The Wizard of Oz

Continuity mistake: When Scarecrow, Tin Man, and the Cowardly Lion are marching into the Wicked Witch's castle after taking the guards' uniforms, all three of them are shown holding the same types of spears as the guards, so when they go rescue Dorothy out of the locked room and Tin Man chops through the door with his axe, where did the axe come from? (01:22:50)

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Suggested correction: I'm 63 years old and still watch The Wizard of Oz. If I remember correctly, the axe was taken off a nearby wall.

There is no scene of him taking the axe off the wall, nor is there any axe seen on any of the walls. Plus, it's the same axe he had the whole time. But the 3 also take off their coats/disguises while the camera is on Dorothy and it's possible he had the axe tucked away in the coat.

Bishop73

In the books, the Tin Man always has his axe and he uses it often. Perhaps it is the same in the movie.

Visible crew/equipment: As the talking trees throw their apples at Dorothy and the Scarecrow, look closely at the upper right hand side of the screen. An off camera crew member is shaking one of the trees back and forth as all of the others stand motionless. (00:40:20)

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Suggested correction: The tree is indeed shaking, but no crew member is visible.

Sacha

Continuity mistake: When the Tin Man is attacked by six flying monkeys they take away his axe. Several seconds later he has it again. (01:15:20)

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Suggested correction: The "several seconds later" between his axe being taken and him having it back is a 25-second scene of the Scarecrow being pulled apart, and Dorothy and Toto being taken away. There was plenty of time for the Tin Man to retrieve his axe. Also, when we see the Tin Man with his axe again, there are still many flying monkeys on the ground, so it's possible that the flying monkey who took his axe didn't just immediately fly away with it.

zenee

Continuity mistake: As the Cowardly Lion chases him, Toto runs off the Yellow Brick road into the bushes twice. (00:50:15)

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Suggested correction: He only runs into the bushes one time.

zenee

Audio problem: When Dorothy and the Scarecrow find the apple trees she says, "Oh, look, apples." The overdub is wrong, if you look closely at her mouth when she turns around toward the camera, she's actually not saying anything. (00:39:20)

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Suggested correction: Her mouth does move, and she actually says, "Oh, apples! Oh, look!"

zenee

Audio problem: Inside the Emerald City Dorothy says "Can you even dye my eyes to match my gown?" Both the girl on the left and right reply but you only hear one voice speak. (01:01:35)

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Suggested correction: Only the lady on the right replies.

zenee

Character mistake: When the munchkin soldiers first arrive, you can see that some of the munchkins in the front are not beating their chest at the same time. This also happens when the munchkins sing the "fa la la la la" song before the witch arrives. (00:24:25)

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Suggested correction: That happens in real life too with real soldiers and live performing actors as much as they try to perfect it because they're human, not machines. Unless there's a rule in the film that a munchkin has to be perfect and can't make mistakes like that, not seeing why this is a movie mistake when this is something that happens in real life.

Revealing mistake: As the Wicked Witch throws the hour glass down at them the stone statue on the left of the monkey is shaking. (01:24:45)

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Suggested correction: It's the monkey that is shaking, not the statue.

zenee

Continuity mistake: As Dorothy and the Scarecrow dance off and sing, "We're off to see the Wizard" the flowers that were on the fencepost have been removed. The stepladder by the fence has also been moved without being touched. (00:38:55)

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Suggested correction: The flowers are still there.

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Suggested correction: I have the scene up right now, and the nail on the pole just looks like... a huge nail. Then Dorothy bends it, and the Scarecrow falls off. I'm not denying that it's a lever, because it's entirely possible that it is. The thing is, there is nothing in the scene that indicates that it absolutely has to be a lever, and it can't be a nail at all.

zenee

Audio problem: As they all stand at the door to Oz, Dorothy reaches for the knocker and we hear the overdubbed knocking sound before she touches it. (00:58:45)

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Suggested correction: The sound we hear before she starts knocking is of her grabbing the knocker, and it is right on time with when she grabs it. There is no audio mistake.

zenee

Plot hole: When the Gales' house lands in Munchkinland, Dorothy picks up Toto and glances around the house. She looks right out the window. Wouldn't she have noticed that she wasn't in Kansas then, before she got to the door? (00:19:05)

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Suggested correction: She might have noticed that she wasn't in Kansas, then went to the door to investigate. Just because she didn't mention it by word or walk up to the window doesn't mean she didn't notice. Also, Dorothy never picks up Toto; she is already holding him when the house lands.

zenee

Other mistake: When Dorothy's house is falling back to Kansas, just before it lands, there is about a 1 or 2 second shot of what looks like production notes written in blue ink.

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Suggested correction: There are no production notes visible anywhere.

zenee

Revealing mistake: When they first meet the Cowardly Lion, he jumps off of a boulder and obviously lands on a trampoline and jumps off.

