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Quotes

Dorothy: How can you talk if you haven't got a brain?

Scarecrow: I don't know. But some people without brains do an awful lot of talking, don't they?

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Trivia

Early in pre-production, Shirley Temple was considered for the role of Dorothy, who would have been on loan out from 20th Century Fox, but the truth as to why she did not get the part remains uncertain. One reason offered is that MGM's head of production, Mervyn LeRoy, was under pressure to cast Shirley (who was a popular child star at the time), but during an unofficial audition he decided that her singing was not what he envisioned for Dorothy and wanted an actress with a different style. Another reason is that they thought it to be too big a role for such a young actress (she was 11 at the time). Yet another possible reason is that 20th Century Fox studio head Darryl F. Zanuck was offered double Shirley's salary to star her in the film, but Zanuck declined, and the offer was raised to MGM's budget limit that the film could afford, but once again Zanuck declined. In addition, a rumored story exists that there was a deal that MGM's Jean Harlow and Clark Gable were going to be on loan to 20th Century Fox in return for Shirley's loan out to MGM, but after Harlow's death (from uremic poisoning brought on by acute nephritis) in 1937 the deal ended. However, Harlow died in 1937, which was before MGM had even purchased the rights to the story. See more...

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Movie Mistakes blog

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The Wizard of Oz (1939) - 33 major mistakes

Directed by Victor Fleming, starring Bert Lahr, Billie Burke, Frank Morgan, Jack Haley, Judy Garland, Margaret Hamilton, Ray Bolger (add more)

Genres: Adventure, Family, Fantasy, Musical

There is NO hanging in the background of the Wizard of Oz. Much like the "ghost" in Three Men and a Baby, it's just plain rubbish. Click here for details.

Mistakes
Trivia
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Revealing: Soon after Dorothy slaps the Cowardly Lion, she looks as though she is about to laugh out loud. This happens about 10 seconds or so after the slap. She even tries to put Toto in front of her face to cover up her smirking.

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Continuity: During the sequence where Dorothy meets the Scarecrow, Dorothy's pigtails are first short (above her shoulders) and as the song progresses her hair gets longer (below her shoulders), then short, and then long again.

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Continuity: When the Witch melts, the broom is laying several inches from her dress. In the next shot, the broom is practically touching her dress.

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Revealing: When the group is waiting to see the Wizard, the Lion sings the "If I Were King" song. The Tin Man grabs a flower pot and breaks it to make a crown. When the crown falls off the Lion's head later, it bounces around like plastic.

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Revealing: When the guard tells Dorothy that she may not see the Wizard, Dorothy starts crying and tells a sob story about Auntie Em. Then, it shows the guard crying, but the tears aren't coming from his eyes. They're coming from above his eyebrows.

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Character mistake: While singing the "If I Were King" song, the Lion asks, "What makes the Sphinx the Seventh Wonder?" The Sphinx is not one of the Seven Wonders of the World; its neighbour the Great Pyramid of Giza is.

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Continuity: In the beginning while Dorothy is still on the farm, she walks along the pig pen fence and then falls in. When Bert Lahr picks her up out of there her dress is perfectly clean.

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Continuity: During the scene when Dorothy and Scarecrow are fighting with the trees, Scarecrow says "I'll show you how to get apples" and he gets hit by the apples. The very next scene if you quickly look at Dorothy's shoes, you can see that she is wearing black shoes, not her ruby slippers.

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Audio problem: At the very end of, "We Welcome You to Munchkin Land," at the very last 'fa la la la la laaaaaa' right before the Wicked Witch interrupts the song with her explosive arrival, you can hear someone scream before the explosion even occurs.

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Visible crew/equipment: When the Wicked Witch scares the Munchkins in Munchkinland, where Dorothy lands, she disappears into a cloud of smoke she creates. But you can clearly see her sneak down into a trap door below. [As an aside to this entry, Margaret Hamilton was hospitalized for severe burns after a take of this shot (not the final one used) when there was a glitch in the timing of the explosion.]

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Continuity: When the Wicked Witch scares the Scarecrow, Dorothy, and the Tin Man with fire, after the fire is thrown, not only is the Tin Man's funnel cap on backwards, everything is reversed. In order to keep the characters oriented from left to right correctly, they had to show the film from the wrong side, thus the buttons of the Scarecrow's jacket and everything else are on the wrong side.

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Revealing: When the Wizard is getting ready to take off in the balloon, while most people watch Dorothy climb out of the basket and go after Toto, the Tin Man is unravelling the thing holding the hot air balloon down, then he "accidentally" lets go.

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Revealing: When the foursome are granted permission to see the Wizard, they get up, link arms and proceed up the steps. You can see the wire that holds up the Lion's tail get caught in front of the Scarecrow's arm. He then lets it loose very carefully by unlinking his arm.

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Visible crew/equipment: During the Lion's song of, "If I only had the nerve." You can see the cameraman's shadow pass over Dorothy, the Lion, and then the log on the side of the road. Watch carefully, it comes back.

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Continuity: Dorothy's hair is long and almost straight in some shots and short and curly when the camera pans back to her. This happens throughout the movie.

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Continuity: Immediately following the Tin Man's dance, Dorothy and the Scarecrow try to keep the Tin Man standing on his feet and clumsily shuffle over to a tree trunk where the Tin Man then sits. During this, the oil can in Dorothy's basket clearly falls out and on to the Yellow Brick Road. Dorothy doesn't pick it up but, in the very next shot, the oil can is back in the basket.

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Revealing: When the Tin Man breaks the flower pot for the Lion in the palace you can see the lines that it is supposed to break on.

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Other: When the Wicked Witch is giving the orders to the Nikko, the Head Winged Monkey, it shows his troops flying away before he's even finished receiving his orders.

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Continuity: Immediately after Dorothy throws the water onto the witch, there is a long shot of the group as they observe the Wicked Witch beginning to melt. In this shot you can see that the Scarecrow's arm is still on fire, yet nothing is done about it as they all focus on the Witch. In the next full shot of the Scarecrow the fire is completely out.

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Continuity: In the scene at the Witch's castle, when the Scarecrow looks up at the candles hanging from the ceiling, the candles are lit, but when he chops the rope with the Tin Man's axe, and the shot is from above, showing the candles fall onto the men, they are not lit, but the next shot shows the candles on top of them and they are lit.

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