Review: The Wizard of Oz

Dorothy Gale (Judy Garland) dreams of a life ‘Over the Rainbow’ and away from her dreary Kansas home with Aunt Em and Uncle Henry (Clara Blandick and Charley Grapewin). Her wish is granted when a huge tornado whisks her and dog Toto (Terry) away...and their house I might add. They end up in the land of Oz, a place of Yellow Brick Roads, Munchkins, flying monkeys, and witches both Good (Billie Burke’s Glinda) and Bad (Margaret Hamilton’s Wicked Witch of the West). Dorothy, wanting nothing more than to go home, is encouraged to follow the Yellow Brick Road to the Emerald City. There she should see the Wizard of Oz (Frank Morgan), to ask to be transported back to Kansas. Along her journey, she is joined by a trio of helpers (Ray Bolger’s brainless Scarecrow, Bert Lahr’s Cowardly Lion, and Jack Haley’s heartless Tin Man), who also have something they want from the Wizard. However, they must be wary of the Wicked Witch and her band of flying monkeys.

 

Aside from my mother, I can’t imagine anyone not loving this classic 1939 screen adaptation of the 1900 L. Frank Baum novel. I mean, it’s just not normal to dislike this film, and probably a bit abnormal to merely ‘like’ it. However, I’m not quite as enamoured with it as most people. In fact, I think the film peters out the moment the flying monkeys turn up. They are for me, the only truly dated aspect of an otherwise timeless and magical film, one of the few musicals I enjoy. Remove the stupid and cheap-looking monkeys (which apparently scared a lot of kids), and maybe tighten up the prologue in Kansas a bit (the film is a little too long), and you’d have a damn near perfect film. Sure, Judy Garland’s voice grates a bit after a while (she starts to sound like her daughter Liza), and things wrap up a bit too quickly in Oz, but those are minor issues.

 

Make no mistake, I do love this film...for the most part (I fucking HATE the lollipop guild song, though! If there’s a Hell, that song is played on a loop!). I just don’t think it’s a perfect film, but hey, for a film that’s more than 70 years old, it holds up very well indeed. The transition from sepia tone to colour is movie magic (even if it might not have the same resonance as it did in 1939 when colour films were somewhat rare), and this is quite simply one of the most beautiful technicolour films of all-time. Even today it still seems so vibrant, thanks to the wonderful (and frankly rather bizarre) costumes by Adrian (“Grand Hotel”, “San Francisco”, “Camille”), set design by Edwin B. Willis (“A Night at the Opera”, “San Francisco”, “Gaslight”, “The Yearling”), and Oscar-nominated cinematography by Harold Rosson (“Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo”, “The Bad Seed”). The sepia tone is actually really beautiful, and I bet the makers of “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory” were inspired by the colour and set design in the Oz scenes. It’s gorgeous to behold, I mean, look at how vibrant those ruby red slippers are! The Oscar-winning music score by Herbert Strothart (“Waterloo Bridge”, “Random Harvest”) is also top-notch, and most of the songs by Harold Arlen (“Cabin in the Sky”, “A Star is Born”) and E.Y. Harburg (“Cabin in the Sky”, “Finian’s Rainbow”) are good fun, even for someone who hates musicals like me. The film could stand to lose a number or two (Might I suggest the fucking lollipop guild song? Is it wrong that I want to punch them when that song starts?), if you ask me. However, the Oscar-winning ‘Over the Rainbow’ is quite simply one of the most beautiful songs of all-time in one of cinema’s most memorable moments (‘Ding Dong, The Witch is Dead’, ‘Follow the Yellow Brick Road’ and the title song are all fun, too). Meanwhile, I’m absolutely convinced Bert Lahr was drunk during the filming of his ‘If I Were a King’ song, another one I might have cut. I do love the word ‘impoceros’ (not sure how you spell it), though. Also memorable is the tornado scene, which was well-done for the time. It plays like a bad dream, which is rather poignant when you think about it

