Wizard of Oz/Glinda

Well, you can also look at it this way. 5 people that Dorothy knew from Kansas ended up in the Land of Oz with her and Toto. But two very important people in her life, the two she loved the most did not. Auntie Em and Uncle Henry.

My (il)logical guess is that L. Frank Baum didn't write the book that way.

Just a touch of trivia for you. Frank Morgan acted in more than the two roles we usually remember. In all, he was Professor Marvel, Emerald City doorman, The cabbie, The Wizard's guard and The Wizard of Oz.
W.C Fields was first considered for the role.

Have you noticed how Glinda has a first name but the Wicked Witch doesnt.

Wicked Witches don't deserve first names. They're just far too wicked. And I think giving a Wicked Witch a first name would personalize said witch too much and make her seem more humanistic, thus detracting from her best trait.....wickedness!

Actually the wicked witches first name was Cora. I found out this tidbit many years later when she was working at a general store and doing commercials from it for Maxwell House Coffee (good to the last drop). The information can be found here Margaret Hamilton

I love this type of trivia keep it coming

You know what I always wondered? Maybe I was a weird kid, but when Dorothy first takes the yellow brick road, there is a red brick road there too. I always wanted to know where the red brick road went. Any ideas??

OperaGhost-Love your name!Yeah, your right,it was interlinked with the yellow brick road.Maybe it leads somewhere horrid!!

According to my latest internet searching I have come across a few items but the ones that seem to work are as follows:

The red brick road is supposedly where the Munchkin Army marches in from so the idea is it may lead to the barracks. There is also mention of Glinda heading in that direction(towards the red brick) when she leaves. Another rumor is that there was a death on the set and this was a memorial tribute.


On a more important note however I was wondering who else remembers those hand puppets that were included in boxs of clothes washing detergent back in the 1960's. I had all the important ones...the scarecrow, dorothy, the lion and others. Did anybody else have them and does anyone still have them? Oh the hours of fun I had with those

no but I bet the are collectable now

Why was the Tin Man searching for a heart?

He once was a man of flesh, and fell in love, but the girl's mother didn't want him to marry her, so she told him he must build her a house.

When he went to the woods to cut down the trees for the house, the mother cursed the ax, and it fell on him, and bit by bit, chopped away all his parts. In the end, he had the house, but no longer had a heart with which to love his wife.

That'd sort of take the love out of it for me, too.

Stunned face!!!Thats so sad!!

Wow. Ick. No wonder they didn't use that in the movie.

L. Frank Baum's Oz stories were far darker than the musical Judy Garland version, a childhood classic which one cannot be shorted for falling prey to its beguling charm. Victor Fleming who directed that film and the other overrated "Gone With the Wind" (okay, let's get gone with the wind) hasn't directed that many great films but his absolute masterpiece is actually the Spencer Tracy "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde," not these two glossy Hollywoodized epics. "Wizard" is good, clean juvenile fun and I, for one, can't resist it even though I know it's not a great movie. "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde," however, is one of the ten best adaptations of a classic novel every produced.

Victor Fleming was a strange dude. The story is that the only reason Selznick hired him to direct GWTW was because Clark Gable couldn't (or wouldn't) work with anyone else. Gable thought Fleming was a director's director.

I've heard that the novel of Charlie and the Chocolate factory is the same way. I'm not sure because I haven't read it myself, but it was dark while the movie version (Willy Wonka) became a kiddy movie.

Gable was irrationally homophobic and his dentures probably didn't fit right. He couldn't work with George Cukor and straight-from-the-horse's-mouth, Cukor really couldn't work with Gable. Fleming hardly qualifies as a director's director but Cukor could. Whether it would really be the same movie is debatable -- Selznick was actually the script writer and director if anyone wants to examine it closely. He had hired Cukor in the first place because it's a really woman's story. All the male characters are outlined around a woman's viewpoint (well, duh). Cukor could have made as good if not a better movie but we'll never know, especially with the spectre of Selznick actually at the helm of the ship.

BTW, can anyone name any other "great" Fleming movies besides the three mentioned here? That's "The Wizard of Oz" (not extraordinary direction but Judy Garland and all the actors are extraordinary and the songs are catchy and memorable, headlined by a bonefide classic, "Somewhere Over the Rainbow." Don't get me wrong, I love "The Wizard of Oz" and have likely seen it over a hundred times. It's a genuine feel-good movie and does not appear to even be directed by a man, or at least a straight man. It's kitschy and campy but that has a lot to do with the script, almost like nothing Baum actually wrote.

"Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde," an actor's film -- but a lot of directors with that kind of a cast and the superb script could have come up with that film.

"Gone With the Wind," so stilted in its dialogue that it's become campy.

I think with the special effects we have now it would be great if somebody made the true dark version of the story in the original book.

That would be a hard sell. They tried it with a sequel, 1985's "Return of Oz," a very much darker and more faithful to the complexion of the books:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0089908/

The NYT review is telling:

RETURN OF OZ REVIEW LINK