The Wizard of Oz
The Wizard of Oz mistake picture

Revealing mistake: As Dorothy is about to walk into the cyclarama (backdrop) as she leaves MunchkinLand, a Munchkin Soldier on the very far right is too far and becomes transparent with the matted-in flowers. (00:33:40)

The Wizard of Oz mistake picture

Revealing mistake: When they meet the Wizard for the first time, his big projected head doesn't reflect off the shiny floor, like everything else. (01:09:54)

andyo22

The Wizard of Oz mistake picture

Revealing mistake: When the doorman initially refuses to let Dorothy and friends into the Emerald City, they protest, saying the Good Witch of the North sent her; they show him the ruby slippers as proof. As the camera pans down to the slippers, look at the yellow brick road Dorothy is standing on - it is flat and looks as though it was simply painted.

JustJudy

The Wizard of Oz mistake picture

Revealing mistake: When the Wicked Witch throws the ball of fire at the Scarecrow, you see the Tin Man get down on his knees and take off his hat to put out the fire. If you look really closely, you can see several hairs on the Tin Man's head.

The Wizard of Oz mistake picture

Continuity mistake: When Professor Marvel guesses why Dorothy is running away, she's holding her suitcase with the lid facing Marvel. But in Toto's closeup, as he snatches the hotdog from Marvel's long grill fork, the suitcase is turned the opposite way with its lid facing Dorothy. Then it changes back, so the suitcase lid faces Marvel again. (00:12:10)

Super Grover

The Wizard of Oz mistake picture

Continuity mistake: After Zeke rescues Dorothy from the crowded pig pen, Hickory wipes his face and neck with the rag in his right hand, but then it cuts to another angle, and the rag is suddenly in his left hand. (00:04:20)

Super Grover

The Wizard of Oz mistake picture

Continuity mistake: When Dorothy slaps Lion on the nose for chasing Toto and shouts, "Shame on you!" in the wide shot, we see Dorothy's right arm with no mark on her skin. It then cuts to the medium shots, and there's an inexplicable long, thin blue mark (it's not a loose thread) on Dorothy's arm near her elbow, while she's holding Toto. This blue mark vanishes in the wide shot when she puts Toto down, and Lion begins to sing. (00:50:25)

Super Grover

The Wizard of Oz mistake picture

Continuity mistake: While Dorothy, Tin Man, and Scarecrow are walking in the dark and creepy forest, just as Dorothy begins to sing "Lions and Tigers and Bears" in the medium shot, Tin Man is holding up the axe in his left hand. But it cuts to the long shot, and the axe is in Tin Man's right hand between shots. (00:48:40)

Super Grover

The Wizard of Oz mistake picture

Revealing mistake: When the Wicked Witch scares the Munchkins in Munchkinland, where Dorothy lands, she disappears into a cloud of smoke she creates. But you can see her sneak down into a trap door below. [As a sidenote to this entry, Margaret Hamilton was hospitalized for severe burns after a take of this shot (not the final one used) when the stage elevator got stuck and the explosion went off.] (00:30:45)

More mistakes in The Wizard of Oz

Dorothy: How can you talk if you haven't got a brain?
Scarecrow: I don't know. But some people without brains do an awful lot of talking, don't they?

More quotes from The Wizard of Oz

Trivia: The "tornado" was a thirty-five foot long muslin stocking, photographed with miniatures of a Kansas farm and fields.

rabid anarchist

More trivia for The Wizard of Oz

Question: It is implied strongly in this movie that water makes witches melt, and this is spoofed in other media. I've only ever seen this referenced to wicked witches. Does water make good witches, such as Glinda, melt too?

Answer: In all likelihood, probably not. Water is often depicted and represents purity, and cleansing. It flows smoothly, is beautiful, clear, and responsible for life on Earth. Everything the Wicked Witch is not. Where as the good Witch is pure and of a true heart. So it makes sense that something so evil and impure as the evil witch would be effected by the purest substance there is, yet not harm the good witch because she is good.

Quantom X

Answer: In the original book, water caused the wicked witches to melt away because they were so old and shriveled that all the fluid in their bodies had long since dried away. Meanwhile, the film Oz: The Great and Powerful instead implies that the Wicked Witch of the West is weak against water due to being a fire-elemental witch, which could also be the case for this incarnation, meaning it wouldn't apply to other witches like Glinda (whose element in both films appears to be ice) or even the Wicked Witch of the East (whose powers are never shown in this film, but were electricity-based in Oz the Great and Powerful).

More questions & answers from The Wizard of Oz

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