The Wizard of Oz
The Wizard of Oz mistake picture

Continuity mistake: After both Dorothy and Scarecrow have oiled Tin Man's elbows, Dorothy pulls the Tin Man's arm down and we see her throw the apple that she's holding down behind him. In the next shot it reappears in her left hand. (00:41:55)

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The Wizard of Oz mistake picture

Continuity mistake: In the scene where the Wizard is about to bestow 'awards', the Scarecrow is lined up second from the left as the Wizard begins to speak. In the next shot while the Wizard is still speaking, the Scarecrow 'jumps' to the far right. (01:29:10)

The Wizard of Oz mistake picture

Revealing mistake: As Dorothy is about to walk into the cyclorama (backdrop) as she leaves Munchkinland, Munchkins are blurred, including a Munchkin soldier on the very far right, who becomes transparent with the matted-in flowers. (00:33:40)

The Wizard of Oz mistake picture

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.

The Wizard of Oz mistake picture

Visible crew/equipment: The seams in the floorboard under the Haunted Forest set can be seen several times under the leaves. The best is in the close-ups of Toto. (01:15:30 - 01:19:35)

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The Wizard of Oz mistake picture

Continuity mistake: The Tin Man starts chopping the Witch's door and it's not the same one we just saw three shots before. The wood is a different color and the dark metal brace has been polished in the close-up. (01:23:40)

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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.

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Suggested correction: Not necessarily. There was a time when apostrophes were not consistently used to indicate possession, and even today, usage varies. In earlier periods, the apostrophe was used more sparingly, and there was less standardisation in its application. Today, apostrophes aren't used on street names (e.g. Queens Road) and many pub names (e.g. The Bulls Head), etc.

The Wizard of Oz mistake picture

Revealing mistake: When Toto reveals the Wizard by pulling the curtain aside, he doesn't use his mouth; the curtain is tied to the dog. Dorothy can even be seen later removing the rope.

moviefan2345

The Wizard of Oz mistake picture

Visible crew/equipment: Near the very beginning, when Dorothy is with Prof. Marvel, after she runs out of his trailer and the wind starts blowing, he follows her and goes towards his horse tied up outside. As he's walking towards the horse, you can see the shadow of a boom mic along his trailer. (00:14:55)

The Wizard of Oz mistake picture

Revealing mistake: After the witch says "Hey scarecrow, wanna play ball" she throws a fireball at him. But you can see the ground catch on fire before the fireball hits the ground. (00:46:20)

The Wizard of Oz mistake picture

Continuity mistake: At the start of the "lions and tigers and bears, oh my" sequence, Dorothy, the Scarecrow and Tin Man are all standing separately, then the shot cuts and they're suddenly arm in arm. (00:48:45)

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The Wizard of Oz mistake picture

Continuity mistake: Just before the Wicked Witch leaves Munchkinland she says to Dorothy, "just try to stay out of my way" and her broomstick is facing upwards. In the next shot it's facing downwards. (00:30:35)

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Suggested correction: In between shots, in order to threaten Dorothy more, the Witch leaned down towards her more than in the first shot. Therefore, she had to lower the broom so she could do that without the broom getting in the way.

These shots are back-to-back. There's literally no time for her to have lowered the broom between shots. She would have had to have done it in 1/24th of a second... about 8 times faster than it takes you to blink your eyes once at normal speed. It's just not possible.

TedStixon

The Wizard of Oz mistake picture

Continuity mistake: Glinda tells Dorothy, "Their magic must be very powerfulÂ…" and Dorothy has her left hand around Toto. In the next shot she's holding the flowers in front of her. (00:30:20)

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The Wizard of Oz mistake picture

Continuity mistake: When the Munchkins come out onto the Yellow Brick Road, one of them comes out of a sewer hatch on the yellow bricks. It's located on the ground in front of the first small white cottage with the thatched roof, right behind Dorothy's house. Throughout this scene, the dark hatch is visible whenever we see that specific location, such as when the Wicked Witch of the West asks, "Who killed my sister? Who killed the Witch of the East? Was it you?" but as Dorothy begins to "follow the yellow brick road", there is an overhead shot followed by a front shot and the dark hatch has disappeared.

The Wizard of Oz mistake picture

Continuity mistake: There are two actresses playing Dorothy (and two dogs playing Toto) as she opens the door to Oz. The first is a stand-in wearing a dull colored dress in order to make it look black and white. After she opens the door and moves out of the way, Judy Garland is who we actually see walking through. Look at the different pleats on the two dresses. (00:19:25)

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The Wizard of Oz mistake picture

Continuity mistake: After the Tin man opens the door with his axe chopping its wood, Dorothy steps out and the door is totally fixed. One can see the unblemished door when the Lion removes his paw.

Sacha

The Wizard of Oz mistake picture

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

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

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: Did Dorothy really go to Oz or was it a dream? Because, in return to Oz at the end, she sees Ozma (the good witch in her mirror) or was that just her imagination/a dream too?

Answer: In the film it's left ambiguous. At the end it's strongly implied that she was dreaming. The characters she meets all look like people she actually knows. In the original book, she actually went to Oz.

Answer: Return to Oz was not a direct sequel to the 1939 film. One was developed by Disney and the other by MGM. Return to Oz is actually an adaptation-fusion of the second and third Oz books, that contains elements from the 1939 film (like the Ruby slippers and the Oz/Kansas counterparts) because that's what people are most familiar.

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