...and Liza Minelli's mom! ☺

the mother of Liza Mennelli

I am sure she doesn't know who Judy Garland is OR her daughter Liza Minelli.

She has no clue who Judy Garland is.

She also smoked about a carton of cigarettes a day.

I really thought that was obvious..we saw the three of the produce the very things they thought they didn't have.

Yeah I thought that extremely obvious as well. I thought she even pointed it out multiple times.

I think Cassie get distracted by the cheesey effects (not 2020 level vfx) and over the top acting. Plus she is making instant comments to make the reaction more interesting. So cut her some slack.

@@lethaldose2000 Also, it helps to be six years old. When this was on tv in the mid-60's--a black and white tv, mind you--I had to run into the kitchen every time the wicked witch appeared. Angry, animate trees? Evil flying monkeys? Aw hell no. To my 6-year old brain, those effects were more than special enough.

No, she is right. The better lesson would have been: You don't need a diplom to prove you have a brain. You don't need a medal to prove your courage. And you don't need a heart shaped object to prove that you've got a heart. But this film is from 1930something. So, no offence.

People today overthink things I stead of just taking it as a story.

I agree. I wish I could have seen it. My grandmother wasn't born yet when this came out. But my great-grandmother was around 20 years old.

If you'll notice, the prolog and epilog weren't in black & white, but the sepia tones of old, old photographs.

@@shallowgal462 Spot on Linda!

I wish they had filmed audience reactions back then.

My husband's grandmother saw this in theaters when it released. She said the door opening into color was one of the most memorable moments of her life.

@@SarahRichardsGraba Same year Victor Fleming's other "Greatest film of all time" masterpiece Gone With The Wind also came out. I bet your granny loved both of 'em. Lol.

And in a day before CG, the tornado was done with stockings on a wire mesh spun around in a soundstage. It was so real people were actually reports jumping out of their seats and almost leaving the theater. All of the effects...fire bursting from the floor, all the little people extras, flying monkies, etc... was completely new and had people amazed! Actually, Buddy Ebson, Jed from the Beverly Hillbillies started as the tin man but had to be rushed to the hospital after a day of shooting because he was deathly allergic to the silver paint on his skin. Also, Margaret Hamilton as the with was badly burned when dropping back through the floor to leave Munchkinland when the elevator dropped too slowly and kept her in the fire...just some tidbits!

@@williambill5172 Buddy Ebson was originally cast as the Scarecrow (he was a song-and-dance man at the time) and Ray Bolger as the Tin Man, but Ray convinced Buddy and the powers that were to switch because his childhood idol had played the Scarecrow in the original stage production. "That damn movie." -- Buddy Ebson

The snow in the poppy field was actually asbestos. 😬

Exactly correct. Amazing how today's numbskulls don't understand that or appreciate the history of cinematography.

To be fair, children who saw Oz between the 50s and 70s also saw many "old" movies on the weekends when they were broadcast on the 4 or 5 stations (ABC, CBS, NBC, and a local station). We were exposed to black and white films, Westerns, bad monster movies, classic film noir - all of which now are played on TCM today. So we saw modern and classic films about the same time. Its strange now the present generation thinks that ET and Star Wars (I will never call it The New Hope) are classics. They are, but in the bigger cinema history, they mark a radical change (mass audiences for weeks) in attendance. Most films only stayed at theaters for a few weeks, then disappeared until huge hits starting showing up on broadcast TV and then video cassettes.

True. Arthur Freed told the front office, "The song stays or I walk." The song stayed, and I'm so glad people fought for it. The movie wouldn't be the same without it.

some of the actors never saw the movie until '56.

I am 61 I also grew up watching it every year, and then I showed it for years to my 4 kids, I thought I knew a ton about it, but when I saw online someone asked me what did the Tinman, Scarecrow & lion carry in the Witches forest, I said tinman obviously Axe, Lion, I said nothing, Scarecrow I had no clue, I guessed a stick, boy was I wrong, Tinman had the axe yes, but he carried a Giant Wrench bigger than the axe, the lion a butterfly net, I think it was, and a giant bug spray can, and what scared me when I found out, the Scarecrow had a PISTOL< WOW!, I've asked everyone I know, my cousin said she was an OZ expert, none 1 person remembered the pistol, the bug spray can or the wrench, WHY?

That was exactly my experience with the movie also, waiting for when it would be aired each spring! And then when I saw it on our new color TV I was blown away that it transitioned into color and why no one hadn't told me this!

We recorded it with our first vcr. Then us kids would watch it every day after school. Must have watched it 100x.

They still do every Holliday season

Great comment :)

It was apparent in the movie, (even before they killed the witch, hell, with the scarecrow it was apparent from the beginning) even watching as a kid I got that. I don't know how it went over her head.

But Oz never did give nothing to the Tin Man That he didn't, didn't already have kzfaq.info/get/bejne/o8h4oKR6s9_Nf2Q.html

Absolutely true. And I still tear up a bit at the Wizard's "gift" for the Tin Man. Only a person with a great heart is truly loved by others, and it is often true that the greater the heart, the more plentiful the love from others for it.

@@thatpatrickguy3446 hmm...my takeaway is that since the wizard is a fraud, his gifts are also fraudulent--trinkets people in the real world hold in esteem like diplomas and awards when these things don't really matter compared to the truth of who we are on the inside. Thus, telling the Lion only a person with a great heart is truly loved by others is not necessarily true. I happen to believe a lot of people with great hearts are not always loved by others, and it takes a great heart to give love without receiving it.

That or Congress

@@coyotefever105 Yes, but I am pretty sure that Mark Twain made a spot on comment about Congress well before the Scarecrow came along.

“Let us suppose that you were a criminal. And let us suppose that you were a member of Congress. But I repeat myself.”

WELL SAID!

Also predicting reaction videos like this one.

So anyone can make their own Oz adaptation. Lol even if they make it their own, they still pay homage to the MGM version because it's THAT iconic. I'd honestly like to see a dark fantasy take on Oz, closer to the brutality depicted in the books. Scarecrow literally wrings the necks of crows and Tin Man is just decapitating creatures!

@@fynnthefox9078 then you need to watch Return to Oz. It's not as good of a movie as the Wizard of Oz, but it is a dark tale more similar to the books.

Original book was published in 1900

Glinda was played by Billie Burke, still beautiful at 54. I like her screwball comedy characters: Millicent in "Dinner at Eight" and Daisy in "The Man Who Came to Dinner"

The costume folks looked in hand-me-down stores for a coat for Professor Marvel, and found one with a name label "L. Frank Baum" - the author of the Wizard of Oz books! True story.

i use to watch this once a year also with my great grandma and mom. When was this one for what holiday if you remember?

Every year on CBS around Easter time - when I was little I used to imagine that each year the actors would all come back, put their costumes back on and do it all over again.

Big TV events are something that I certainly miss . From the holiday specials to The Wizard Of Oz you would look forward to them for weeks for the one evening they played every year . Even things like the mini-series were a huge deal promoted for weeks ahead of time like Roots , V , The Thorn Birds , Shogun come to mind .

@@abbydabby475 Easter. In fact, comedian Paula Poundstone joked about movie reviews citing how reviewer called The Wizard of Oz "boring and unimaginative" when it first came out. She summed up by saying "So you never know. Maybe Rambo III is actually a great movie, and they'll show it every year at Easter!" Seriously though, my family would all watch it together. We'd make non-microwave popcorn (and not eat it in bed), and my mom would make treats like baked apples or cherry turnovers.

Yep, every year CBS would show it. It WAS a TV event. All us kids would watch it. Usually on either Saturday or Sunday about 7pm! My little sister and I LOVED it. We're talking 1967 or so. The flying monkey's creeped us out, but the wicked witch was scary as Hell. And Cassie got a Happy Ending! Oh and the castle guards are singing: "All we are, we owe her"

I saw that one...but then again, I grew up watching Mr. Rogers LOL!

Thanks Katie. I am glad someone mentioned how nice Margaret truly was. She sold coffee on TV in the 70's.

Also Poor Margret Hamalton was burned during the film

@@thomast8539 Yes, as Cora in her general store selling Maxwell House.

@@dje6719 During the scene in Munchkinland when the trap door that lowered her down through the floor and the flash powder to hide her exit weren't timed properly.

As a kid, it all was real to me. Now as an adult, I notice the plastic leaves and things. The nostalgia protects it at least. ❤

It scared Liza and Lorna when they were kids, their babysitter had to call their mom cause they were so worried!

@@katereilly9367 Liza was older though.

Kids love to be scared and accompanying adults get bored. Least ways that was the thinking.

Seriously. Anyone else remember Unico in the Island of Magic ? *shudder *

Awe those flying monkeys

"Return To Oz" was legitimately terrifying and gave me nightmares for weeks as a kid.

MGM had to tone down the scary parts because some kids were so scared, their parents had to carry them out of the theater. I'd like to see that version.

Believe it or not, but it's true. ;-)

Such an awesome song. From that first octave rise it takes you to the relateable, but fantastic.

And, if memory serves, it was one of the songs in "You Got Mail"! (By the way, Liza Minnelli is Judy Garland's daughter!)

@@stathissdz2125 If you want your mind blown. Check this out. Judy Garland's daughter (LIZA MINNELLI) and The Tin Man's (Jack Haley) son Jack Haley Jr. got married sometime in the '1970s until their divorce in 1979. Talk about lifetime friends and family.

@@stathissdz2125 I made another comment including Liza Minnelli

Yep. Miss Gulch, the OG Karen. A Ms. Mojo poll also gave Miss Gulch that title; she was rated #1. Loved it!

She's Canadian. It's beloved in the U.S. by generations. My grandma saw it in the theater when it came out in 1939 and though it was the greatest movie ever.

Yes, indeed! And I don't think it "scarred" us for life, as she mentioned! Lol! :)

In the 80’s too!

Yep, growing up in the 60's there was the annual showing on tv of Wizard of Oz and Peter Pan (not a film - the play starring Mary Martin). We watched them both every year and waited for them to air with great anticipation. It never scarred us - I think it stirred up our imaginations. Finally seeing Wizard of Oz on a big screen was a huge event for me, and I loved it even more. I just never tire of this movie!

They showed it on CBS in the 80s too every year.

@@TraceurDoc1was it both Wizard of Oz and Peter Pan that you saw regularly in the 80's? I had no idea either of those might still be airing annually!

She was perfectly cast in "Cabaret."

Liza is great, but Judy was spectacular.

She's not as well known, but Judy Garland's other daughter, Lorna Luft, also has a beautiful voice. She has mostly worked in theater, is an author, and has ventured into movies and television. She is probably best known for her role in Grease 2.

Speaking of costumes... another fun fact is the Lion costume was made out of real lion hide and it weighed 80 pounds. After a few days it reeked of sweat like dirty gym socks because the actor (Bert Lahr) would sweat profusely in it. They didn’t have AC in the studio and with all the lighting in there to emphasize the color ran inside temperatures over 100 degrees.

They found it at a rummage sale if I remember correctly

Mr Baum must have hated his first name, Lyman.

Same for me! It came on once a year and Mom would make us popcorn for it!

I'd forgotten that! Always around Thanksgiving if I remember right, it's been a long time, Long before movie rentals and cable and streaming, when your only choice was to watch what the 3 networks decided to show you.

That’s so wonderful and wholesome. Such a sweet childhood memory. Most of my memories of watching Wizard of Oz have to do with smoking drugs and listening to Pink Floyd.

Oh yes! It was most definitely an event when this would air on TV. Like you said, my mom would make the popcorn for us, and we’d all gather around the TV. I think it was CBS that would air this.

Folks born after the Bicentennial have no idea what it was like for kids in the late 60's to early 70's. Only 3 main channels, PBS and a couple of independent stations on the tube. Every Sunday it was the Wonderful World of Disney, every Easter it was the Ten Commandments with Charlton Heston, every Christmas they showed the Sound of Music and yes, the Wizard of Oz was shown once every year, I think in May. Nostalgic bliss.

I remember it was a huge deal when this movie was shown on TV every year when I was a kid. It was like a holiday. I never missed it.

I know what you mean. It seems to me that I was born knowing the Wizard of Oz.

In the 80s it was often shown on TV and was a big deal when shown. But she is younger than I and by the 90s it wasn't as ubiquitous.

