The Wizard of Oz

Trivia: At the start of the first technicolor scene where the camera pans across the vegetation to reveal Oz, a pink splodge appears for a single frame, due to a technicolor fault in one of the 3 strips. It is covered up by a single note played on a xylophone to make it appear a deliberate special effect. Faults in the black and white film used to shoot in technicolor always show as vivid color faults in the print.

Trivia: Several actresses screened for the Wicked Witch of the West, but none had the right chemistry the directors wanted opposite of Judy and Billie (Burke). The role went to Lady Margaret Hamilton, at a perfect time, being a single, divorced mom raising a young son, and had just bought a house.

pgsgrad16

Trivia: For decades after "The Wizard of Oz" premiered, Margaret Hamilton was often called upon by adoring fans to render her witch's cackle and her most famous movie line: "I'll get you, my pretty, and your little dog, too!" Although she obliged her fans, Hamilton always publicly expressed regret that her Wicked Witch of the West was too frightening for small children. However, after she died in 1985, her only son (Hamilton Wadsworth Meserve) admitted that his mom frequently used her wicked cackle and "I'll get you, my pretty" line in private life as he was growing up, just because she loved doing it.

Charles Austin Miller

Trivia: Originally Victor Fleming and Mervyn Leroy (directors) wanted 11-year old Shirley Temple as Dorothy, but she could not perform the key solo 'Over the Rainbow' to their satisfaction in spite multiple rehearsals and takes. So the part was offered to Judy whom Fleming and George Cukor (director) knew could carry the song, in spite that she was too old at 16 to play the part. So she had to be heavily padded to hide her bosom and girlish waistline so that she would look undeveloped, despite that the final results did not completely camouflage her appearance.

eaglegrad16

Trivia: Billie Burke, who played Glinda the Good Witch, initially auditioned for Aunt Pittypat Hamilton in Gone With the Wind over at 20th Century Fox Studios. But she was deemed too youthful-looking and pretty for that middle-aged role (despite being 54), which went to Laura Hope Crews, so Fox producers sent her over to MGM to audition for The Wizard of Oz.

pgsgrad16

Trivia: When the characters get to the haunted forest they each have at least one kind of weapon but they are never acknowledged or used. The scene the weapons were supposedly used was the "Jitterbug" scene. Before the witch sends the flying monkeys out she tells the head monkey Nikko that they won't have any trouble catching Dorothy and Toto because she sent an insect ahead to take the fight out of everyone. The cut scene has been recently found and is available to watch on YouTube.

The Wizard of Oz mistake picture

Continuity mistake: While Dorothy, Tin Man, and Scarecrow are walking in the dark and creepy forest, just as Dorothy begins to sing "Lions and Tigers and Bears" in the medium shot, Tin Man is holding up the axe in his left hand. But it cuts to the long shot, and the axe is in Tin Man's right hand between shots. (00:48:40)

Super Grover

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

Question: It is implied strongly in this movie that water makes witches melt, and this is spoofed in other media. I've only ever seen this referenced to wicked witches. Does water make good witches, such as Glinda, melt too?

Answer: In all likelihood, probably not. Water is often depicted and represents purity, and cleansing. It flows smoothly, is beautiful, clear, and responsible for life on Earth. Everything the Wicked Witch is not. Where as the good Witch is pure and of a true heart. So it makes sense that something so evil and impure as the evil witch would be effected by the purest substance there is, yet not harm the good witch because she is good.

Quantom X

Answer: In the original book, water caused the wicked witches to melt away because they were so old and shriveled that all the fluid in their bodies had long since dried away. Meanwhile, the film Oz: The Great and Powerful instead implies that the Wicked Witch of the West is weak against water due to being a fire-elemental witch, which could also be the case for this incarnation, meaning it wouldn't apply to other witches like Glinda (whose element in both films appears to be ice) or even the Wicked Witch of the East (whose powers are never shown in this film, but were electricity-based in Oz the Great and Powerful).

More questions & answers from The Wizard of Oz

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