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| The Wizard of Oz (1939) | |
| Plot Synopsis (continued)
Auntie Em shrieks and calls out repeatedly for Dorothy, and is finally dragged down into the storm shelter by the men. The wind is so fierce and howling that screams and voices cannot be heard. While running toward her farm, Dorothy also sees the tornado cloud from the entrance road. [In a symbolic sense, Dorothy's conflict with Miss Gulch and her escape by running away brought forth the unleashed forces of the Gale-force cyclonic winds.] After reaching the front door to the house, she opens the screen door - it is dramatically ripped from its hinges and blown away. Inside, she moves through the rooms and doorways where she screams out for everyone, but the howling wind drowns out her voice. Left entirely alone and unprotected from the dangerous forces of nature, she is unable to open the door of the locked, underground cyclone shelter where the five adults have already taken shelter. Returning to the house and continually calling for Em, she stumbles into her bedroom where the window frame/shutter breaks away (like the screen door) and she is hit on the side of her head by one corner - it knocks her unconscious. For a moment, she lies back on her bed - the side-view of her face blurs and becomes a double-image. In a marvelous fantasy scene, the tiny farm house furiously whirls and dizzily spins into the sky inside the tornado spout. As Dorothy awakens, she looks out of her bedroom window. It frames, like a movie screen, objects that float and tumble by:
Dorothy sits up on her bed and looks into the black column of smoke of the cyclone: "We must be up inside the cyclone!" Outside the window, other peculiar things pass by:
When the twisting, swirling house finally spins toward the ground, it crash lands with a jolt and everything suddenly turns still. She is uninjured, but realizes she has been "transported" from Kansas to somewhere else peaceful and tranquil. With Toto in her arms, she apprehensively and curiously opens the farm house front door to go outside. [She will remain outdoors in the open space of her new world until she gets to the Emerald City.] The original sepia film becomes full Technicolor in a boldly colorful magical land, where everything is strange but beautiful. Violin music plays and the "Over the Rainbow" theme is reprised. Soft female voices sing. There are brilliant, oversized, garishly-colored flowers (with victaphone trumpets), lovely ponds, low buildings and tiny thatched huts, and a spiraling yellow brick walkway that extends into a central plaza. [Note that there are two spirals in the road, one yellow and one red.] Beautiful music emanates from somewhere. Now that her colorful white and blue dress is visible, an innocent Dorothy understates her suspicions and fears to Toto that they're no longer in grayish Kansas:
[The happenings in the Land of Oz are Dorothy's unconscious dreams that mirror her life in Kansas - with strange transformations. She has entered a land where the people are more her size, and she is treated as a heroine.] A rainbow-colored traveling bubble/ball of light floats toward Dorothy, growing larger as it approaches - and then a white, diaphanous-gowned, fairy-like Glinda, the Good Witch of the North (Billie Burke) with a long, obligatory star wand and brilliant headdress/crown appears from the bubble. Dorothy reacts timorously to the beautiful, smiling woman with long, curly blonde hair: "Now I-I know we're not in Kansas." Dorothy is asked to identify herself:
All that can be seen of the deceased, tyrannical Wicked Witch of the East is a pair of ruby-sequined and slippered feet protruding out from beneath the dwelling brought there by the tornado. The central question is whether Dorothy is good ("a Good Witch") or bad ("a Bad Witch") - for having killed the Witch [and for hurting her Aunt by running away from home]:
Glinda encourages the tiny, shy, midget-sized, twittering Munchkins to pop up and emerge from their hiding places among the flowers and huts, to meet the "young lady" who fell from a star named Kansas:
Dorothy explains that the killing of the Witch wasn't a miracle but an accident, with marvelous word play: "It really was no miracle, what happened was just this. The wind began to switch, the house to pitch. And suddenly the hinges started to unhitch. Just then the Witch, to satisfy an itch, went flying on her broomstick thumbin' for a hitch." (The Munchkins sing: "And oh, what happened then was rich. The house began to pitch, the kitchen took a slitch. It landed on the Wicked Witch in the middle of a ditch. Which was not a healthy sit-uation for the Wicked Witch...") In a musical celebration to honor her as their "national heroine," the costumed little people gather around her and Dorothy is sincerely thanked for ridding them "so completely" of the oppression of the witch. She is paraded around the circular pathway on the square in a miniature carriage drawn by small horses. The innumerable Munchkins, MGM's answer to the seven dwarfs of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937), begin to sing the "Munchkinland Song": The Munchkins proclaim: "Ding-Dong! The Witch is Dead!"
