The Wizard of Oz

Revealing mistake: Whenever Dorothy, the Scarecrow, the Tin Man, and the Lion go off into the horizon you can see the line on the floor of the sound stage where the fake horizon is and the scene cuts off right as the four get to that point. (00:57:35)

Leonard Hassen

The Wizard of Oz mistake picture

Character mistake: When Dorothy and the others enter the Haunted forest, the sign reads "Witches Castle One Mile." "Witches" is plural. To be grammatically correct, it should have said "Witch's Castle," if one witch, or "Witches' Castle" if more than one.

Visible crew/equipment: As Dorothy is leaving Munchkinland the shadow of the camera on its dolly can be seen on the floor to the right of the screen as several Munchkins almost get run over. The shadow of the cameraman's head can be seen on the bottom right of the screen as they pass her house. (00:33:15)

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Visible crew/equipment: When the Wizard says, "Do you presume to criticize the great Oz?" look closely at the curtain as a crew member behind the curtain attaches it onto Toto so he can pull it open. (01:28:20)

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Continuity mistake: Before they meet the Cowardly Lion, Dorothy starts to say "Lions and Tigers and Bears" and the axe jumps from the Tin Man's left hand to his right between shots. (00:48:20)

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Continuity mistake: When Dorothy walks on the pig sty Zeke walks to his right, looks into, than passes the bucket on the right because it's empty. He then picks up the bucket behind it on the bench and proceeds to feed the pigs. He empties the first bucket then picks up the second empty bucket, which is now three quarters full. (00:03:55)

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Continuity mistake: When the Lion, the Scarecrow, and the Tin Man are chopping down the witch's door to free Dorothy before the hourglass runs out, they are dressed in the guards' uniforms. We see the axe hit the door, and in the next wide shot they are not in the uniforms. There is a slight view of the uniforms in a pile on the floor, as if the trio had changed out of them between axe blows. (01:24:00)

Revealing mistake: As the cyclone carries the farmhouse through the air, it is evident that the walls of Dorothy's bedroom are not solid walls, but fabric-covered flats. They flutter and vibrate in the wind. (00:17:50)

Continuity mistake: Before the four go in to see the Wizard, and as they speak to him, Toto jumps from right to left between shots several times. (01:09:35)

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Continuity mistake: When Dorothy first walks around Munchkinland, the bright ruby slippers are seen sticking out under the right window of the house. Later when the Munchkins come out we see the same spot again and the slippers aren't there. (00:20:40 - 00:23:15)

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Revealing mistake: When Dorothy's bedroom is flying away to Oz, there's wind blowing everywhere and bits of hay falling. However, the hay is coming from inside the room, instead of outside, and the papers on the table next to the window don't blow away nor move an inch.

Sacha

Continuity mistake: The bows in Dorothy's hair are tied differently throughout the scene with Glinda the witch in Munchkinland. (00:19:40 - 00:21:30)

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Continuity mistake: In the beginning of the movie Miss Gulch parks her bike on the fence in front of the Gale's house and it's obvious that the fence continues in the same direction past the gate. When Dorothy comes back during the storm the fence now curves around right after the gate. (00:08:15 - 00:15:25)

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Visible crew/equipment: Aunt Em gives Dorothy a cruller and says to her, "Â…and find yourself a place where you won't get into any trouble". Just as Aunt Em runs away you can see an equipment shadow fall across Dorothy's dress. (00:05:20)

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Visible crew/equipment: Dorothy asks the Wicked Witch, "What are you gonna do with my dog? and a stage light shines against the painted backdrop outside her window. (01:16:20)

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Character mistake: When the munchkin soldiers first arrive, you can see that some of the munchkins in the front are not beating their chest at the same time. This also happens when the munchkins sing the "fa la la la la" song before the witch arrives. (00:24:25)

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Suggested correction: That happens in real life too with real soldiers and live performing actors as much as they try to perfect it because they're human, not machines. Unless there's a rule in the film that a munchkin has to be perfect and can't make mistakes like that, not seeing why this is a movie mistake when this is something that happens in real life.

