![]() Ironically, catering the film to small children was one of the reasons it failed to make money during its first release in 1939. It took LeRoy’s threat to withdraw from the entire project to sway Mayer and order the song be included in the final version of the film. Producers LeRoy and Freed saw a preview of the film with and without the song, and argued forcefully for its return in the final release. Mayer wanted the song Over the Rainbow cut from the film, believing that young children wouldn’t understand its message and the song was too sad. Mayer demanded that it be edited down to roughly 100 minutes. The Wizard of Oz was made to attract children, and the first edit of the film was a movie of about two hours. Over the Rainbow was almost cut from the film before its release Judy Garland in 1940, when Over the Rainbow had already become inextricably linked to her and her career. Although the scenes he shot with Ebsen were necessarily never used, part of the soundtrack recorded by Ebsen can be heard in the released film, when singing “We’re off to see the Wizard”. Mayer found themselves at odds with his approach to the film, and he was fired after just two weeks of shooting. ![]() She was also heavily made up, and in Thorpe’s vision was closer to her own real age. Thorpe’s Dorothy was a blonde, requiring Judy Garland to wear a wig. ![]() Thorpe also envisioned Oz as being less garish, with colors more muted, as they had been in the original illustrations in the books. Thorpe also wanted a more mature Dorothy, and it was he who worked with Buddy Ebsen as the Tin Man, shooting scenes of Ebsen in the role, which were recently rediscovered. Richard Thorpe wanted the Wicked Witch to resemble the Evil Queen as seen in Snow White, rather than the ugly (and green) hag in the final film. Richard Thorpe wanted to mimic the scenery of the Oz books’ illustrations Had director Richard Thorpe had his way, all of the major characters would have looked far different. Despite the existence of doctored film clips online, a careful examination of the released version of the film clearly demonstrates that the motion is from one of the large artificial birds which were scattered about the backgrounds. The scene cited as the suicide was filmed at a time when the actors portraying the Munchkins were not required on the set, well before the scenes in Munchkin Land were committed to film. No such suicide took place during the production. Sometime in the late 20 th century a story emerged that the motion is an actor who played a Munchkin, who committed suicide by hanging. In the background, among the trees in the distance, there is a motion near the center of the screen. In the scene in which Scarecrow and Dorothy encounter the apple throwing trees, discover the Tin Man, and are threatened by the Wicked Witch, they close by heading further along the Yellow Brick Road. The myth of the Munchkin suicide is another which won’t go away The myth of an actor committing suicide on the set began in the 1980s, almost fifty years after the original release of the film.
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