Probably no book has inspired more musical adaptations on stage and screen than L. Frank Baum’s 1900 children’s novel “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.” The best and brightest of those, MGM’s classic 1939 technicolor musical fantasy, “The Wizard of Oz” plays once again on the big screen as part of The News-Gazette Film Series at 1 and 7 p.m. Nov. 30 at the Virginia in downtown Champaign.
The MGM spectacular follows the adventures — musical and otherwise, in both sepia and color — of young Kansas girl Dorothy Gale (Judy Garland) and her little dog, too, when they are transported to a fantastic land full of strange creatures, make friends with a magical trio and kill a couple of witches while trying to find the way back home.
Baum had followed up his first Oz book (written in Chicago and the first of 14 set in Oz he would write) with a stage musical that opened in Chicago in 1902, had a long Broadway run, and toured the U.S. until 1911. He also made a couple of Oz-based silent films, but they were not so successful.
Oz material thus had abounded in print, on stage and even on screen before MGM even started production, but the original book still remained the best-known and most-loved version. So naturally, MGM head Louis B. Mayer decided to bring that version — with songs and dances — to the screen hoping to repeat the success of Walt Disney’s “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs,” which proved the profitability of adapting children’s literature to the screen.
Sixteen-year-old Garland, already a familiar child star, was cast as Dorothy, even though she was about 10 years older than the novel’s Dorothy. She was chosen primarily for her singing talent, and her voice and the songs proved a perfect match. “Over the Rainbow,” with Yip Harburg’s lyrics and Harold Arlen’s music, not only won the Oscar that year for best song but also became something of an anthem for Garland in live performances over the next 30 years.
So it’s ironic that studio executives kept editing out the song because they felt it slowed down the Kansas segment and delayed the entrance to Oz. Uncredited associate producer Arthur Freed, up to that time mainly a lyricist, persisted in putting it back in as it was central to his overall vision for the film.
The song’s popularity with the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and the general public proved Freed right, of course. And after this first, uncredited outing, Freed went on to produce most of MGM’s big-budget musicals, including “Meet Me in St. Louis” (again with Garland) and best-picture Oscar winners “Gigi” and ”Singin’ in the Rain.”
In addition to its memorable music, the film stands out for its special effects. The tornado that carries Dorothy’s home off to Oz is still convincing and scary over eight decades later. Once Dorothy enters the brilliantly lit land of Oz, all the special effects had to be “practical effects” — that is, accomplished in real time in front of the camera — because technicolor’s complicated process (beginning with three strips of film for each frame) made it too difficult and expensive to add visual effects in post-production.
Even the scene of Dorothy walking through the farmhouse door into Oz — transitioning from sepia to color — was faked on the set. They dressed Garland’s double in a black-and-white version of her dress and painted the farmhouse interior in sepia. When the double opened the door, she stepped back and handed Toto off to Garland in her blue-and-white gingham dress, who then stepped through the door into the full-color munchkin village.
“The Wizard of Oz” enchanted audiences, received glowing reviews and was nominated for six Oscars (but won only for song and score, with Garland receiving a special Oscar as best juvenile performer of the year). But — another irony — it did not turn a profit in its initial release.
It cost around $2.777 million to make (a huge film budget for the time and the equivalent of more than $63 million in today’s dollars). But its audiences were primarily children, who would not have paid full price; and the system for booking cinemas then did not allow films to be held over. Worse yet, two weeks after the film’s premiere, World War II began and effectively cut off the European market for MGM and the rest of Hollywood.
In fact, the film didn’t turn a profit until its 1949 re-release. Then it really took off in popularity in the 1950s, when it became a regular holiday offering on television — even though TV viewers would have been able to watch it only and entirely in black and white at that time.
“The Wizard of Oz” probably could have won more Oscars, but its main competitor was MGM’s other spectacular, “Gone with the Wind.” For both films, Victor Fleming was the only director credited on screen (though he was not the sole director of either, as MGM switched directors around on those two projects). At the time, academy rules allowed him only one nomination, which he won for “Gone with the Wind.”
The MGM production remains the brightest and most upbeat of the Oz-inspired movies, with the most memorable songs among the musicals. Disney’s own 1985 “Return to Oz” tried to stay faithful to later Oz books but was still fairly dark.
And “Oz the Great and Powerful” (2013) and the musicals “The Wiz” (1978) and this year’s “Wicked” (actually just the first act of the popular stage musical, with “Act Two” to be released later) deal with more adult themes, leaving Baum’s cheery version of Oz far behind (OK, he did have the tornado, the flying monkeys and Dorothy murdering two witches, but it was still classically enchanting and positive).
If You Go
- What:
- The News-Gazette Film Series presents ‘The Wizard of Oz’ (1939).
- When:
- 1 and 7 p.m. Nov. 30.
- Where:
- Virginia Theatre, 203 W. Park Ave., C.
- Tickets:
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