This truly marvellous piece of cinematic history is based on L Frank Baum’s novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (1900). It wasn’t the first adaptation but it’s certainly the most popular, having brought many phrases, songs and images into popular culture.
The film generally follows the book, simplified and with several changes. Some are fairly small, such as swapping the silver slippers for ruby ones to show off that glorious Technicolor, or Dorothy being a teenager rather than a little girl. I would say there are two very significant changes, however. One is the whole story being framed as a dream, after Dorothy hits her head during the cyclone and everyone she knows become characters in Oz. In the book, her adventure wasn’t a dream. It really happened! When she returns home, there’s a new house there to replace the one which landed in Oz. The other major change is the increased importance of the Good Witch (Glinda, an amalgamation of the Witches of the North and South) and the Wicked Witch of the West. The encounters with them are confined to episodes in the book, while in the film they are essential to the narrative of good and evil. I think the film is quite scary in some parts, while the book has dark moments but is not frightening.
There are some oddities in the film. The trees which throw apples at people, the horses dyed in different colours, the snow which awakens Dorothy from a poppy-induced sleep (fun fact: the snow was made of asbestos) almost all of the beginning (the fortune teller, farm workers, the threat against Toto from a woman he bit) are not from the book. Although at the time of writing this, I have only read a few Oz sequels, so I can’t say for sure that these elements aren’t somewhere in the series.
In the book, there are backstories to the characters of the Tin Man (that one is worthy of the Brothers Grimm) and the Flying Monkeys. The latter have an important role in the book, as they do the bidding three times of whoever wears the Golden Cap. In the film, they are exclusively the nasty servants of the Wicked Witch. It should also be noted that the Witch in the book is quite short, one-eyed and is afraid of the dark. Her film counterpart was given a ‘traditional’ witchy look, I suppose to make her more of a villain.
The director was Victor Fleming, whose next film, released the same year, was Gone With the Wind. Dorothy’s house in Kansas was also ‘gone with the wind’, so that’s an interesting coincidence.
In summary, a highly recommended adaptation. Some aspects of the plot and character development are better in the book, but you don’t need to know the book to love the film.
Poster image in the public domain.
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