The Wizard of Oz (1939)

302 continuity mistakes - chronological order

★★★★☆

Starring: Frank Morgan, Judy Garland, Billie Burke, Ray Bolger, Bert Lahr, Jack Haley, Margaret Hamilton

Genres: Adventure, Family, Fantasy, Musical

Continuity mistake: The Wizard holds the Lion's medal in his left hand when he takes it out of the bag. In the next shot it's in his right. (01:30:50)

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Continuity mistake: The Scarecrow is on the left of the Wizard's balloon as he says, "To confer, converse...". In the next shot he's on the right. (01:34:15)

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Continuity mistake: As they stand in the Wizard's balloon, Toto is looking at the Cowardly Lion. In the next shot he's growling at a cat. (01:34:45)

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Continuity mistake: As he holds the Wizard's balloon, the Tin Man has his heart shaped clock attached to his chest at the sixth rivet. The next time we see him several seconds later it's attached to the third rivet. (01:34:50)

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Continuity mistake: At the end when the Wizard and Dorothy are in the balloon basket, the tie down ropes on the right side keep going from tied to untied and back to tied again through different shots. (01:34:55)

Continuity mistake: The Wizard shouts, "I can't come back I don't know how it works" and the Scarecrow is on Dorothy's left. In the next shot he's on her right. (01:35:10)

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Continuity mistake: Dorothy says, "Oh, now I'll never get home" and her dress is clean. Several shots later the Tin Man asks, "What have you learned, Dorothy?" and there are now spots all over the front of it that last for the rest of the scene. (01:35:25)

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Continuity mistake: When Glinda walks up the steps to greet Dorothy and the rest the floor can be seen and it's quite dirty. Later when Dorothy taps her heels together the same floor has been cleaned and shined. (01:36:15 - 01:38:40)

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Continuity mistake: Dorothy says to the Good Witch, "Will you help me? Can you help me?" and Toto goes from facing the camera to facing the other way between shots. (01:36:25)

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Continuity mistake: Before she sends her back to Kansas, Glinda's wand is pointing at Dorothy's feet. In the next shot when she says, "Toto too" the wand is in her left hand. (01:37:15)

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Continuity mistake: Near the end of the movie, when Dorothy is saying good-bye to the Scarecrow, he is looking at Dorothy and begins to wave good-bye. In the next shot, his head is down and he lifts it slowly and begins to wave. (01:38:30)

Continuity mistake: Aunt Em puts a compress on Dorothy's head as she returns to consciousness. In the next shot the top is folded differently. (01:39:15)

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Continuity mistake: When Professor Marvel comes by at the end of the movie Dorothy is holding Aunt Em's hand. In the next shot her hand is on her stomach. (01:39:45)

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Continuity mistake: At the end of the movie, when Dorothy is talking to her family, she wraps her right arm around Toto. The shot changes, and her left arm is suddenly around Toto. (01:40:50)

Movie_Freak 1

Continuity mistake: 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.

Continuity mistake: In the scene where the Wicked Witch in Munchkinland goes over to observe the ruby slippers on her dead sister's feet, when she is up close there's not much space between her and the slippers but when she turns around and says "they're gone," she's further away, then she's closer again in the next shot.

Continuity mistake: While with Professor Marvel, when Toto eats the sausage and Dorothy scolds him, she places her left arm on the basket. A frame later her arm is resting by her lap.

Sacha ★

Continuity mistake: When the Lion is singing about being King of the Forest, the Tin Man breaks a flower pot to "crown" him. Pay close attention, as the break marks on the pot change. In one shot there's a big jagged edge sticking up (obviously longer than the others) and in the next shot most of the edges are even.

Continuity mistake: The characters change places from one shot to another as the Wizard gives the Tin Man his heart, etc.

Continuity mistake: When Dorothy asks the Wizard to take her back home, in every close-up of her the Scarecrow disappears from behind, only to reappear in the rest of the shots.

Sacha ★

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Mistakes

Continuity mistake: When Dorothy slaps Lion on the nose for chasing Toto and shouts, "Shame on you!" in the wide shot, we see Dorothy's right arm with no mark on her skin. It then cuts to the medium shots, and there's an inexplicable long, thin blue mark (it's not a loose thread) on Dorothy's arm near her elbow, while she's holding Toto. This blue mark vanishes in the wide shot when she puts Toto down, and Lion begins to sing. (00:50:25)

Super Grover ★

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Quotes

Lion: [crying.] Look at the circles under my eyes, I haven't slept in weeks.
Tin Man: Well, why don't you count sheep?
Lion: Oh it's no use, I'm afraid of them.

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Trivia

Trivia: "Over the Rainbow", which the American Film Institute recently named the greatest movie song of all time, was nearly cut from the film.

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Questions

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 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.

You may have seen the scene, but it wasn't at the end of this movie for reasons stated above.

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.

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