Customer Reviews

The Making of the Wizard of Oz: Movie Magic and Studio Power in the Prime of MGM

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

It doesn't matter unduly if you didn't grow up watching MGM's 1939 color movie "The Wizard of Oz" in re-release or on TV. You might think that a "Munchkin" is what used to be called a "doughnut hole." You may think of Judy Garland only as Liza Minnelli's mother, and avoid prewar movies like the plague. Maybe you didn't feel that shock of recognition that "Cora the Coffee Lady" in Maxwell House TV commercials was none other than Margaret Hamilton, the green-faced Wicked Witch of the West.

Of course, if you love "The Wizard of Oz" you've love THE MAKING OF THE WIZARD OF OZ all the more. I just read this book for the second time (the first upon its initial publication), and was astonished and pleased by how well it has held up. Author Aljean Harmetz has crafted a book relevant not only in terms of one particular "prestige" movie off the Hollywood assembly line; but indeed her insight, research and friendly presentation make the book stand as a metaphor of all Hollywood filmmaking during the height of the Studio Era, ca. 1940. Perhaps the late Irving Thalberg was one of the few Hollywood insiders who could "keep the whole equation of pictures inside his head," but Ms. Harmetz opens up this world for us, and shows us both its realism and its wonder.

We return to an era in which studio moguls were as eccentric and powerful as today's software barons, when studio hands were nonunionized yet intensely loyal to their studios, when no movie studio even thought about a future containing broadcast TV, when movie stars were better known than Presidents or Kings, and when Technicolor would give you any color except the one you wanted. Nonetheless, solving the creative problems inherent in bringing L. Frank Baum's novel "The Wizard of Oz" to the screen was seen as an invigorating set of challenges to be met and conquered.

Back then, MGM had a real "can-do" attitude. So no one had
ever created a moving tornado for a film? After two tries the MGM tech people got it right, and the depiction of that horrendous twister so set the tintype for what a tornado ought to look like that it persists in our collective consciousness today, despite today's ubiquitous video cameras.

There were no tape recorders. How, then, to raise or lower voices artificially for dubbing? This book tells how. What happened when Buddy Ebsen almost died from an allergy to aluminum dust he had worn as the (originally intended) Tin Man? Why was Margaret Hamilton burned severely and ignored, yet Billie Burke turned an ankle and was whisked off the set in a white ambulance? Why did the film need four directors and half a dozen screenwriters, yet was fondly recalled as a labor of love by practically everyone except a prematurely embittered Judy Garland? Was the film the great commercial and critical success you might think it would be? And, by the way, what about those Munchkins' alleged sexual proclivities? Excellent answers provided by excellent research present a fully-formed world view, warts and all.

THE MAKING OF THE WIZARD OF OZ would be a wonderful companion to the new restored DVD version of the film, which is so crisp you can count the gingham checkers on Dorothy's blue dress (which was actually violet, to fool the Technicolor process). How were the ruby slippers made? What about that poppy field? Read on. Some critics have said that Harmetz's later work is not as excruciatingly well researched as THE MAKING OF THE WIZARD OF OZ, but I don't care. This book and the movie are not only as much fun as ever, but a great education in the good old/bad old days of the Hollywood "Dream Factory." Don't miss it!

"The Making of the Wizard of Oz: Movie Magic and Studio Power in the Prime of MGM--And the Miracle of Production No 1060" is just downright enthralling. It is an expose' that breaks down the machinery and the machinations of what it took to get a major movie made in the days of the autocratic studio heads. The book offers an entertaining and totally engrossing look at the legendary film. Judy, Ray, Jack, Bert, Margaret, and Toto, too, are all analyzed in this brilliant work. The songwriters, the respective directors, the many other craftsmen, as well as the "little people," in more than the figurative sense, are all here. Vividly embellished with stills from the production, the book's text is just as captivating. The familiar as well as the unfamiliar stories about the production make for a most satisfying read for any "Oz" fan. It is also a good primer for anyone with an interest in pursuing film as a career.

I am not an avid reader but my eye caught this book on a library shelf. I thumbed through it and found the pictures to be beautiful. I decided to give it a try and was terribly moved by the contents.

Ms. Harmetz did her homework when she wrote this trivia-packed volume about those faithful months when 4 different directors molded what would become a television tradition.

I also found that Ms. Hamilton's contributions to be some of the most interesting tidbits throughout the book, this despite the fact that her entire role in the film was a total of 12 minutes!

Ms. Harmetz peaked an interest in me that has previously been non-existent. The book is phenomenal and you will finish it within one sitting-like I did! Anthony "Toto" LaPerna Jr.