Revealing mistake: You can see strings attached to the witches monkeys as they fly, and also strings from their bodies to their wings, to give the wings that flapping effect. (01:11:20)

Hamster

Continuity mistake: As they enter the scene with the Cowardly Lion, the Scarecrow falls and then jumps over a patch of weeds growing in the middle of the Yellow Brick Road. In the next shot he does the exact same thing only about three feet behind the patch of weeds that he jumped over before. (00:48:00)

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Continuity mistake: At the Witch's door the Tin Man is not the wearing his metal suit underneath the guards clothing. Look at his waist. (01:23:30)

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Dorothy: There's no place like home.

More quotes from The Wizard of Oz

Trivia: The "tornado" was a thirty-five foot long muslin stocking, photographed with miniatures of a Kansas farm and fields.

rabid anarchist

More trivia for The Wizard of Oz

Question: At the very end of the movie after Dorothy says "Oh, Auntie Em, there's no place like home," normally, it fades out to the credits, but once - and only once - when I was very young, I thought I remembered seeing the camera pan away from her face and down to the foot of the bed where you see the ruby slippers tucked underneath the bed, then a fade to the credits. It is obviously a black-and-white shot, but there were the glittering shoes. Has anyone else seen this version of the ending?

Macalou

Answer: Another fine example of the Mandela Effect. None of the "making of" books reference this alternate ending. The original book ends with Dorothy losing the slippers on her journey back to Kansas.

wizard_of_gore

I also remember this scene; however, I remember it in a television movie, and it was at the beginning, not the end, of an entirely different movie.

Chosen answer: Yes. I'm sure I've seen that version. It shows that Dorothy didn't just dream about Oz and makes for a more satisfying conclusion. This version was original but edited out because it didn't follow the book's storyline for "Return to Oz" and the other long series of Oz books. The sequel pertains that she loses the slippers in transit back to her home and falls to the gnome king who destroys Oz which in turn causes Dorothy to return. So seeing the slippers at the end of the bed, while more satisfying, wouldn't really stay true to the Oz series.

I absolutely remember that version with the shoes at her bedside, but nobody I know remembers it.

Thank you! I remember that too but everyone I know thinks I'm nuts.

I remember that version and after that I expected to see the same ending but no I never saw that ending again. I got the response that no-one I know saw that ending of the movie where the ruby slippers being on her feet in her bed. Thank you for that answer. This was a long time mystery.

I absolutely remember that scene.

I remember that too - and I've asked so many people and they said no, I must have dreamed it. Thank you.

I saw that version once when I was a little kid too! I remember it vividly. Now I know I'm not crazy.

Answer: This seems to be one of those mass examples of people remembering something that never happened. There are also other variations, like people claiming to remember the film switching to color as the shot pans down to her slipper-clad feet, or the slippers being in color against the sepia-toned B&W footage. But sadly, it seems no officially released version of the film has had such an ending. It's similar to how everyone thinks Darth Vader says "Luke, I am your father," or how everyone thinks Humphrey Bogart says "Play it again, Sam!", even though neither of those lines are real, and people are merely incorrectly remembering them. The film is so ingrained in pop-culture, that people think they know it forwards-and-back, and false memories are created.

TedStixon

I agree that people think they remember things that never happened, but usually for things like this, remembering a scene wrong misquoting a movie lines, it comes from parody versions and people are (correctly) remembering the parody. I've never seen "Silence of the Lambs", but I know the line "Hello, Clarice" from films like "Cable Guy" and not from a false memory of the film.

Bishop73

Answer: https://criticsrant.com/mythbusters-dorothys-ruby-slippers/ This website gives some confirmation it's one of those myths that spread around and get mixed up in people's memories to being convinced they have seen it despite no evidence of it existing. In a film as big as the Wizard of Oz where die hard fans have collected original scripts, notes, and "lost" imagery over the years; we certainly would have something to back this up other than eye witness memory. Especially if it supposedly made it to the final print for viewing audiences as the original Wizard of Oz footage has been carefully preserved, as it's considered one of the most important films of all time. This footage wouldn't be completely lost if it made it to final showing print. Surely somebody would have posted it by now on YouTube. It is possible somebody made a skit or parody of this though contributing to the idea that it was actually in a print of the real movie.

Answer: I remember this being part of a special that was hosted by Angela Lansbury in 1990 and they showed that this ending was considered for the movie. For many years I couldn't remember why I remembered that ending and Angela Lansbury until I looked it up. I wish that it had been left like that. Kids always want their dreams to come true.

Answer: I and a friend of mine remember seeing the ruby slippers under Dorthy's bed at the end of the movie. Glad to know we didn't imagine it.

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