Noel Langley, Florence Ryerson and Edgar Allan Woolf were the credited authors of the final screenplay, which was begun in late February 1938 and completed in August. Other writers involved were Herman J. Mankiewicz, Irving Brecher, Robert Pirosh, George Seaton, Herbert Fields, Jack Mintz and Ogden Nash.
The tale begins in Kansas, where Dorothy lives with her Aunt Em and Uncle Henry and enjoys the friendship of three farmhands: Hunk, Zeke and Hickory. One day, Dorothy's dog, Toto, bites the vicious Miss Gulch, who obtains an order for the pet's destruction. Dorothy flees with Toto but runs for home after talking to Professor Marvel, fortune-teller and balloonist. As she arrives, a tornado hits the house. Knocked unconscious, Dorothy awakes to find the house spinning through the air. When it crashes down, she emerges in Munchkinland, which is inhabited by little people, in the Land of Oz. The house has squashed the Wicked Witch of the East. Glinda, the Good Witch of the North, arrives and slides the evil witch's magic ruby slippers on Dorothy's feet. Before Dorothy can break in her new heels, however, the Wicked Witch of the West swears vengeance. Glinda tells Dorothy to follow the yellow brick road to the Emerald City, where a powerful Wizard can help her get back to Kansas.
On the way she meets a Scarecrow who says he has no brain, a Tin Woodsman who claims to have no heart, and a lion who is a coward. The three join up and travel to the Emerald City, where a terrifying apparition appears and finally agrees to help them all if they will bring him the Wicked Witch's magic broomstick. It's a hazardous journey. As the group passes through the Haunted Forest, Dorothy and Toto are seized by flying monkeys who carry them away to the Witch's castle. Toto escapes and brings Dorothy's friends to rescue her, but they are also captured. When the Witch sets the Scarecrow on fire, Dorothy throws water on him. Some of it splashes on the Witch, destroying her.
Dorothy and her friends take the broomstick and return to face the Mighty Oz. In his palace, Toto pulls aside a curtain, revealing a man operating levers that create the illusion of the Wizard. Humbled, he gives the Scarecrow a diploma, the Tin Woodsman a testimonial and the lion a medal, convincing them that they now have the virtuous qualities they previously lacked. Admitting that he is just a balloonist from Kansas, the Wizard offers to take Dorothy home. However, Toto jumps out of the gondola to chase a cat and Dorothy chases after him as the balloon is carried away. Glinda tells her she can go home if she clicks the heels of the ruby slippers and thinks "There's no place like home" three times. After reciting this magical mantra, Dorothy awakens in her bed, surrounded by her aunt and uncle, the three farmhands — who bear an uncanny resemblance to the Scarecrow, the Tin Man and the Lion — and Professor Marvel, whom we realize is the Wizard.
Principal photography of this fantastic adventure story began on October 13 with Richard Thorpe directing. Hal Rosson, ASC was director of photography, with Allen B. Davey, ASC serving as Technicolor cinematographer. Thorpe had made four great Tarzan films and the remarkable Night Must Fall, but the rushes soon convinced producer LeRoy that the director was not capturing the desired fairytale quality. After 11 days, production was halted and George Cukor assumed directorial duties. But Cukor left after a week to begin preparing Gone With the Wind. He was replaced by Victor Fleming, a hard-boiled former cinematographer. Ironically, Fleming later replaced Cukor on Noel Langley, Florence Ryerson and Edgar Allan Woolf were the credited authors of the final screenplay, which was begun in late February 1938 and completed in August. Other writers involved were Herman J. Mankiewicz, Irving Brecher, Robert Pirosh, George Seaton, Herbert Fields, Jack Mintz and Ogden Nash.
The tale begins in Kansas, where Dorothy lives with her Aunt Em and Uncle Henry and enjoys the friendship of three farmhands: Hunk, Zeke and Hickory. One day, Dorothy's dog, Toto, bites the vicious Miss Gulch, who obtains an order for the pet's destruction. Dorothy flees with Toto but runs for home after talking to Professor Marvel, fortune-teller and balloonist. As she arrives, a tornado hits the house. Knocked unconscious, Dorothy awakes to find the house spinning through the air. When it crashes down, she emerges in Munchkinland, which is inhabited by little people, in the Land of Oz. The house has squashed the Wicked Witch of the East. Glinda, the Good Witch of the North, arrives and slides the evil witch's magic ruby slippers on Dorothy's feet. Before Dorothy can break in her new heels, however, the Wicked Witch of the West swears vengeance. Glinda tells Dorothy to follow the yellow brick road to the Emerald City, where a powerful Wizard can help her get back to Kansas.
