- Directed by: Victor Fleming, Richard Thorpe (uncredited), King Vidor (uncredited), George Cukor (uncredited)
- Written by: Noel Langley (script), Florence Ryerson (script), Edgar Allan Woolf (script), L. Frank Baum (novel)
- Starring: Judy Garland (Dorothy Gale), Frank Morgan (Professor Marvel / ‘The Wizard’ / ‘Doorman’ / ‘Cabbie’ / ‘Guard’), Ray Bolger (Hunk / Scarecrow), Jack Haley (Hickory / Tin Man), Bert Lahr (Zeke / Cowardly Lion), Billie Burke (Glinda, ‘The Good Witch of the North’), Margaret Hamilton (Almira Gulch / ‘The Wicked Witch of the West’), Clara Blandwick (Emily ‘Em’), Charley Grapewin (Henry)
- Plot: When a tornado hits her Kansas home, young Dorothy Gale and her dog Toto awaken to find herself in a magical world where witches and wizards exist. In order to find her way back home, she must request help from the wizard who rules the land, finding companions along the way.
- Languages: English
- IMDb Rating: 8.1
- My Rating: 10/10
- First Time Viewing?: No (First seen around 1993 / 1994)
This one is a difficult one for me to review. As my family like to constantly remind me, this was a movie I watched on repeat over and over from the age of two to about five or six. I think this was probably the catalyst for my great love of fantasy fiction. However, I read the L. Frank Baum novel from which it was adapted from when I was seven and preferred that immensely, souring my feelings about the film which had too many musical numbers, too many changes and too many missing sections (my current self is far more forgiving to adaptations than my child self). Although, it had been years since I had seen the movie, I also remember it pretty much ad-nauseum, so much of the magic and surprise has eroded over the years.
However, I found myself watching this again with my family over Christmas Day and casting a critical eye over, it is a pretty near flawless film that has aged remarkably well. Sure, the acting reaches for the rafters and some of the backdrops are dated to modern audiences. However, the sets were incredible for the time. Large scale sets like Munchkin Land and the Emerald City are impressive in scope. Fantastical effects like angry talking trees; Glinda’s bubble and the Wicked Witch materialising out of fire far outweigh the overly produced CGI of today (see 2013’s Oz: The Great and Powerful for a close example). Judy Garland is charming and vulnerable as heroine Dorothy while Margaret Hamilton is terrifyingly great as The Wicked Witch of the West. Supporting cast Ray Bolger, Jack Haley and Bert Lahr equip themselves well with Bolger in particular being quite endearing. The musical numbers are massive productions and instantly memorable to the ear. While my younger self may have been annoyed by missing subplots, changed ending and the economic blending of characters; the filmmakers do an excellent job trimming the fat of the novel and cleverly blending Dorothy’s life in Kansas with that in Oz. This movie isn’t really for me anymore but it is fully deserving of its status as a classic piece of cinema…a film which still translates to audiences 78 years on and will continue to do for many decades to come.
SEÁN T'S FILM DIARY 