Corrected entry: It has been said in some published works that the "Wizard of Oz" would never been remade as it is, because there are not that many little people qualified to assume the role of the Munchkins today as it was in the late 1930s. This is in part due to the availability of growth hormone treatment and an improved diet in today's people.
Corrected entry: When the Tin Man is singing "If I Only had a Heart" it takes a close up of Dorothy. You can see a man messing with the bottom of a tree in the background.
Corrected entry: The TIN man is made of TIN. If he was made of some other metal he would be called the Iron Man or the Titanium Man or the Aluminum Man. Because he is made of TIN he will not RUST! Rust is Iron Oxide. In addition, Tin will not form oxides at normal atmospheric temperatures and pressure. If he cannot rust, then the scenes with him rusted/rusting and the oil can are totally unnecessary and factually wrong.
Correction: In its day 'tins' that contained food were in fact iron (or mild steel) coated with a thin layer of tin to stop corrosion. The tin coating would wear away with time and the iron (or mild steel) underneath would rust. This makes a rusting Tin Man completely correct.
Corrected entry: When Dorothy is entering her house in Kansas at the peak of the tornado, she opens the screen door and it flies off the hinges and into the air but you can also see a hanging plant right in front of her ever so slightly swinging from side to side. The storm takes a door off its hinges but can't knock a hanging plant off its hook?
Correction: In a tornado, anything is likely. A roof blown off a house and a hay rake deposited by the wind onto the floor of an upstairs bedroom while not disturbing the made bed, furniture or anything in the room speaks to the fact that a tornado can knock a door off it's hinges but not disturb the hanging plant or nearby lighter in weight objects. It depends on how the energy (force) is concentrated and such acts (tornado) are even more likely to do something like this.
Corrected entry: Tin doesn't rust.
Correction: While tin itself doesn't rust in the same way iron does, it can corrode and oxidize, especially when exposed to acidic conditions or moisture.
Corrected entry: When the group is in the Land of Oz and are getting out of the carriage to go to the "refresh room", the Tin Man's tights can be seen crinkling as he steps down from the carriage, showing that he is not "tin", or at least not completely.
Correction: All of his joints "crinkle." Not to mention that his face is obviously not solid tin. Nothing ever says he's "completely" made of tin, there's no reason why parts of his body can't be made of another substance.
Corrected entry: "The Wizard Of Oz" is apparently set at or about 1900. The wide rubber tire tied to a tree limb as a swing and seen several times early in the film is of much more modern vintage.
Correction: I believe this is not an accurate assessment regarding the time-setting, as Toto jumps into the seat of a tractor during "Over the Rainbow," also the fashions of 1900 America would never allow Dorothy Gale (or any female) to show their ankles; however it would make sense for Miss Gulch's fashion sense to be 20-30 years behind the times. Also note that Miss Gulch's bicycle is not turn-of-the-century; the Wizard states, when he was "acclaimed Oz, the first Wizard de Luxe," that, "times being what they were, I took the job," an explicit reference to the Depression, which was of course occurring at the time. Just a few observations. :).
Corrected entry: When the Wicked Witch of the West is writing the message in the sky for Dorothy, she begins with one letter. Two shots later, the entire message is written, without enough time for her to have written it all.
Correction: They do this all the time in movies. There's no reason to make the audience sit through the Witch writing the entire message, so if they show a beginning and an end, the audience knows the message had been written.
Corrected entry: Regarding the Tin Man: tin doesn't rust.
Correction: "The Tin Man" is merely a name Dorothy gives him when she sees he's silver. What he's actually made of is never stated.
Corrected entry: During one of the times the cast sings "We're off to see the Wizard" (either after they meet the Tin Man or the Cowardly Lion), as they begin to walk off, above the main characters there is visible the sillhouette of a crew member swinging an arm projected onto the backdrop from behind it.
Correction: No, this is part of the infamous "hanging munchkin" scene. That is not the arm of a stagehand, it is one of the free-roaming birds extending it's wing. You can see it for yourself at the link given at the top of the main page for The Wizard of Oz.
Corrected entry: When Aunt Em is taking the chicks out of the incubator and putting them in Uncle Henry's hat, you can see that she is just pretending and there is nothing in her hands. (00:02:35)
Correction: She puts them in her apron and she actually has chicks in her hand.