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Suggested correction: There is no trampoline visible. Sure, there is most definitely something he jumps off that is hidden behind the plants, but since we don't actually see it on screen, I don't see how it's a mistake.

zenee

Revealing mistake: Right after Dorothy slaps the lion, there is a green smudge on her arm. Looks like the witch's makeup. (00:50:35)

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Suggested correction: There is no "green smudge" on her arm. Perhaps this is referring to the blue mark that appears on her arm as she talks to the lion? Because I'm not seeing anything on her arm that is green.

zenee

The Wizard of Oz mistake picture

Revealing mistake: When the Wicked Witch scares the Munchkins in Munchkinland, where Dorothy lands, she disappears into a cloud of smoke she creates. But you can see her sneak down into a trap door below. [As a sidenote to this entry, Margaret Hamilton was hospitalized for severe burns after a take of this shot (not the final one used) when the stage elevator got stuck and the explosion went off.] (00:30:45)

More mistakes in The Wizard of Oz

Dorothy: How can you talk if you haven't got a brain?
Scarecrow: I don't know. But some people without brains do an awful lot of talking, don't they?

More quotes from The Wizard of Oz

Trivia: The "tornado" was a thirty-five foot long muslin stocking, photographed with miniatures of a Kansas farm and fields.

rabid anarchist

More trivia for The Wizard of Oz

Question: At the very end of the movie after Dorothy says "Oh, Auntie Em, there's no place like home," normally, it fades out to the credits, but once - and only once - when I was very young, I thought I remembered seeing the camera pan away from her face and down to the foot of the bed where you see the ruby slippers tucked underneath the bed, then a fade to the credits. It is obviously a black-and-white shot, but there were the glittering shoes. Has anyone else seen this version of the ending?

Macalou

Answer: Another fine example of the Mandela Effect. None of the "making of" books reference this alternate ending. The original book ends with Dorothy losing the slippers on her journey back to Kansas.

wizard_of_gore

I also remember this scene; however, I remember it in a television movie, and it was at the beginning, not the end, of an entirely different movie.

Chosen answer: Yes. I'm sure I've seen that version. It shows that Dorothy didn't just dream about Oz and makes for a more satisfying conclusion. This version was original but edited out because it didn't follow the book's storyline for "Return to Oz" and the other long series of Oz books. The sequel pertains that she loses the slippers in transit back to her home and falls to the gnome king who destroys Oz which in turn causes Dorothy to return. So seeing the slippers at the end of the bed, while more satisfying, wouldn't really stay true to the Oz series.

I absolutely remember that version with the shoes at her bedside, but nobody I know remembers it.

Thank you! I remember that too but everyone I know thinks I'm nuts.

I remember that version and after that I expected to see the same ending but no I never saw that ending again. I got the response that no-one I know saw that ending of the movie where the ruby slippers being on her feet in her bed. Thank you for that answer. This was a long time mystery.

I absolutely remember that scene.

I remember that too - and I've asked so many people and they said no, I must have dreamed it. Thank you.

I saw that version once when I was a little kid too! I remember it vividly. Now I know I'm not crazy.

Answer: https://criticsrant.com/mythbusters-dorothys-ruby-slippers/ This website gives some confirmation it's one of those myths that spread around and get mixed up in people's memories to being convinced they have seen it despite no evidence of it existing. In a film as big as the Wizard of Oz where die hard fans have collected original scripts, notes, and "lost" imagery over the years; we certainly would have something to back this up other than eye witness memory. Especially if it supposedly made it to the final print for viewing audiences as the original Wizard of Oz footage has been carefully preserved, as it's considered one of the most important films of all time. This footage wouldn't be completely lost if it made it to final showing print. Surely somebody would have posted it by now on YouTube. It is possible somebody made a skit or parody of this though contributing to the idea that it was actually in a print of the real movie.

Answer: This seems to be one of those mass examples of people remembering something that never happened. There are also other variations, like people claiming to remember the film switching to color as the shot pans down to her slipper-clad feet, or the slippers being in color against the sepia-toned B&W footage. But sadly, it seems no officially released version of the film has had such an ending. It's similar to how everyone thinks Darth Vader says "Luke, I am your father," or how everyone thinks Humphrey Bogart says "Play it again, Sam!", even though neither of those lines are real, and people are merely incorrectly remembering them. The film is so ingrained in pop-culture, that people think they know it forwards-and-back, and false memories are created.

TedStixon

I agree that people think they remember things that never happened, but usually for things like this, remembering a scene wrong misquoting a movie lines, it comes from parody versions and people are (correctly) remembering the parody. I've never seen "Silence of the Lambs", but I know the line "Hello, Clarice" from films like "Cable Guy" and not from a false memory of the film.

Bishop73

Answer: I remember this being part of a special that was hosted by Angela Lansbury in 1990 and they showed that this ending was considered for the movie. For many years I couldn't remember why I remembered that ending and Angela Lansbury until I looked it up. I wish that it had been left like that. Kids always want their dreams to come true.

Answer: I and a friend of mine remember seeing the ruby slippers under Dorthy's bed at the end of the movie. Glad to know we didn't imagine it.

More questions & answers from The Wizard of Oz

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