Off to see the Wizard

[shewhomust]

I was convinced I'd seen The Wizard of Oz before - in the cinema, what's more. But durham_rambler says he has never seen it, and there was so much in it I didn't recognise, perhaps I haven't either. How very strange. And I know I've never read the book (though I'm pretty sure there's a copy in one of the piles, somewhere: I wonder if I could find it?).

Some miscellaneous thoughts about The Wizard of Oz:

• The screenplay is by Noel Langley.


• Despite living with her aunt and uncle, Dorothy isn't a poor little orphan who nobody loves: clearly she is the child indulged by everybody on the farm. This is exaggerated in the early scenes by the fact that Judy Garland is barely a child at all: she's visibly an adolescent, which makes it odd that she can't see why people are too busy to deal with her concerns Right Now.


• I wonder if the doubling of characters between Kansas and Oz is present in the book, or something introduced by the screen adaptation?


• The Wicked Witch of the West is a great part - as villains often are - and Margaret Hamilton shows every sign of having fun with it. But she has a wonderful face - never less than interesting, and sometimes surprisinly beautiful.


• Glinda, the Good Witch, is unbelievably irritating.


• The Lion shows signs of genuine cowardice (though even he has enough courage to come out of the forest and threaten passers-by - I suppose he wouldn't have much part in the story if he didn't. But the Scarecrow is perfectly intelligent from the start, and the Tin Man verges on the sentimental (not to say "camp"): he could probably do with less heart, not more. I suppose it's a sign of intelligence, to realise that you aren't as intelligent as you'd like to be (and likewise, mutatis mutandis, for the heart).


• The Wicked Witch's colour is red: she appears in a puff of red smoke, she tries to waylay the travellers in a field of red poppies, she measures out Dorothy's life with an hourglass whose red glittering sands exactly match the ruby slippers: obviously the slippers are hers too.


• The cabby who drives the travellers into the Emerald City, with his horse of a different colour, has the same cockney accent as Dick van Dyke.


• I found the Emeral City very sinister, with Dorothy and co. being swept off to a beauty parlour on arrival, while the locals sing about how they laugh all the time in the merry old land of Oz (I've just realised that what this was reminding me of was The Silver Chair, and the warm welcome given to Jill, Eustace and Puddleglum by the giants)


• The winged monkeys were good, but the Witch's guards have the best uniform ever: I want a coat like that.


• And the moral of the story is, be content with what you have, because you aren't going to get anything else. Don't start me on how wrong that is.

A morning well spent.