoup the studio's investment nor turn a profit until theatrical re-releases
starting in 1949.[7]

The 1956 broadcast television premiere of the film on the CBS network
reintroduced the film to the wider public and eventually made the
presentation an annual tradition, making it one of the best known films in
movie history.[4] The film was named the most-viewed motion picture on
television syndication by the Library of Congress, which also included the
film in its National Film Registry in its inaugural year in 1989. Designation
on the registry calls for efforts to preserve it for being "culturally,
historically, and aesthetically significant".[8] It is also one of the few films
on UNESCO's Memory of the World Register.[9]

The film is often ranked on best-movie lists in critics' and public polls. It
is the source of many quotes referenced in contemporary popular culture.
It was directed primarily by Victor Fleming (who left production to take
over direction on the troubled Gone with the Wind production). Noel
Langley, Florence Ryerson, and Edgar Allan Woolf received credit for the
screenplay, but uncredited contributions were made by others. The songs
were written by Edgar "Yip" Harburg (lyrics) and Harold Arlen (music).
The musical score and the incidental music were composed by Stothart.
Plot
The film begins in Kansas, which is depicted in a sepia tone. Dorothy Gale
lives with her dog, Toto, on her Aunt Em and Uncle Henry's farm. Toto
gets in trouble with a mean neighbor, Miss Almira Gulch, when he bites
her. However, Dorothy's family and the farmhands are all too busy to pay
her any attention. Miss Gulch arrives with permission from the sheriff to
have Toto put down. She takes him away, but he escapes and returns to
Dorothy, who then decides to run away from home, fearing that Miss
Gulch will return.

They meet Professor Marvel, a phony but kindly fortune teller, who
realizes Dorothy has run away and uses his crystal ball to dupe her 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 the storm cellar, she
seeks safety in her bedroom. A wind-blown window sash hits her in the
head, knocking her out. She then awakens to find the house has apparently
been picked up and sent spinning up into the air by the tornado. She looks
outside the window and sees several farm animals, an old lady sitting in a
chair knitting, two men rowing a boat, and Miss Gulch, who transforms
into a cackling witch flying on a broomstick.

Dorothy (Judy Garland, right)

with Glinda the Good Witch
of the North (Billie Burke)

The house crashes in

Munchkinland in the Land
of Oz, and just as Dorothy
opens the door the film
changes to Technicolor. Glinda the Good Witch of the North and the
Munchkins welcome her as their heroine the house has landed on and
killed the Wicked Witch of the East, leaving only her feet poking out from
under. In the middle of the celebration, the Wicked Witch of the West
arrives in a ball of smoke and fire to claim her sister's ruby slippers, but
Glinda transports them onto Dorothy's feet before the witch can get them.
She 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 a Scarecrow, who wants a brain,
and invites him to join her on her journey. Eventually they come to an
apple orchard where they find and befriend a Tin Man, who desires a
heart. After they invite him to come along, the Witch appears and makes
threats to them. Deep in the woods, they meet a Cowardly Lion, who is in
need of courage and invite him to come along as well. After the Witch
attempts to stop them using an enchanted poppy field, they finally reach
the Emerald City. Inside, after being initially rejected, they are permitted
to see the Wizard, who appears as a large disembodied head surrounded
by fire. He agrees to grant their wishes when they bring him the Witch of
the West's broomstick, implying they must kill her to get it.

On their journey to the Witch's castle, they pass through the Haunted
Forest, while the Witch views their progress in her crystal ball. She sends
her winged monkeys to attack them; they capture Dorothy and Toto. At
the castle, the Witch is refrained by magic when she tries to get the ruby
slippers off Dorothy's feet, then remembers that she must be dead first.
Toto escapes and leads the Scarecrow, Tin Man, and Cowardly Lion to the
castle. After ambushing three Winkie guards, they march inside wearing
the stolen guards' uniforms and free her, but the Witch discovers and
traps them. The Scarecrow provides a distraction and they attempt to
escape, being chased by the Witch and her guards, but are finally
surrounded. The Witch sets fire to the Scarecrow and Dorothy puts it out
with a bucket of water and unwittingly melts and kills the witch as the
water splashes on her. 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. 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, making them realize that they had what they
wanted all along. They just did not know it yet. He then prepares to launch
his hot air balloon to take Dorothy home but Toto runs off, and as she
tries to get him back, the balloon leaves without them. Suddenly, Glinda
returns and tells her that she can still return home by using the ruby
slippers. After sharing a tearful farewell with her friends, she follows
Glinda's instructions and taps her heels together three times and repeats,
"There's no place like home". She wakes up in bed at her home in Kansas,
surrounded by her family, the farmhands, Professor Marvel, and Toto.
Though they dismiss her adventure as a dream, she insists that it was all
real, and that there is no place like home.