In a dress parade, the tiny people's army marches behind the carriage, taking her to the Mayor's dwelling and city hall (in the county of the Land called Oz) where she is welcomed. The Munchkins obsessively insist that it must be verified that the Witch is proven to be dead - in all ways:
[This reflects Dorothy's troubled concern that she may be punished by a resurrected Witch for causing the death - or by her hurt Aunt for separating.] The coroner officially pronounces the Witch dead with the presentation of a "Certificate of Death." "She's not only merely dead, she's really most sincerely dead!" The rotund Mayor declares that the joyous day should be celebrated as Independence Day in Munchkinland. In proclaiming the good news, baby Munchkins (Sleepy Heads) in a giant nest, looking like fluffy pink baby chicks in large blue egg shells, are aroused from their sleep. [Auntie Em had rescued baby chicks from a malfunctioning incubator earlier.] Two trios gleefully perform and sing for Dorothy - toe-dancing, pink ballerina sprites of the Lullaby League [they aren't midgets but children], and tap-dancing men from the Lollipop Guild. Finally, Dorothy is told: "You will be a bust in the Hall of Fame." Suddenly without any warning, the festivities are threatened by a hellish burst of sulfurous red smoke and the appearance of the terrible-looking, green-faced, black-shrouded Wicked Witch of the West (Margaret Hamilton) with a pointed black hat atop her head, seeking revenge and holding Dorothy accountable for the death of her sister, the Wicked Witch of the East. The Munchkins scatter in fright. With a threatening hoarse voice, the Witch blames Dorothy for the "accident" - when she is reminded by Glinda that the ruby slippers are still on her sister's feet:
[The slippers were silver shoes in Baum's original novel, but in screen tests with Technicolor, silver didn't stand out, so the color was changed to a garish ruby color by screenwriter Noel Langley and others. Some have even used Freudian psychosexual theory to speculate that the ruby-red slippers represent the onset of Dorothy's 'curse' or menstruation.] Raising her broomstick in anger, she wants the late Witch's enchanted, red-sequined ruby slippers that protrude from under the farmhouse. She turns from Dorothy and reaches for the glittering shoes, but they shrivel up and completely disappear under the house. The Witch is further angered and hisses: "They're gone. The ruby slippers. What have you done with them? Give them back to me or I'll..." With a wave of her star wand, the Good Witch has swiftly transferred them to Dorothy's feet: "It's too late. There they are and there they'll stay." The Wicked Witch insists on having them for herself: "Give me back my slippers. I'm the only one that knows how to use them. They're no use to you. Give them back to me. Give them back." Glinda advises Dorothy about the grown-up pair of slippers that she has acquired - with their awesome power:
[Dorothy doesn't yet realize that the shoes hold the power to allow her to return home, nor does Glinda reveal this to Dorothy at this time.] The Witch is reminded by Glinda that she is powerless in Munchkinland: "You have no power here. Be gone, before somebody drops a house on you, too!" The Witch accepts her weakness, but threatens with a blood-curtling cackle and ominous warning (just like Miss Gulch):
She disappears with a clap of thunder in another flaming, reddish-orange explosion of smoke. Fearful of the Witch, Dorothy expresses her desire to leave and return home to Kansas for safety ("Which is the way back to Kansas? I can't go the way I came"). Glinda suggests that she travel on the yellow brick road to the far-off Emerald City in the Land of Oz to seek help in her journey from the "very good but very mysterious" and omniscient Wizard of Oz (Frank Morgan): "The only person who might know would be the great and wonderful Wizard of Oz himself." The Munchkins bow in deep respect toward the great patriarchal being. They will help safely guide Dorothy to the border of Munchkinland. Glinda reminds Dorothy that her slippers must never be removed, but tellingly doesn't let Dorothy know that she could click her heels together to make a wish to travel home - that knowledge must be earned after her long journey:
To start her journey, Glinda instructs: "It's always best that you start at the beginning, and all you do is follow the Yellow Brick Road," to take her to her dreams and aspirations. Glinda disappears in her pinkish-colored bubble-vehicle globe, causing Dorothy to observe: "My, people come and go so quickly here!" [Her observation could also be characteristic of the images and transient items viewed in dreams.] The Munchkins echo Glinda's instructions in a chorus of differing voices: "Follow the Yellow-Brick Road." A marching, dancing crowd of Munchkins join Dorothy as she walks and then skips, in syncopation, along the spiraling yellow road toward the West, singing:
[Note that Dorothy takes the yellow spiral -- the red brick road also spirals off to the South - where Glinda lives.] The border of Munchkinland isn't very far indeed, and the Munchkins soon wave goodbye. Stretching off into the far distance, Dorothy and Toto must take the road without them. Shortly, Dorothy pauses at a crossroads in the yellow road that branches out in three different directions, asking herself confusedly: "Now which way do we go?" A voice comes from nearby where shiny green cornstalks grow:
Dorothy is a bit frightened by the response in the middle of a deserted road, and she looks around quizzically: "Who said that?" Toto barks at a stuffed Scarecrow-Straw Man (Ray Bolger) that helplessly hangs on a pole in the field [visibly suspended by a silver wire] but Dorothy responds: "Don't be silly, Toto. Scarecrows don't talk!" But then the Scarecrow in the field of corn speaks again with contradictory directions: "It's pleasant down that way too!...(pointing in another direction)." Dorothy begins to think that either she or things in Oz in general are crazy: "That's funny. Wasn't he pointing the other way?" And then she suddenly realizes that the Scarecrow has been talking to her when he says: "Of course, people do go both ways (pointing in two opposite directions)," but his directions are complicated because of his lack of a part of his physical anatomy - a brain:
She properly introduces herself and then helps the strawman off the pole stuck up his back by bending the nail down at the back so he can slip off, as per his suggested instruction. When he falls to the ground, he is unsteady on his feet, falling and scattering some of his straw: "Oops, there goes some of me again." He gathers and stuffs straw back into himself. The flimsy, wildly flexible Scarecrow knows he is too dumb and floppy to scare Dorothy or even a black crow that lands on his shoulder and pecks at a bit of straw from his collar before flying away:
In a delightful, loose-limbed, wobbly-legged dance and song routine, "If I Only Had a Brain," [Bolger's imitative homage to Fred Stone, its originator on stage], the Scarecrow tells of his problem and what he would accomplish with a brain:
In its finale, he loses more straw and his balance. Dorothy comforts him: "Wonderful. Why, if our scarecrow back in Kansas could do that, the crows would be scared to pieces!" She describes her mission to the Wizard in Emerald City so that she can return to Kansas. The Scarecrow is intrigued: "Do you think if I went with you this Wizard would give me some brains?" Not knowing the answer to his question, she warns that she is in trouble with a fearsome witch: "I've got a witch mad at me and you might get into trouble." The Scarecrow admits that he is fearful of nothing "except a lighted match." The Straw Man anxiously adds that he would risk his life to acquire a brain:
She answers affirmately: "Why, of course I will." He cheers for them as he staggers to his wobbly feet: "Hooray. We're off to see a Wizard." The odd couple begin their merry skipping down the road together to Oz to see the Wizard after the Scarecrow gets his legs working in synchronization. In an apple grove/orchard full of apple trees, a hungry Dorothy tries to take a bright red apple from a hostile, garrulous human-like tree that has fallen under the Wicked Witch's sorcery. (The Witch watches them from behind a tree.) The tree slaps Dorothy's hand, refusing to have its apples picked: "What do you think you're doing?" The tree scolds her:
She is surprised and astonished by the talking tree with a deep voice: "I keep forgetting I'm not in Kansas." The Scarecrow, using an intelligence he doesn't think he possesses, outsmarts the trees by insulting the quality of their apples (they have "little green worms") and making a face: "Come along, Dorothy. You don't want any of those apples." The trees are taunted into flinging their fruit at them, providing them with sustenance. After picking up one of the apples that rolls deep into the woods, Dorothy finds a silver-faced, funnel-capped Tin Woodsman (Jack Haley) who has rusted immobile. He is stock-still solid by the roadside. She exclaims: "Why, it's a man, a man made out of tin." Croaking out of the corner of his mouth, the rusted-solid Tin Man's first desperate words are: "oil can." The Scarecrow quips: "Oil can what?" Dorothy finds an oil can nearby and squirts oil into all the Tin Man's joints and jaws, putting him back into action. He is finally able to lower his axe-bearing arm and expresses his gratitude to them: "I've held that axe up for ages." He explains how he became immobile:
When Dorothy responds: "Well, you're perfect now," he describes a further problem or spiritual/physical imperfection. When created, he was given a hollow tin chest. Dorothy bangs on his barrel chest with her fist, causing a booming echo. He sighs and grieves about a heart that he believes he is lacking:
As the Scarecrow did earlier, the Tin Woodsman clanks, squeaks, tilts from side to side, and bangs his way through a song and dance routine to explain his problem and need for a heart in "If I Only Had a Heart."
After entertaining them - and Toto, he admits: "I'm afraid I'm a little rusty yet," Dorothy asks if he wants to join them on their long journey to the Emerald City so that he can make a request from the Wizard for the heart that he longs for: "We've come such a long way already." In response, the Wicked Witch appears with a cackle on the rooftop of the Woodsman's cabin after landing there on her broomstick - she threatens Dorothy's traveling companions:
Cackling madly, she hurls a ball of fire at the Straw Man: "Here Scarecrow, want to play ball?" The Tin Woodsman quickly beats out the flames. And then she departs on her broomstick behind a red cloud of smoke. The Scarecrow, now having faced his greatest fear, is more determined than ever to continue: "I'm not afraid of her. I'll see you get safely to the Wizard now whether I get a brain or not. Stuff a mattress with me, eh?" And the Tin Woodsman reinforces his words: "I'll see you reach the Wizard, whether I get a heart or not. Beehive! Bah! Let her try and make a beehive out of me!" |
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During
an unforgettable, exciting twister scene, a devastating funnel-shaped
tornado approaches closer and closer toward the farm. [The tornado
was a special effect, produced by photographing a 35 foot long muslin
stocking against a Kansas backdrop. The mis-shapen, irregular-looking
twister symbolized her fear of separating from the world of her home
and 'parents' - and punishment for causing her Aunt's worry and suffering.]
Gusty winds blow hard, chickens scurry around, horses are let go,
and the farm hands with Em and Henry prepare to take cover behind
the doors of the safe, sheltered storm cellar. Zeke points toward
the dark horizon where an evil shape forms: