THE WIZARD OF OZ (1939) **** "Only bad witches are ugly." Everyone rightfully remembers young, beautifully innocent, enchanted and enchanting Judy Garland-she had every right to a fully glorious and more happy career based on this single performance-but this film is full of enough great lines (the above is my favorite), performances (Margaret Hamilton, Bert Lahr), sets (the witch's castle), songs ("The Lollipop Guild") and asides (the flying blue-faced monkeys) to fill an entire set of apprentice notebooks (or books by alleged grown-ups, as is the case). It is a great children's story, but you could try to pass it off as a mere metaphor for the attainment of oneness with the universe-and wouldn't it be easier if only we all knew that there's always a water bucket on hand, whereby to melt our own wicked witch with. From the age of 8 through 10, inclusive, my school would set out on a field trip once a year to watch this film: each year a girl or two (and a boy or so) would cry for fear of the wicked witch, by the last year we were taking bets on who it would be. The power and appeal of this Herbert Stathart spontaneous playground couplet-jazz semi-musical is such that it has inspired and constituted rock music from Elton John's pop opus to Papa John Creach's psychedelic fiddle to the Replacement's alcohol-saturated encore's of "If I Only Had a Brain." Some even suggest that Pink Floyd's most influential work is merely an alternative soundtrack. The wizard (Frank Morgan), we are told by destructionist deconstructionists, was really always drunk on the set (perhaps in emulation of W. C. Fields who was originally tapped for the role), Buddy Ebsen was supposed to be the Tinman but got sick from all of the make-up (yeah, right, sure it wasn't Granny's cure-all? How far away was he from Morgan?), Judy (who wasn't supposed to be in the film either, can you imagine this with Shirley Temple? No major offense intended) appears to have hair that rearranges itself from frame to frame in Oz (and why not? Isn't it a magical munchkinland place?)....pay no attention to the man behind the curtain indeed! This film is the sort of thing that Ed Wood might have done if he had more objectively demonstrable talent, and a big budget (complements to Victor Fleming, Richard Thorpe and King Vidor). "Now begone, before somebody drops a house on you!"
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