If you're a die hard fan of this classic film then you'll want to read this well-researched "making of" tome. The book is filled with all sorts of wonderful trivia tidbits but most of all it gives an insightful review of those behind the camera in a way I've yet to find in other "OZ" related books. The one and only shortcoming of this book is to be found in the number of pictures, in my opinion there could have been more, otherwise it's a behind the scenes look that most OZ fans won't be disappointed with.

The making of the Wizard of Oz is a wonderful book to anyone who has grown to love the Wizard of Oz. You don't even have to be an obsessive fan of the movie like myself to enjoy it. It is extremely well researched. If information is not known the author says it so and does not attempt to recreate history as some nonfiction works do.

Perhaphs what makes the 1939 movie so wonderful is learning all the behind the scenes things that went into making it. This book gives respect and a knew sense of understanding as to what movie making was like in the biggest studio of that time. It is written so that it doesn't need to be read front to back. You can start in the special effects section and finish in the chapter about the script, or the music, or the directors (did you know there were four?).

Did you know that the movie had the work of 10 writers or do you know how the surrender dorothy scene was done? Well, in this book you find out his and thousands more did you know facts to impress friends. I recommend this to anyone who has watched the Wizard of Oz. And if Oz didn't win an academy award for best picture in 1939 than that was because the academy didn't have this book to help choose.

Excellent book! Unsentimental and even-handed, the sections on the individuals involved in making the movie are fascinating, especially since for most of them it was "just another job." I could've done without the lengthy psychoanalysis at the end, but otherwise it's very good.

And just in time for Christmas! I've read a lot of "making of" books, and this is one of the top two-- the other one being, of course, Aljean Harmetz's book about "Casablanca," "Round Up the Ususl Suspects." Her books are incredibly readable, almost like novels, while conveying not just a sense of what went into the making of *a* movie, but how Hollywoood as a whole functioned at the time the movie was being made. "The Making of the Wizard of Oz" is a terrific education about the studio system, the gigantic movie-making machine that turned out fantasy on a production-line basis; it digresses into fascinating sub-areas, like the fate of Broadway songwriters in Hollywood. And there's one incredible story about the Wizard's coat that still amazes me, years after first reading it. This is the classic book about the classic American movie, and it's the best possible example for anybody who ever wants to write about motion pictures or the motion picture industry. I intend to buy ten copies to give away as Christmas gifts.

Almost as good as Round Up The Usual Subjects, Harmetz's book about the making of Casablanca, which is absolute magic. A terrfic story about the making of Wizard by someone who was an insider from the time she was very young.

After recently reading the Gregory Maguire novel "Wicked" and being thoroughly disappointed in its destruction of the Wizard of Oz "canon" material, I decided to give this book a read to get the REAL story behind the Wizard of Oz film. In this case, the old axiom "the truth is better than fiction" proved to be true in spades.

Put in the simplest terms, this is really the only "Making of Oz" book that ever needs to be produced. Why? Because it discusses EVERY SINGLE aspect of the film in detail that will likely never be matched. The key areas that this book focuses on include: Scripts, Music, Casting, Directors, Filming, Special Effects, and Critical Reception. In each one of those areas, author Aljean Harmetz does a truly remarkable job of understanding the "why" behind everything. Every decision made had a reason behind it, and Harmetz was extraordinarily successful at deciphering those reasons (whether person, political, or other).

In fact, about the only "knock" I have on this book is that, at times, it would go into too much detail for just the casual "Oz" fan. For example, not only do we learn about how the four directors who worked on the picture did things differently while on the set, we also learn about their backgrounds going right back to childhood. Hard-core movie buffs will revel in this information, while others (like myself) might gloss over it a bit and again become engaged when Harmetz takes us back to the "Oz" angle.

Also, the book (as the title indicates) not only gives a history of the film, but also a sort of de facto history about MGM Studios as a whole. Having never really studied filmmaking at that time, I found it to be quite interesting how, back in those days, actors were contracted to studios and only loaned out if it was financially suited to their "lender". In fact, most of the "Oz" cast was taken right from the MGM lot, so to speak! This is in stark contrast to today's filmmaking, where actors are "free agents" of sorts, signing with whoever will give them a star vehicle and the most money.

Thus, I would recommend this book to anyone with even a passing interest in how "The Wizard of Oz" was created, from mind to page to screen. History buffs will savor every fact about the directors/actors pasts, while the casual fan (because of the way that book is paragraphed) can skip over some of that to get to the "Oz parts". So, don't waste your time with "Wicked" and its tangled philosophical/political web...this is the true history of Oz.

Simply put,Harmetz's THE MAKING OF THE WIZARD OF OZ is as excellent a "making of" motion picture book as OZ is a cinematic masterpiece. The atmosphere created within it's pages places the reader into the 1930's Hollywood machine that was MGM and unfolds layer by layer the work and toil that went into creating what will stand forever as one of the most amazing filmatic achievements of all time. A CLASSIC book about Hollywood!