Programme Notes

Saturday 7th September 2pm

The Wizard of Oz (U)

Dir: Victor Fleming Film Facts Cast: Judy Garland, Ray Bolger, Jack Haley, Bert Lahr Margaret Hamilton, who played the Wicked Based on L Frank Baum’s 1900 children’s Witch, was badly burned making her smoky exit from Munchkinland — her dress, hat, and broom book The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, this evergreen classic is one of the great film caught on fire and severely burned her face and fairy tales, as well as a first-rate musical hand. She had to recuperate for six weeks and the film that turned Judy Garland . before resuming filming. Even worse: The green face paint was so toxic that she (and several from a talented child performer into a other actors) couldn't eat once it was applied and lasting and iconic movie star. had to subsist on a liquid diet via straw during Along with her little dog Toto, Garland’s the day. Plus, her face stayed green for weeks Dorothy Gale is whisked out of a sepia after shooting because of the copper-based Kansas by a tornado and dumped in the rav- ingredients. ishing Technicolor Land of Oz. There she squashes a witch under her house, is given Actor Frank Morgan played five roles: the Great the dead hag’s magic ruby slippers and and Powerful Oz, the fortune-telling Kansas professor, the Emerald City cabby , a guard at takes off down the Yellow Brick Road to the the Wizard's palace and the doorkeeper there. Emerald City. She is in search of a way back home, accompanied by her new friends Lion, Scarecrow and Tin Man, each with their own quest. The Scarecrow wants a brain, the Lion seeks courage and the Tin Man wishes for a heart.

The film was nominated for six Academy Awards, including Best Picture, but lost to Main feature image Gone with the Wind, also directed by Victor Fleming. It did, however, win Best Original Song for Over the Rainbow and Best Original Score by Herbert Stothart. The film has long been beloved by the LGBTQ+ community. Judy Garland was much loved by gay men of a certain age, and the film follows a character from a small “Fleming’s direction is fast-paced and despite the community, misunderstood by her family kitsch imagery and all-round wholesomeness of and whisked away to a new family of misfits his heroine, there is a briskness of wit and spirit in a glamorous and glorious city. Also the that is almost, but not quite, subversive … The film contains no standard romance, setting it central themes of illusions, dreams and going on apart from so many of Hollywood’s films. an extraordinary adventure all the better to come The Stonewall riots erupted in New York on home and appreciate what you have there are en- 27 June 1969, the night after Judy Garland’s during … if there is any romance it is purely that of funeral, continuing to link the actor to the the movies and of the imagination, which are in fight for equal rights. It appears that the some ways, the same thing. The moment when Rainbow flag was not based on the famous Dorothy opens the door of her sepia coloured song from the film, but many LGBTQ+ Kansas cottage to the bright Technicolor land of choruses continue to sing Somewhere Over Oz is one of unparalleled wonder and innovation.” the Rainbow at Pride rallies. Trevor Johston, Little White Lies