Especially with how much people reference it. It's a cultural keystone at this point

I wonder how often it was shown on Canadian television when she was a child? (I have to remind myself she's Canadian some times.)

Actually the 1935 Becky Sharp was the first full-length 3-strip Technicolor film 4 years prior...but it was still not commonly used and yes, I'm sure this had a strong impact on audiences as you described. This same year, 1939, the same director, Victor Fleming, directed the Technicolor Gone With the Wind.

@@davidfox5383 Didn't know that. Maybe it was because the Technicolor footage for Becky Sharp wasn't available for viewing again until it was restored in the 1980s.

A meta way to understand the transition shot where Dorothy walks into Oz, is to imagine it is the difference between earth and heaven. It's implied onscreen that Dorothy didn't know what color was, until she saw Munchkinland. Likewise, there could be things beyond color, that we can't see or comprehend until we step into a higher plane of existence.

@@davidfox5383 Also the previous year there was the Adventures of Robin Hood.

@@robhugh535 yes, one of my favorites!

I agree! Such an amazing singer and just got better and better over the years! A great actress too! In addition to "Wizard of Oz," which I watched almost every year on TV reruns as a boy in the 1960's, I have three other "favorites" of hers -- "Harvey Girls," "Meet Me in St. Louis" (which I try to watch every Christmas season), and "Summer Stock" with the outstanding Gene Kelly!

@@johnbattles1002 Summer Stock is one of my favorites! Me and My Gal, an early one with Gene Kelly, is awesome, as well!

@@johnbrewer8024 , yes, I love Me and My Gal too! Gene Kelly was just an awesome, charismatic performer. He is also unmatched in Brigadoon, Singin' in the Rain, and as D'Artagnan in The Three Musketeers (with June Allyson as his female co-star).

So is her daughter Liza Minnelli

Just think. She was only 16 with such a mature voice

He is honestly.

I liked him too. He seemed the most real. "What if she kills us first?" His jumping through the window screaming. 😂 And the first to turn back at the warning sign.

There were actually 6 pairs made for the film. The Smithsonian pair are only one of 6. 3 of the pairs are in private collections. One pair was stolen. One pair was also in Debbie Reynolds (Carrie Fisher's mother)private collection.

@@bobroma Yep for sure. I remember hearing about the 6 pairs on set. I didn't want to get into all that detail in my comment. Comments on KZfaq are best when they are short and sweet. Then the relpies can get into more detail. Thanks for starting the converstation.

@@lethaldose2000Absolutely, I agree with you about the comments here. I just get excited about Wizard of Oz trivia because I have studied quite a bit of it.

Here’s some more trivia about the slippers. In the original 1900 book The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (yes, you read that right: the book was already 39 years old when the movie first premiered), the Wicked Witch of the East had silver slippers. But due to camera issues with reflective material (see also C-3PO from Star Wars and Peacemaker from The Suicide Squad), they were changed to ruby red.

You would think that they would have had the floor at the exhibit paved with yellow bricks.

Same here, it took one of my cousins almost getting hit by a car trying to get across the street to watch it and color before my grandmother bought a color TV.

Yep... this film and Sound of Music were annual must watches for my family.

I think this was the first movie in Technicolor. A process that accurately reproduced color on film. It's a very very expensive process to use at the time. I know there were other color films but the colors don't look correct. So to audiences, this was amazing.

I saw it in the theater when it came out

Imagine what that scene was like for people seeing it in the theater for the first time in 1939. Must have been a true mind blower.

The G is silent, like in gnome or Gnarnia.

And the Witch’s guards weren’t singing “Oreo,” they were singing “all we own, we owe her,” which was L. Frank Baum’s knock on the military establishment.

@@ChrystusBrzeczyszczykiewicz ...Except it was pronounced.

@@donsimpsonshead8809 I’ve always believed it was “Oh we loathe the old one” which explained why none of them were particularly upset when she died…

​@@Cubs-Den-Reactions It's nothing like that. It is “O-Ee-Yah! Eoh-Ah!” in the script and that is clearly what they are chanting when you know it. It wasn't meant to have a meaning.

When they first showed this on television, the told everyone that the beginning was in black and white and not to try to adjust their televisions.