Corrected entry: When the Cowardly Lion sings to Dorothy, the Scarecrow and the Tin Man, "If I only had the nerve", the three all look over to the Lion and listen to him sing. Each time after the Lion sings a line, he pauses and Dorothy looks over at the Tin Man and the Scarecrow. If you watch closely, she slightly nods her head, almost like she's giving them the cue to get ready to gallop, which they all do after each pause. Also, if you pay close attention, when Dorothy looks over to the Tin Man and the Scarecrow to give them the cue to gallop she looks unsure, like she may be doing something that's not in the script, and at one point bites her lip.
Correction: This is a stretch, and I don't see it.
Corrected entry: In the scene where Dorothy gets to the crossroads right before she meets Scarecrow, the camera shows the field where Scarecrow should be, but he is not there until the camera shows the field again.
Correction: Although it seems that the camera never moves, these two shots are actually from completely different angles. (The two shots show two backgrounds that are not at all alike). This indicates that not showing the Scarecrow the first time is correct.
Corrected entry: When they are leaving the Haunted Forest, you can see a crew member with a can creating fog.
Correction: Where? I've watched it over and over, and can not see any such thing, it must be something else.
Corrected entry: After the flying monkeys fly off with Dorothy, the Lion and the Tinman hurry over to the disassembled Scarecrow, who says "First they tore my legs off and threw them over THERE". But the legs are right below his chest; the Tinman immediately grabs them without having to reach far.
Correction: The Scarecrow is in a state of high anxiety, and he's highly overwhelmed by what they did to him. Now he and the others are facing dire circumstances, so it's merely the character's misbelief as to the status of his lower limbs, or Scarecrow may have actually meant all the straw stuffing that made up his legs which the Flying Monkeys had thrown aside, though whatever the case it's not a film mistake. Note, Tin Man even says, "They sure knocked the stuffings out of you."
Corrected entry: Throughout the first Kansas sequence Aunt Em and Hickory make references to 'that contraption' which is the reason why, "They'll erect a statue to me one day." The explanation from this is from a cut scene where Hickory (Jack Haley) is trying to build a machine that will predict the weather.
Correction: This particular scene didn't really need to be in the film to make it fit. It answers the question to what the contraption was, but it's not a mistake the scene can flow just fine without the cut scene.
Corrected entry: The Lion's line "My life has been simply unbearable" comes out as "Mice life..." (00:49:45)
Correction: I'm pretty sure this was intentional. As Bert Laur was a comedian and wanted to put in a certain way the lion talks. So therefore making "My life" come out as "mice life"
Corrected entry: In the scene where Dorothy is at the door to see the Wizard, the doorman's moustache is pointed upwards, but shortly afterwards it is pointing downwards. I believe it was changed to reflect the mood (upwards=smile, downwards=frown/sad). If I remember correctly, when it is downward, he is crying about having an Aunt Em, also. Still a mistake, but there's an explanation.
Correction: If this is the way a character is in Oz then it is not a mistake, even if it is quite odd, but remember there is a lot of odd stuff in Oz. Not a mistake though, if that's how the character is.
Corrected entry: When Dorothy and the Scarecrow find the Tinman and oil him, they oil his mouth so he can talk, his arms so they can move but they don't oil his legs and yet he walks away.
Correction: He has considerable trouble "walking" away, and at this point, Dorothy oils his right leg and the scarecrow oils his left. Also, they were oiling him from the top down. So some oil could have dripped and made its way down to his legs, helping to free him.
Corrected entry: In the scene where Dorothy picks the apple from the tree and the tree scares her, Toto runs up towards the tree. Just before this you see an arm come out from behind the tree to prompt Toto to come to the tree.
Correction: Where? My kids and I have watched this over and over, and we never see an arm come out anywhere. Can you be more specific about when this happens?
Correction: I don't know the exact numbers but I suspect there were no more than a hundred little people used in The Wizard of Oz. In a country of almost three hundred million people, I'm sure that several thousand dwarves could be found despite improved diets or growth hormone.
They were little people, not dwarves. And several thousand dwarves who could sing and dance and act would be interested in being in a movie?