Classic Movies - Fabulous Films of 1939: The Wizard of Oz

Today, let’s talk Classic Musical/Fantasy-The Wizard of Oz! Released by MGM Studios in 1939, The Wizard of Oz is a remarkable classic for all ages and the “best family film of all time” according to the American Film Institute. During childhood and long after, this magical film is one that we watched on TV with each yearly telecast. We would eagerly anticipate our annual walk down the “yellow brick road” with Dorothy and friends and were saddened when Dorothy’s final “There’s no place like home” was spoken, knowing it would be another year before we would make the journey through “Oz” again. Now that we own the film on DVD, we can watch it anytime we want and still enjoy it as much as ever. The songs are just as delightful, though we know them by heart, and the characters are still as lovable (or despicable) as they’ve always been. Opening with a dedication to the “young at heart”, The Wizard of Oz is quite possibly the most wonderful gift Hollywood ever presented to young and old alike.

The amazingly talented Judy Garland plays Dorothy, the wide-eyed youngster from Kansas who dreams that she and her dog, Toto, are swept away by a tornado and dropped (house and all) into the enchanting “Technicolor” land of Oz. (It was years before we ever saw the film in its colorful splendor.) In search of a way back home to Uncle Henry and Auntie Em, Dorothy heeds the advice of Glenda, the Good Witch of the North (Billie Burke) and the little folk of Munchkinland (The Singer Midgets) and follows the “yellow brick road” to Emerald City to implore the “Wizard of Oz” (Frank Morgan) for help. Along the way, she encounters “three marvelous personifications of human frailty”-the Scarecrow, with no brain (Ray Bolger), the Tin Man, with no heart (Jack Haley), and the Cowardly Lion, with no courage (Bert Lahr). Like Dorothy, they wish to seek help from the “Wizard” and go along with her. Before and after reaching the “Wizard”, they all must suffer the menacing wiles of the Wicked Witch of the West (Margaret Hamilton), who, with the aid of her “flying monkeys”, is determined to retrieve the powerful “ruby slippers” that Dorothy wears. Her evil plans, however, are foiled at every turn, either by the Good Witch, or by the cleverness and courage that Dorothy and her companions unknowingly possess, but constantly display throughout their journey together.

“Dorothy and company succeed because they abide by the prescription of L. Frank Baum’s original story: believe, and the rest will follow. Nothing evokes Baum’s theme more than the song Dorothy sings while still in her native Kansas. Dreaming of something lovelier than the endless expanse of Midwestern plains she looks up and sings, “Somewhere, over the rainbow…” It was an irresistible magnet for sentimentalists and romantics willing to believe and one that thrust Garland into superstardom and helped make this movie the most enduring of childhood-fantasy films.” (Author, Paul Trent)

The Wizard of Oz is a beautifully made film, produced by Mervyn LeRoy and directed by Victor Fleming. The songwriting team of E. Y. (Yip) Harburg and Harold Arlen masterfully penned the legendary songs with which we are all so familiar, “Over the Rainbow”, “Ding-Dong the Witch is Dead”, “Follow the Yellow Brick Road”, “If I Only Had a Brain (Heart, the Nerve)”, etc. Unfortunately, several fabulous musical dance numbers (staged by Bobby Connolly) were cut from the film due to length. Would any of us have actually minded watching an additional 15 or 20 minutes of this thoroughly entertaining motion picture? We think not.

The Wizard of Oz garnered two Academy Awards out of six nominations; one for best song, “Over the Rainbow” (Harburg and Arlen), and the other for best music-original score (Herbert Stothart). Judy Garland also won a miniature “Oscar” for the year’s best “juvenile” performances for Babes in Arms and The Wizard of Oz. The film would probably have won more in any other year, but 1939 produced some of the best movies to ever come out of Hollywood, including mega-blockbuster, Gone with the Wind. We thoroughly recommend The Wizard of Oz to one and all; young, old, and in-between. It is an enduring and timeless classic that remains an audience favorite after seventy years, proving that truly great films never die.

More pictures from The Wizard of Oz 1939:








I'm melting, melting, aaaaaaaaaaahhh.








There's no place like home.














**Trivia Question for Today: Whom did Jack Haley replace as the Tin Man in The Wizard of Oz and why? The answer will appear in our next post.

Trivia Answer for Previous Post: Makeup artist, Jack Pierce, was responsible for the amazing werewolf transformation in The Wolf Man. Lon Chaney, Jr. was fully capable of doing the makeup himself, just as his father had, but due to professional unions within the motion picture industry, he was not allowed to do his own makeup.

We will continue featuring the Fabulous Films of 1939 with each post for the rest of the month!