That is really not true. Movies had been made in color for at least two deacades before 1939 when Gone with the Wind and The Wizard of Oz debuted. They just weren't done particularly well. Gone with the Wind and The Wizard of Oz debuted a three color process called Technicolor that provided vibrant colors that were a step beyond what had been seen.

The film was first shown on tv in 1956. Essentially no one owned a color tv then

And I'm pretty sure CBS didn't broadcast in color for about another decade

That’s because there wasn’t a color film until The Wizard of Oz. It was THE first color movie ever!!

Well The Adventures of Robin Hood was a HUGE box office success and came out a year before this. But yeah it was still newish for a feature film.

just imagine a young unsafisticated child seeing this in a theater,not knowing about acting and cameras taking this as a real thing.................wow.

@@arnoldzyphill3167 lol what

@@Marckymarc71 most of us growing up when this film was aired originally only had black and white tv's, so we had no idea the majority of the picture was in color. I recall the first time I saw it on a color tv, I was in high school so this was 1969 (dating myself here, but oh well), I was blown away when Dorothy landed in Oz, opened the door and the entire screen was in color! It was like seeing the film for the very first time. It has never lost its charm for me.

1939 was the best year ever for movies ... starting with Gone with the Wind.

That rivals "The ability to speak does not make one intelligent" from Qui-gon.

I remember my dad laughing at this and never getting it as a kid. Then years later watched in my 20's and then I realized how funny the line was.

I think the phrase was in reference to Adolf Hitler And Benito Mussolini, since at this time WWII had started between The UK, France, Germany, and Italy. Before that people in the US saw in News Papers and heard on the radio, the various speeches of the two Axis leaders. It's crazy to think there is this wholesome film, all the while in Europe one of the biggest wars ever is ramping up and slowly spreading across multiple nations around the world. The US was at peace and wasn't expecting to take part in the war in Europe.

@@My-Name-Isnt-Important or very possibly Neville Chamberlain as Great Britain’s Prime Minister he merely stood by while Hitler and Mussolini took over one country at a time. In my eyes he was just as bad as they were.

Frank Baums original Wizard of Oz book covered all manner of political and social aspects of the time, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_interpretations_of_The_Wonderful_Wizard_of_Oz

Me too

Yay! Another Oz Books fan!

We read the entire series to the kids when they were young. They loved it!

The books are great. I would even say they may be the first epic fantasy series.

The Tin Woodman in the books is a pretty interesting character.

Wamego.

Do they do regional productions of Wicked?

@@DRC16690 yep

I must go there.

Like Grover's Mill New Jersey embracing their fame as the landing point for the Martians in the radio broadcast of The War of the Worlds. I was once taking a computer course in nearby Elizabeth, New Jersey in an office building that was still under construction, and I said to one of the workers: "Nice job of building it back after the Martians destroyed it...." and he grinned and said, "Thanks!" He knew exactly what I meant.

Baum only wrote 14.

@@marctoad Good to know, I never read them all and wasn’t sure of the number.

@@marctoad A female author took over after that and wrote some more. I can't remember her name.

@@porflepopnecker4376 Ruth Plumly Thompson. I believe she was Baum's daughter or daughter in law.

They are ridiculously fun reads. He wrote the first one and got so many letters from kids and adults asking for more adventures or even suggesting ideas for them that he wrote more, often using ideas from his readers.

And Citizen Kane.

@@BenDowdy and The Godfather

@@dostoyevski9423 And Lawrence Of Arabia

@@rabbitandcrow and Star Wars

Actually Citizen Kane is considered to be the greatest achievement in film history.

Yes, and her trademark was to sign her Autographs by Margaret Hamilton WWW (Wicked Witch of the West)

@@iwatchyoutube6539 so true!

Margaret Hamilton was also a Kindergarten teacher in Cleveland, Ohio, before she got into acting. I found that out about 50 years ago! ( I am 75 now) I was pleasantly surprised by that information because I was born and raised in Cleveland too until I started teaching Kindgergarten in Michigan for 2 years. After living in two other places, I came back home to Cleveland in '98 and am still here.

Loved her in the Gazebo with Glen Ford & Debbie Reynolds.

She was also much kinder to Judy than others in the cast.

