BONUS POST: Pound Shop Flix Watches The Wizard of Oz

Alright Party People?

As promised in this week’s preview post, this here is a bonus post created as a result of my watching The Wizard of Oz (TWoO) with a good friend recently. I wanted to share my thoughts with you all on this wonderful, bizarre classic.
I’ve not seen TWoO in a good few years. Perhaps not even since I was legally a child (I’m 27 now fact fans!). But I wanted to go back to it as part of an arrangement where my friend and I show each other films the other has never seen and which we feel like they should have! She had never seen TWoO, and my interest in it had been renewed by Eric Shanower and Skottie Young’s comic-book adaptation of Frank L. Baum’s original Oz stories. Ergo, we watched it together (over distance, Coronavirus being what it is!).
Before I get into the meat of the thing, let me say that I know you probably don’t need me to tell you that TWoO is great. It’s a widely recognised, well regarded classic. Maybe you like it, maybe you don’t! But the point is, the jury has already come to a verdict, and you’ve all heard it, so I’m not going to spend a good deal of this post trying to change your mind or even go to bat for the film. It’s been done! The damn thing’s over 80 years old! What I am going to do, is talk about WHY I like the film, its’ wider cultural context, and a few other relevant points. So I hope you’ll join me as I ride the twister over the rainbow and get a snootful of Kansas-style Olde Hollywoode whimsy and weirdness!

Broadly the story of TWoO is that of Dorothy Gale, a Kansas Farmgirl circa 1930s who, after a bump of the head from the debris of a Twister, is transported to another world, the world of ‘Oz’. Not, as you might think, birthplace of the Minogue sisters and terrible Lager(!)*, but a land of bright colours, strange creatures, Munchkins and witches both good and evil. There, desperate to get home, she embarks on a journey to the Emerald City, where she hopes the titular Wizard will grant her wish and send her back to Kansas. Along the way, she is menaced by The Wicked Witch of the West and meets a scarecrow, a tin man and a Lion- the three of whom join her on her journey in the hope that the Wizard might grant their own wishes. Together they sing, dance, and fend off the Witches’ machinations including, but not limited to, Flying Monkeys.

Indeed it is this group of four: Dorothy, Scarecrow, The Tin Man and the Cowardly Lion who really make up the heart of this film. Dorothy (Judy Garland) travels the yellow-brick road, meeting, and acquiring the company of, Scarecrow first. The Tin Man is added once they meet and have oiled his joints, and the Cowardly Lion joins last. The three Oz natives are played by Ray Bolger, Bert Lahr and Jack Haley. As the four take up so much screen time, and the events of the film by and large happen TO them, it’s important that they are engaging. Thankfully, they very much are. Starting with Garland, it is easy to see why she became a star. Despite being only 16 when filming TWoO, she is extremely capable at helming the film. She makes Dorothy emotive, wide-eyed and innocent, and the audience really feels what Dorothy is feeling through here expressions. As Dorothy, she is also required to be something of an all-rounder, singing solo on ‘Somewhere Over the Rainbow’ and dancing along with the Munchkins down the yellow-brick road. Her voice and energy are delightful, and its Dorothy’s desire to get home which is the axis upon which the film turns. Because we care about that, everything else is easy to go along with- outlandish as it often is! On a more personal note, let me just say that when Garland is playing the sad scenes were Dorothy cries, the pathos is overwhelming. Perhaps its because I’m a adult man and Dorothy a frightened young girl and I feel a certain paternal or protective impulse! Whatever the reason, her feelings of fear and sadness don’t so much tug on my heartstrings as wrench them clean off. It’s enough to make me want to kick the Wicked Witches’s arse myself! It’s a similar experience to seeing that crying cat picture the internet loves. Why must this wicked world hurt its most precious creatures!!! But I digress. The three others are also excellent, with Bolger giving the Scarecrow a slapstick energy, Haley bringing pathos to the Tin Man without heart, and Lahr providing the Cowardly Lion (my personal favourite) with a comedic timing and turn of phrase that is particularly amusing.

I mentioned the quality of Garland’s voice above, and I didn’t just mean singing. Her manner of speaking, and indeed the films’ dialogue take the viewer back to Golden Age Hollywood. That feeling, that aesthetic of a very particular cultural time and place is baked into this films core, and I’d suggest that this film, along with Singing in the Rain and Gone with the Wind is one of the major touchstones which remain relevant and in the pop-cultural consciousness from that era. Considering all that it’s likely that a person’s enjoyment of this film as an adult (once the magic has gone from our world-weary hearts) depends somewhat on your enjoyment of that old Hollywood feel. Do you allow yourself to get swept up in it? Or does it all feel hokey? Do you like the way the dialogue sounds and feels or does it all seem a little staged? These are the kind of things that will, for better or worse, affect your experience with the film. I personally love that kind of atmosphere and, while I wouldn’t want every film I watch to feel like this, I appreciate it specifically for that. Your mileage may vary!

Trigger Warning: Following paragraph contains discussion of addiction, and overdose.

Having said all that about the film’s nostalgic charm, I think it worth mentioning that Golden Age Hollywood was not exactly perfect- and the wonderful whimsy of Oz is no exception. The young Garland’s image was heavily monitored and critiqued by studio execs. She wore a corset for TWoO in order to flatten her figure and make her look more like the 12 year old child she was portraying. On top of this, she was expected to consume only Chicken Soup, Black Coffee and to smoke cigarettes in order to remain slim-looking; something that was made harder still by the fact that she was quite short at 4’11 and half. Though she had taken ‘Pep Pills’ under her mother’s guidance earlier than TWoO, she was encouraged to take them here too, and by the age of 17 was an addict. Garland’s life would be cut short in 1969 at the age of 47 due to an overdose of barbiturates. How much the role of Dorothy and her treatment during TWoO played part in her untimely death is conjecture that I won’t indulge in. But it certainly didn’t help. Furthermore, the film shows other signs of its age, and its production was morally lacking in other ways too. For instance, the ‘Munchkins’ (played by ‘The Singer Midgets’) earned less than half of the money for their work than Toto (the dog) did. The Cowardly Lion also makes reference to ‘Hottentots’, a racial term which is unacceptable today.

So where does that leave us overall? I think that TWoO is a really quite special film, and one I continue to enjoy. The main cast are excellent. Garland is fantastic despite the hurdles put in front of her. The film conjures a nostalgic sweetness which never strays into being saccharine thanks to its wit and playful absurdity. But it should not be divoreced from its context and we have to recognise that the film is a product of a flawed system. It’s old Hollywood in a nutshell- with all the wonder and infamy that brings.

4 stars! ****

Thankyou for reading along. A standard post on ‘Cat Run’ will be out next week, so keep an eye out for that! For now though, thanks for joining me!

-Tom

*Fosters is the worst. Fight me.