Belleville Intelligencer

Written by BRUCE KIRKLAND, Belleville, Ontario, Cananda


The Wizard of Oz is arguably the most watched movie ever made. It is certainly one of the most beloved. There is a passionate, even obsessive relationship between this artful entertainment and its multi-generational audience that still thrives after 70 years.

"It always amazes me, all this interest in something from 70 years ago," original Munchkin Ruth Duccini tells Sun Media, recalling the excitement that started as soon as the movie made its debut on Aug. 15, 1939, at the famed Grauman's Chinese Theater in Hollywood. "What are they making now that's going to last 70 years?" In 1939, Duccini was a teenaged Munchkinland villager in a peaked cap and peasant dress.

Her fellow Munchkin, Karl Slover, simply says of the movie: "It appeals to all, especially children." He played the first trumpeter who helped the mayor greet Dorothy; he also portrayed four other roles he pulled off through exhausting costume changes.

For yet another Munchkin, Jerry Maren, The Wizard of Oz launched a long career in Hollywood -- he even threw the confetti at the end of The Gong Show. Maren played the middle Munchkin in the gruff trio, the Lollipop Guild. He was the one in green who handed the giant lollipop to Judy Garland, then a 16- year-old actress and singer who became a huge star by singing Over the Rainbow and by capturing the essence of schoolgirl innocence and vulnerability as Dorothy. "I did many films and shows," Maren says now, "but the one that gets the biggest reaction is always The Wizard of Oz. People looked surprised: 'You were in The Wizard of Oz? Wow!' That's how powerful a film it was."

Duccini, Slover and Maren are half of the six surviving Munchkin little people. All six are all in their 80s and 90s. They were among the 124 little people who played the villagers and, yes, the real little people were augmented by several normal-sized children.

For the movie, the little people and their friends inhabited the magical Munchkinland where Dorothy's house lands after a tornado rips it off its foundations back home in Kansas. Five of those little-people Munchkins, along with others involved in the Oz lore, gathered in New York last week for a 70th anniversary bash at Tavern on the Green.

The festivities were mounted to introduce a dazzling new restoration of the film, which made its big-screen premiere at the New York Film Festival. This week, the restoration also launched a new wave of Wizard of Oz DVDs, along with a Blu-ray debut that will leave even the most ardent fans slack-jawed in awe when they see what Warner Bros. has done with this MGM classic.

In both DVD and Blu-ray, the primary releases are both called The Wizard of Oz: 70th Anniversary Ultimate Collector's Edition. In addition to the film and the bonus materials, both box sets contain collectibles. Among the goodies is a 70th anniversary Oz watch with a green strap, along with a new souvenir book and other items.

In both formats, you see The Wizard of Oz as never before, although the superiority of the Blu-ray is startlingly obvious in this case. That is because the studio has taken decades of ongoing preservation and restoration efforts to their zenith. The result is an image that is sharper. It reveals stunning new detail viewers have never seen before at home, such as the fine lines that imitate burlap in the Scarecrow's rubber face make-up, or the rivet in the middle of the Tin Man's brow that no one recalled noticing before. Colours are richer, deeper and more true to the original intentions. The sound has been carefully engineered into Dolby Digital 5.1 audio, although you can still choose to listen to a clean version of the original mono track. All the enhancements are more obvious on Bluray.

Ned Price, the Warner Bros. vice-president in charge of the on-going restoration program at the studio, sits for an interview with one of the Blu-ray box sets. "I'm stealing this for Martin Scorsese," he says of the filmmaker who has led an international film restoration campaign for decades. "I'm here to support restoration!" Price says with a smile.

"But my job with The Wizard of Oz is done. Now it is up to the consumers to prove to the studio that they're willing to support this effort."

Success with these projects, Price adds, "allows us to continually present the highest possible quality we can, rather than making do with what we've got!"

Warner Bros. owns The Wizard of Oz by purchase, not by purpose. In 1939, Warner Bros. was the edgy, gritty studio that excelled in personal dramas and crime stories. MGM was known for its lavish productions, and especially the musicals. But, after its sad decline later, MGM was broken up, its celebrated library sold to Ted Turner at Turner Entertainment. That was before most industry experts realized the lucrative future that was to become home entertainment, first on VHS and then DVD and Blu-ray. Meanwhile, when Warner Bros. bought Turner Entertainment, it found itself with some of the great classics of American cinema, including The Wizard of Oz and Gone With the Wind, both from 1939 and both primarily directed by Victor Fleming (each film had multiple directors).

Hollywood historian Cass Warner, the granddaughter of studio co-founder Harry Warner, says she is proud that the studio that her family once ran now owns The Wizard of Oz -- and is treating it like a treasure.

"I think it's a timeless piece," she says. "I think it's got values and meaning and goodness that I just love in entertainment. It's for everybody."

The Wizard of Oz, she adds, has become a template for great moviemaking. "Hallelujah, it's all about great storytelling. That's what it gets down to and may that live forever. The art of storytelling is so important. That is part of the legacy I get to carry on."

For performer Lorna Luft, The Wizard of Oz is personal. Judy Garland was her mother. "It's fascinating because this is the movie that really catapulted my mother into the real 'thing' of a movie star."

While Garland had starred in movies before, including musicals with Mickey Rooney, "this was the movie that really launched her into being a household name -- and she knew that at the time. But I don't think any of them knew that 70 years ago later we would all be sitting here (talking about it) -- because it was another film, just another movie. And it was a hard shoot. They had many directors. Actually, when you think of what they had (to go through), the movie should not be as good as it is because it had so many struggles."

Pulling it together is a tribute to Fleming, MGM and, of course, the heartfelt L. Frank Baum storybook that inspired the movie, Luft says.

"The reason the movie is as good as it is and will always be there is the message: It's about home, it's about heart, it's about courage and it's about knowledge. What else is there?"