On the way she meets a Scarecrow who says he has no brain, a Tin Woodsman who claims to have no heart, and a lion who is a coward. The three join up and travel to the Emerald City, where a terrifying apparition appears and finally agrees to help them all if they will bring him the Wicked Witch's magic broomstick. It's a hazardous journey. As the group passes through the Haunted Forest, Dorothy and Toto are seized by flying monkeys who carry them away to the Witch's castle. Toto escapes and brings Dorothy's friends to rescue her, but they are also captured. When the Witch sets the Scarecrow on fire, Dorothy throws water on him. Some of it splashes on the Witch, destroying her.
Dorothy and her friends take the broomstick and return to face the Mighty Oz. In his palace, Toto pulls aside a curtain, revealing a man operating levers that create the illusion of the Wizard. Humbled, he gives the Scarecrow a diploma, the Tin Woodsman a testimonial and the lion a medal, convincing them that they now have the virtuous qualities they previously lacked. Admitting that he is just a balloonist from Kansas, the Wizard offers to take Dorothy home. However, Toto jumps out of the gondola to chase a cat and Dorothy chases after him as the balloon is carried away. Glinda tells her she can go home if she clicks the heels of the ruby slippers and thinks "There's no place like home" three times. After reciting this magical mantra, Dorothy awakens in her bed, surrounded by her aunt and uncle, the three farmhands — who bear an uncanny resemblance to the Scarecrow, the Tin Man and the Lion — and Professor Marvel, whom we realize is the Wizard.
Principal photography of this fantastic adventure story began on October 13 with Richard Thorpe directing. Hal Rosson, ASC was director of photography, with Allen B. Davey, ASC serving as Technicolor cinematographer. Thorpe had made four great Tarzan films and the remarkable Night Must Fall, but the rushes soon convinced producer LeRoy that the director was not capturing the desired fairytale quality. After 11 days, production was halted and George Cukor assumed directorial duties. But Cukor left after a week to begin preparing Gone With the Wind. He was replaced by Victor Fleming, a hard-boiled former cinematographer. Ironically, Fleming later replaced Cukor on GWTW as well.
In late October, Ebsen became seriously ill from breathing the powdered aluminum dusted over his Tin Man makeup. He recovered after six weeks in the hospital, but MGM had already borrowed Jack Haley from Fox to replace him.
The next casualty was Margaret Hamilton, who was supposed to disappear from Munchkinland in a burst of smoke and fire. To do this, she had to step on a certain part of the road and descend on an elevator. After several takes, the pyrotechnics ignited too soon and she was seriously burned on the face and hand. Later, Hamilton's stunt double, Betty Danko, was badly injured while riding (on wires) the witch's smoke-spitting broomstick. The prop exploded, sending her to the hospital for 11 days and leaving her with permanent scars.
The Technicolor photography for Oz was difficult because of the vastness of the sets. It would have been next to impossible except that Technicolor had just introduced its new, "faster" film, which today would have an ASA rating of about 50. Even so, Rosson was astonished at the number of big arcs required to light the picture. The heat was enormous, and was especially torturous for the actors in their heavy costumes. On some sets, as many as eight cameras — about a third of Technicolor's inventory — were used, with one getting the overall scene while others were hidden among the scenery for tighter shots. The main camera, mounted on a huge crane, was kept moving, tracking with the subjects in most shots.
A preponderance of shiny surfaces, such as the Tin Man's metallic suit, the big prop emeralds, and even the sequined red slippers, caused problems by creating distracting reflections.
The Kansas scenes at the beginning, directed by King Vidor, were photographed in black-and-white. They were printed in the MGM laboratory's beautiful but long-extinct Sepia Platinum process, which not only gave the images a sepia tone, but lent an iridescent quality to the highlights. The process was also used in other pictures of the era, such as Ziegfeld Girl, Tarzan Finds a Son! and Girl of the Golden West. In Oz, frames were hand-painted in order to create the transition to color.
Wizard also presented many problems not previously encountered in three-strip photography because of its numerous special effects scenes. Two effects units operated within Cedric Gibbons's art department. A. Arnold Gillespie was in charge of miniatures, projection process and mechanical effects. Warren Newcombe headed the matte painting section, where he and his assistants produced what the studio called "Newcombe Shots."
A commercial artist from Massachusetts, Newcombe entered the movie field in 1922 by producing an art film entitled The Enchanted City. That led to his employment by D. W. Griffith for America (1923) and, in 1925, the start of his long career at MGM. Some of the best remembered 'beauty shots' in Oz are Newcombe composites, such as scenes in which the towering buildings of the Emerald City loom in the distance as Dorothy and her friends follow the yellow brick road. These structures strongly resemble Alex Raymond's 1934 drawings of Ming's Diamond City in the newspaper cartoon Flash Gordon. In such scenes, the live action was photographed on a section of the road and the masked scene was doubled into a matching blacked-out area of the painting. A few scenes, such as the establishing shot of the witch's castle, are complete paintings, 40 inches wide and without live action.
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