 

It’s a spectacularly weird and trippy film when you think about it- Talking apple trees (straight out of “HR Pufnstuf” it seems), flying monkeys, munchkins, tin men, cowardly lions- it’s pretty fucked up, really, but unlike the later “Return to Oz” it never gets too dark that it loses its appeal to the whole family. I always found the munchkins to be a bit creepy to be honest, and looking at the film again, I’m pretty sure some of those munchkins are actually kids. Given the rumours of rowdy and drunken behaviour on set, I hope the kids didn’t get trashed alongside the other munchkins!

 

The plot of the film is somewhat simple, but it’s clearly been influential to any movie with a ‘quest’ plot. What one remembers most (and enjoys most) about this film are surely the characters and performances. Margaret Hamilton’s Wicked Witch of the West is easily one of cinema’s greatest cackling villains (her entrance as Elvira Gulch in the Kansas scenes is unforgettable), and a joy to watch, even when having to put up with those flying monkeys. I think the underrated Billie Burke is every bit her equal playing her polar opposite, Glinda the Good Witch. BTW, the creepiest image in the entire film for me is whenever a witch dies, you see their feet curling up. Not sure why, but it creeps me out.

 

Garland is winning (if slightly shrill at times) as Dorothy, but the real scene stealers are Ray Bolger, Frank Morgan, and especially Bert Lahr as the Cowardly Lion. Bolger is appealing and shows himself to be perfectly at home in song and dance and comedy as the brainless Scarecrow. Morgan does a great job playing several different roles, including the title character. Personally, I think he makes the biggest impression of his roles as the phony fortune teller. When I was a kid I was always drawn to Jack Haley’s Tin Man the most, but seeing the film again, I have absolutely no idea why. Haley’s OK (though he looks too dandified in the Kansas scenes if you ask me), and his song and dance number is fun, especially given the limitations of his costume. Clearly, Bert Lahr’s Cowardly Lion steals the show, though. Did you know he went on to front Metallica? What? What did I say? In all seriousness, Lahr is infectious, loveable, and hilariously silly all at the same time (Snagglepuss has a helluva lot to answer for, by the way) and gets most of the film’s funniest moments. For some reason, patting his face with his tail just cracks me up every time, and the funniest moment in the film is when he exclaims ‘Somebody pulled my tail!’. Trust me, it’s funny in the film. Frank Morgan is the underrated actor here, having the task of playing at least five different roles, including the title role. He’s particularly excellent as kindly travelling fortune teller Professor Marvel.

 

The screenplay is by Noel Langley (“Ivanhoe”, “The Prisoner of Zenda”, “Knights of the Round Table”), Florence Ryerson (who worked on a couple of “Philo Vance” detective flicks), and Edgar Allan Woolf (“Freaks”, “The Mask of Fu Manchu”), whilst Victor Fleming (“The Good Earth”, “Gone With the Wind”) and King Vidor (“The Crowd”, “The Champ”, “The Mask of Fu Manchu”, “Duel in the Sun”) were the main directors, along with uncredited work by George Cukor (“Little Women”, “Gone With the Wind”, “My Fair Lady”). Richard Thorpe (“Ivanhoe”, “The Prisoner of Zenda”, “Knights of the Round Table”) was the first director attached, but none of his work made it into the finished film. It was a troubled production (Buddy Ebsen had to vacate the role of the Tin Man because the silver makeup violently disagreed with him), but none of that turmoil shows up on screen. This is a wonderful, wonderful film, but not a perfect one. The flying monkeys are crap, the ‘Lollipop Guild’ song is a hellacious musical number that will stay in your brain forevermore, and the film drags towards the end (yet rushing things at the end, strangely enough).

 

But make no mistake, for its first ¾, this is a magical film experience and deserving of being seen and being loved. It’s certainly a more worthy film than “Gone With the Wind”, from the same year.

 

Rating: A-