BBBBB
(out of 5)
There’s really nothing I need to say about this awesome fantasy film that has inspired every movie watcher since its first performance in 1939 (when it was originally a box office disappointment, oddly enough); you’ve all seen it, so watch it again. Judy Garland made herself a star in her remarkable performance, one that seems to go unnoticed now because of the film’s incredible fame, but close examination reveals that it’s not for nothing she became a permanent fixture in pop culture for playing Dorothy Gale on her trip over the rainbow. Her uncomplicated portrayal of a little girl looking for a little bit more to life than the dry tumbleweeds of Kansas is marvelous, and the film itself just never seems to age.
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
USA, 1939
Directed by Victor Fleming
Screenplay by Noel Langley, Florence Ryerson, Edgar Allan Woolf, adaptation by Noel Langley, based on the book The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum
Cinematography by Harold Rosson
Produced by Mervyn LeRoy
Music by Harold Arlen, Herbert Stothart
Production Design by Malcolm Brown, William A. Horning, Jack Martin Smith
Costume Design by Adrian
Film Editing by Blanche Sewell
Film Festivals: Cannes 1939
Academy Awards
Best Music (Original Score) (Herbert Stothart)
Best Music (Song) (“Over the Rainbow”, music by Harold Arlen; lyrics by E.Y. Harburg)
Nominations
Best Art Direction (Cedric Gibbons, William A. Horning)
Best Cinematography (Colour) (Hal Rosson) (Not an official nomination)
Best Special Effects (A. Arnold Gillespie, Douglas Shearer)
