The Wizard of Oz

Continuity mistake: In the very beginning of the film, as Dorothy and Toto are running down the road towards the farm, you can see a small grease spot on Dorothy's apron when she reaches down to pick Toto up. When they reach the farm, somehow the spot has vanished.

Continuity mistake: In the poppy field, when Dorothy points at the Emerald City, the Lion is standing more than a meter away from her. In the close-up he stands very close to her.

Sacha

Continuity mistake: In the haunted forest, when the Tin Man is lifted up in the air, the Lion crouches and covers his face with his paws. A frame later he is standing up in a totally different position.

Sacha

Continuity mistake: Aunt Em places a cold towel on Dorothy's head. The towel is sometimes away from the eyebrow, slightly on top, or completely covering it, depending on the angle.

Sacha

Continuity mistake: The Lion says, "Read what my medal says," and holds it with his paw. In the close-ups the paw is away and the medal lies flat on his chest.

Sacha

Continuity mistake: Dorothy's Aunt hands out some food, walks with her and leaves Dorothy alone. Several meters ahead there's a cart wheel and one chicken. When the angle changes, Dorothy is standing next to the wheel, which is also facing a different position, and there's a lot of chickens around.

Sacha

Continuity mistake: As the four enter the tower where the Wicked Witch is eventually melted, we see guards and steps on the left of the tower. When seen from above the entrance that the guards use is on the right of the tower. (01:25:35)

????

Continuity mistake: After she watches the Wicked Witch "melt", Dorothy holds the pail in her hands. She never walks away but if you look closely the pail just disappears from the scene, never to return or be seen again. (01:26:45)

????

The Wizard of Oz mistake picture

Continuity mistake: At first the Tin Man starts chopping the top part of the Witch's door with his ax and two shots later he's chopping about two feet lower, near the handle. If you look closely when he eventually gets the door open, the top part has not been touched. (01:23:40)

????

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)

????

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)

????

Continuity mistake: In the Wicked Witch's room, she puts Toto in Dorothy's basket which now has a lid on both sides of it. Later when the boys come to rescue her, Dorothy walks over toward the hourglass, and picks up the same basket and it now has no lids on it (like earlier in the movie). (01:17:20 - 01:23:50)

????

Continuity mistake: As the Wicked Witch throws her hour glass at them we see behind her as she stands on the balcony, and her broomstick is definitely not anywhere near her. As she runs down the stairs, it's in her hand. (01:24:45)

????

Continuity mistake: After the Wicked Witch turns the hourglass over and leaves, Dorothy is crying and has wet spots on her dress from the tears. In the next shot her dress is dry. (01:18:05)

????

Continuity mistake: Dorothy says to herself, "Someplace where there isn't any trouble". If you look closely her hair is blowing in the pre-tornado Kansas wind. In the next shot it isn't. (00:05:25)

????

Continuity mistake: As the Wicked Witch puts her flaming broomstick on the Scarecrow, look closely at the Tin Man. His chest dent that we saw several shots earlier on the left side of his costume, has been dented out. (01:24:20 - 01:26:15)

????

Continuity mistake: In the scene when Dorothy taps her ruby slippers together, there is a bow on the toe. When she is walking to Emerald City, her shoes have no bow.

Revealing mistake: When the Lion runs out of the Wizard's room, the group disappears because it is an obvious backdrop.

Sacha

More mistakes in The Wizard of Oz

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?

More quotes from The Wizard of Oz
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.

More questions & answers from The Wizard of Oz

Join the mailing list

Separate from membership, this is to get updates about mistakes in recent releases. Addresses are not passed on to any third party, and are used solely for direct communication from this site. You can unsubscribe at any time.

Check out the mistake & trivia books, on Kindle and in paperback.