Yes. I don't know how she could not have seen those movies. The four staples are Wizard of Oz (played 4 times a year). Ten Commandments (played every Easter and Christmas) Sound of Music (played every other holiday not named Christmas or Easter) and of course Miracle on 34 st (played every friggin Christmas)

Inconceivable!

@@lethaldose2000 Even as somebody that's seen tons of movies and has thousands, I haven't watched The Sound of Music or Miracle on 34th Street. I own them both but never got to them.

Other movies from my childhood on that list would be Ben Hur, Spartacus. Barabus, King Kong. March of the Wooden Soldiers. King King and March of the Wooden Soldiers would come on the day after Thanksgiving and that meant CHRISTMAS! LOL. Oh and how could I forget. Jason and the Argonauts. That was must see tv for me.

@@r.h.3084 Sound of Music always bored me to tears. Miracle on 34th Street I loved. Though I love, It's a Wonderful Life and any of the Scrooges(A Christmas Carol) better.

I agree completely. It's a classic that everyone should see, multiple times IMO. It is a wonderful WONDERFUL movie! Don't forget the Kleenex. I've seen this movie maybe 50 times, and it still makes me cry at the end every time.

Yes...and "Miracle on 34th Street".

To be clear when I said I cry at the end of the movie every time, I am speaking about HAPPY tears. I don't want anyone to think that the movie has a sad ending. It's just the opposite, the movie has a very happy and satisfying ending.

@@bobbilm3035 yes it is the number 1 cry movie for me.

@@bobbilm3035 absolutely. Incredible movie

Same director made both films

"The Wizard of OZ" and "Gone with the Wind" were filmed on the same lot at the same time.

Yes

And don't miss these Technicolor gems...The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938), Meet Me In St. Louis (1944), She Wore A Yellow Ribbon (1949),The Quiet Man (1952) and Shane (1953).

@@thomast8539 "Black Swan" (1940), pirate swashbuckler with Tyrone Power was also shot in Technicolor.

"There is something to be said for delayed gratification." Wise words indeed. I think we could all use a bit more of that in todays "push-button" world.

I haven't seen this pointed out...but when Dorothy says something like "I feel like I've known you all along", she means it. Scarecrow, Tin Man, and Lion are each characters from her farm in Kansas...the same actors... and as Oz characters they exhibit the same personalities and speech patterns as the farmhands.

Oh my goodness! You just described me and my 1960's northwest Georgia upbringing! Almost the very same yearly Wizard of Oz scenario!

Same at our house but you forgot the coke which was a treat you only got on occasion!

@@kathleenclark815 Yes, I'm sure it's clear to most people that the "Oz characters" are echoes of the "Kansas characters." I'm just surprised that I've never heard or read any reference to it.

In the books, she’s Glinda, so I’m gonna go with that.

The story of how the tornado twister was created is a lesson in resourcefulness for future set designers.

Made me lol

Yup, the original Loqueesha.

That's a great story! It seems particularly fitting for this movie.(And he probably figured you were wearing it out, anyway. 😄)

Aww... You almost made me cry. 🙂

How sweet!

Robin Williams in Good Morning Vietnam. " ooo eeee ooo, Follow the Ho Chi Minh Trail."

I don't know why people think this is such a great movie, it's just a bunch of cliches strung together.

@@jb888888888 These 'cliches' were born from this movie. They weren't cliches before this movie.

For our family, it’s all of those, plus “Poppies, sleep, poison…”

Considering how old and well1known the source material was at the time, it not going too far to state that this was the Lord of the Rings of 1939.

Dorothy > Princess Leia, Toto > R2D2, Tin man > C3PO, Lion > Chewbacca , Wizard > Obi -Wan , Wicked Witch > Darth Vader ( maybe young George also had a dream ;-)

The Wizard of Oz's release was more recent to Star Wars' release than Star Wars' release is to today.

@@Raja1938 Oh my.... I didn't realize this! Just yesterday I learned that Cleopatra's life was closer to today than her life was to the building of the Pyramids!

@@MadMax-pu1kj Ah, didn't know that one. I'd read these time-is-relative factoids somewhere years ago. Another is that Wright Bros first flight was closer to the moon landing than the moon landing is to today.

My own reaction when i saw this first time on color tv, as a child we only had Black and White...

