Wizard of Oz, The

Wizard of Oz, The (movie)

A 1939 movie directed by Victor Fleming (with assistance from King Vidor), starring Judy Garland, Frank Morgan, Ray Bolger, Bert Lahr, Jack Haley, and Margaret Hamilton. Also in the cast are Billie Burke, Gus Wayne, and Clara Blandick. This is the third screen adaption of L. Frank Baum's 1900 children's fantasy, one of a series of Oz books, and is produced as a musical with a score by Harold Arlen and E. Y. Harburg.

Orphan Dorothy Gale (Garland) lives with her aunt and uncle on a farm in Kansas. To Dorothy it is unexciting and she yearns to travel "over the rainbow" to find more thrills. She gets her wish when a tornado picks her up and whisks her away to a magical land. There she manages to offend a wicked witch (Hamilton) but is protected from her wrath by wearing a pair of ruby slippers. At the suggestion of Glinda, a good witch (Burke), Dorothy heads along the yellow brick road to find the Emerald City and the powerful wizard who lives there in the hopes that he can send her home again. Along the way, she meets up with a variety of characters who she persuades to accompany her to see the Wizard of Oz.