The Wizard of Oz movie corrections

Wicked Witch: I'll get you my pretty, and your little dog too!

Mistakes

As they enter the poppy field their shadows can be seen against the painted wall as they walk in front of a stage light just before and after they come into view. See more...

Trivia

In the original book by L. Frank Baum, Dorothy's slippers were not Ruby but Silver. The color was changed in the movie for Technicolor purposes. See more...

The Wizard of Oz (1939) - 69 corrections

Directed by Victor Fleming, starring Bert Lahr, Billie Burke, Frank Morgan, Jack Haley, Judy Garland, Margaret Hamilton, Ray Bolger (add more)

Genres: Adventure, Family, Fantasy, Musical

Comments made in brackets are corrections from other visitors. As such, any aggressive/abusive corrections (and I get quite a few) written as if they're comments I've made myself will be ignored. To submit your own corrections for mistakes, just click the edit icon under an entry, then choose "correct entry". Some entries have "duplicated entry" after them - these are entries which were already listed on the main page, but were submitted again. I occasionally leave these online for a while, just in case they were moved in error, so don't worry about pointing them out to me.

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During one of the times the cast sings "We're off to see the Wizard" (either after they meet the Tin Man or the Cowardly Lion), as they begin to walk off, above the main characters there is visible the sillhouette of a crew member swinging an arm projected onto the backdrop from behind it. [No, this is part of the infamous "hanging munchkin" scene. That is not the arm of a stagehand, it is one of the free-roaming birds extending it's wing. You can see it for yourself at the link given at the top of the main page for The Wizard of Oz.]

Corrected by Guy Brigman

Hunk takes off his left glove after he hits it with the hammer. In the next shot it's back on again. [Hunk was not seen in the very next shot or the next shot after that. He had plenty of time to put it back on.]

Time

As the Lion spots the guards sneaking up behind them his mouth is moving and he's saying a lot more than we hear, that has been edited out. [Not necessarily. That is an old movie tactic for demonstrating great fear; a character moves their mouth but are so terrified they cannot actually speak.]

Time

Judy Garland was actually born Frances Ethel Gumm, and changed her name in 1939. [Trivia, perhaps, but not for this movie.]

Corrected by Phixius

When the Lion is running out of the Wizard's chamber down the long green hallway, take a close look at the face of the Lion as he is running, just before he leaps into the glass window - it is clearly NOT Bert Lahr, but a younger, thinner stand-in. [That probably was his stunt double, but I'm sorry it is impossible to tell. His entire costume was heavily padded, there's no way to tell his weight. His face was a mask except for his mouth, there's no way to tell it's a younger guy. My only explanation for you is you're so convinced it's obvious as you know it's the stunt double.]

Time

The TIN man is made of TIN. If he was made of some other metal he would be called the Iron Man or the Titanium Man or the Aluminum Man. Because he is made of TIN he will not RUST! Rust is Iron Oxide. In addition, Tin will not form oxides at normal atmospheric temperatures and pressure. If he cannot rust, then the scenes with him rusted/rusting and the oil can are totally unnecessary and factually wrong. [Try to remember it's a CHILDREN'S story. To refer to him as Titanium Man or any of the others you mention would be silly. Many people refer to their own cars as "hunks of tin", when in fact cars are made of steel, aluminum, and even plastic.]

After the severe injuries that she received earlier in the production Margret Hamilton closes her eyes in anticipation of the orange smoke that engulfs her as she disappears from the roof after she throws the ball of fire at the scarecrow. [Why exactly isn't the witch allowed to close her eyes? I haven't gotten severe injuries and I would've shut my eyes if smoke was about to engulf me. There's no reason for her not to close her eyes.]

Time

When The Scarecrow says that he can be released from the pole by 'Turning that nail', the pole holding him up is briefly shown - it's obvious that the pole goes up *inside* his jacket - therefore, he couldn't fall down & forward to be free of the pole; the best he could do is fall to the ground with a pole up the back of his shirt. [The pole is not up under his shirt - he's held up by wires.]

Corrected by ????

When Aunt Em is taking the chicks out of the incubator and putting them in Uncle Henry's hat, you can see that she is just pretending and there is nothing in her hands. [She puts them in her apron and she actually has chicks in her hand.]

Corrected by ???? Time

In the scene where the Cowardly Lion sings to Dorothy, the Scarecrow and the Tin Man, "If I only had the courage", the three all look over to the Lion and listen to him sing. Each time after the Lion sings a line, he pauses and Dorothy looks over at the Tin Man and the Scarecrow. If you watch closely, she slightly nods her head, almost like she's giving them the cue to get ready to gallop, which they all do after each pause. Also,if you pay close attention, when Dorothy looks over to the Tin Man and the Scarecrow to give them the cue to gallop she looks unsure, like she may be doing something that's not in the script, and at one point bites her lip. [This is a stretch, and I don't see it.]

Corrected by ????

In the scene where Dorothy tells the scarecrow that he can go with her to see the wizard he yells "Hooray." If you listen closely you can hear him say 'hooray' quietly few seconds before this but his mouth isn't moving. [The audio here is not overdubbed and this doesn't happen.]

Corrected by ????

In the scene where Dorothy starts at the beginning of the yellow brick road, which is a spiral, at her second revolution, you can see the Mayor in the scene to the right. As Dorothy gets near the low huts the scene switches. As she goes out of town, you see the Mayor again alongside the road on the right. [He had plenty of time to get there.]

Corrected by ????

When the Wicked Witch tries to take the Ruby slippers from Dorothy, she screams before the sparks start shooting out of the Ruby slippers. [So she felt the magic before anyone could see it...no mistake.]

Time

As Dorothy sings "Over the Rainbow" Toto is looking at his trainer off camera as he gets his cue to give her his paw. [OR he's just looking around, as dogs do. A dog glancing over an actor's shoulder is hardly a movie mistake.]

Time

The day Judy Garland died, a tornado struck Kansas. [Interesting coincidence, but not trivia for the film.]

When you see the Horse of a Different color, [the horse that changes from purple to orange, and keeps changing colors] you can see that all the horses are totally different. One will be stocky and have its head low, and the other will have its head all collected. [For you non-horse people, that means when the head is higher and tucked in, so the nose is near the chest.] Then the next is smaller. They are all different horses. [I've noticed that too. But if this is a world where the horses are colors that real horses aren't and they can change color anytime, it wouldn't surprise me if the horse could also change shape.]

You can see the witch run across the set from the right to get behind the cottage just before she magically appears from the chimney (with smoke) when the gang are walking down the yellow brick road. [Of course you can see her. This is not a mistake as she is supposed to be seen to somewhat help set the scene.]

Corrected by Joe Tomlin

After the witch says "Well my little pretty, I can cause accidents too." her mouth starts to move again but nothing is heard. [People quite often actually move their mouths without saying anything.]

When the Wicked Witch reaches down to take the ruby slippers off of Dorothy's feet, the shoes are glittering. Once the sparks start flying from the slippers, the glittering stops. [It's said in this movie that they have powerful magic. It's very likely that was the result of the powerful magic it had to use to make the sparks fly.]

The red smoke that makes the witch disappear effect begins coming out of the ground about a second before the witch gets to her mark. [The witch is the one making the smoke. She's magical she can make the smoke come up 5 minutes before she intends to leave if she wants.]

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The Wizard of Oz (1939) - 69 corrections