For a long time, the Wizard of Oz was one of the highest grossing films as adjusted for inflation. Of course, it helps that it was re-released in movie theaters at least a half a dozen times. Hey, this was before much television and purchasing recordings. It's also one of the most influential as you can tell from all the parodies and similar tv/movie themes.

@@joelwillems4081 You confuse it with "Gone With the Wind" released the same year (1939). The Wizard of Oz actually wasn't a smash hit when first released. It didn't make its money back and hence was a "financial flop". With all the marketing the net loss was $1,1 million ($22,5 million in 2021). Fact is it didn't become a cult-classic and much beloved movie until the late 1950's when it was broadcast on tv and enchanted an all-new generation. By the 1960's it was broadcast annually and became a much beloved favorite. Hence the belief that the film always was a huge (commercial) success. While it is true that the film was re-released in movie theaters in 1949 and 1955 it only managed to make the money back for MGM. Since it was annually broadcast on tv from the late 50's until the early 70's there was no need to re-release it. Everybody had seen it on tv. "Gone With the Wind" however was a tremendous success in 1939 and was re-released many time in the followed decades. According to BoxOfficeMojo "Gone With the Wind" still sits on top as the greatest commercial success of all time. "It's also one of the most influential as you can tell from all the parodies and similar tv/movie themes." Quite right. And it's referenced in one way or another in countless of films from different genres.

Dracula also had a Spanish version filmed on a nightshift using the same sets.

This was only the second Technicolor film made. The fist was The Adventures of Robin Hood.

that it had such an amazing transition shot made it all the sweeter

Not counting earlier films in two-strip Technicolor, such as "Mystery of the Wax Museum" and "Doctor X."

Technically, the bookended Kansas setting was shot in sepia tones, which gave it a brownish tint, rather than black & white.

@@rickardroach9075 Yep, the first Technicolor feature was made 22 years before Wizard of Oz.

Not quite the first movie. I believe the first movie in color was Becky Sharp

Two-strip Technicolor, which had a distinct teal-magenta cast to it with no yellows, was introduced many years earlier. The first full-length feature film in the more accurate 3-strip Technicolor was Becky Sharp in 1935, four years before Oz.

And now THAT song is stuck in my head too.

I never liked the movie when I was a child or as an adult but I always thought it was funny that it was the flying monkeys that terrified people. They didn't phase me, nor did the witch. The Scarecrow, Tin Man, and Lion freaked me out. Basically, I've never liked clowns and that's what they all reminded me of.

I tried to show parts of this to my 5 year old nephew and he doesn't like the witch and the monkeys at all 😆

@@JulioLeonFandinho I grew up in the 70's before the VCR and couldn't wait to watch this (and the 'Sound of Music' and 'Rudolph' and 'Frosty' and Charlie Brown Christmas) when they were on once a year.... I showed this (and the 80's version of 'Annie) to my 13 year old on dvd when she was 2 and she watched them about 500 times each and memorized and sang all the songs over and over again... my mom (her grandma) is still afraid of the flying monkeys though.

This movie has been tested out as one of the scariest movies for kids ever made.

Actually for me, the flying monkeys were scary but I was okay as I grew older.

@@deeanna3335, that was the scary part for me, too. Also when they went to the castle to rescue Dorothy.

Being one of the first movies with color and hearing the actors, I imagine there was also still a bit of influence from silent films where large facial expressions and movement helped convey a scene. While other films had been colorized, this one had a huge impact on the future of movies. A great movie to showcase their new coloring technology and what a brilliant way they used it to bring the magical world alive, the world at the end of the rainbow.

@@Quirkyalonester Oh absolutely! It really was a wild time in history regarding film.

Why is it fun?

Yep, so true...and, even the way sets were assembled. Stagecoach (1939) is a western cult classic, but there are a couple of scenes where the banker comes off a bit cartoonish on camera.

Naturalistic acting didn't really appear until until Marlon Brando's generation.

The entire structure of A New Hope is based on Wizard of Oz, especially the way that Dorothy and Luke pick up allies along their journey.

Oh! Never noticed that.

@@Rocket1377 That and some Akira Kurosawa movies

@@coyotefever105 Specifically Hidden Fortress (1958). A samurai warrior and some others escort a princess. The parts of R2 and 3P0 are taken by a pair of Japanese peasants that barely get along.

@@Rocket1377 not the entire structure, but yes, many elements of it are there, as well as elements from the film The Searchers.

He was about 30 years old at the time, but people these days might still know him from reruns of The Beverly Hillbillies t.v. show (which was filmed about 35 years later), where he played patriarch Jed Clampett.

I mentioned it in my post, Epsen was chosen due to the fact he had worked with Garland doing song and dance sequences in other films and was comfortable working with him.

And Jack was excellent...but don't stop now...go on...tell Cassie that Buddy went on to play Jed Clampett on the Beverly Hillbillies, a TV detective and supported Audrey Hepburn in Breakfast at Tiffany's.

I couldn't agree more. A CGI production of this film would be shallow. The innocence would be near impossible for today's post modernist, ironic actors to get across. It's impossible for many younger people to even watch a b&w film. Technicolor cannot be duplicated today. It's impossible to replicate the hue of the original Godfather movies. Coppola had to find original film stock to make Godfather III.

I can agree. I’m pretty sure I’m only a few years older than she is, but I have an understanding and appreciation for all kinds of films from new to old, so I have seen this film and enjoyed with the understanding of the time it came from and an appreciation of the style it is in, so I think this movie is great.

Can I like this comment twice. Felt the same way. Same goes for the review of Star Wars. I mean, she isn't wrong, the effects are dated and the costumes do look like ones in plays and Star Wars effects aren't 2021's effects and some tropes are common by today's standards especially. But seems as if that is a blemish on those movies somehow???

Some people are stuck in a bubble and can't get out of it. She seems very sheltered, lacks imagination and maybe even a sense humor. It was based on a children's book, which would explain the storybook look and costumes, it seems purposeful.I can't get pass the fact she had never heard of "The Wizard of Oz" books, and when she asked "which came first the movie or the song", oh boy, has she never heard of movie soundtracks featuring original songs.

You're absolutely right. I'm hoping Cassie matures from her "OMG. This is so old!" type of mentality and learns to enjoy classic storytelling on its merits.

"I understood that refrence."

I'm jaded and cynical and I still get swept up in a movie like this. I don't know what her childhood was like.

Yeah, I guess I've never seen that either, but that one's a bit more religious, dark, & seasonally specific than Wiz, and also black & white. The Wizard of Oz is like the movie that any given English speaker above the age of 16 is most likely to have already seen.

@@HankMeyer I didn't see the Wizard of Oz until a few years ago. Mostly by choice. My family only had 1 TV and no cable most of my life. We would rent VHS tapes once every couple weeks from Blockbuster but everyone would have to agree on a single movie. After I moved out I just never got around to seeing it until I did my imdb top 250 watch through a few years ago

@@HankMeyer a lot of us grew up seeing the Wizard of Oz over and over again since childhood because for decades it was broadcast on national TV . On the other hand, a lot of us didn’t get to see It’s a Wonderful Life because it was often on syndicated local TV channels. In syndication I recall seeing the rip off of the Oz movie, the 1947 “The Blue Bird” with Shirley Temple. (After all, the Wizard of Oz was originally cast for Shirley Temple.)

@@HankMeyer you HAVE heard about the dark side to the production of Wizard of Oz, right?

@@eliasshaikh2065 yup. They used to broadcast it once a year and it was kind of a thing where families sat down and watched it together.

CGI isn't the problem, its how its implemented. Poor modelwork, poor matte painting, poor compositing, poor costumes, and poor miniatures can be just as devastating to a film visually as poor CGI. CGI just happens to be more readily available, cheaper, and easier to use than models, miniatures, and the like. The Director is to blame for such things, not the CG

@@k1productions87 My point is that modern CGI has led younger audiences to expect a film's environment to be entirely realistic. Rather the way some younger people won't watch a film in black and white, because it doesn't look "real" to them.

@@ElliotNesterman Oh, and you even said jaded, and I totally missed it LOL

It seems to me that the storybook look of the movie was intentional since it was based on a kids book. It literally looks like what kids storybook illustrations looked like during that time period. The same with "Alice In Wonderland".