Victor Fleming's Wizard of Oz
- Feb. 1938 - MGM began script
- 10 script drafts - power struggle among writers Herman Mankiewicz, right-wing Arthur Freed, left-wing E. Y. Harburg
- Oct. 1938 - MGM began photography
- Nov. 4, 1938 - Fleming replaced Cukor and started over
- changes made from 1900 populist book by L. Frank Baum
- Growing isolationism in America due to Sept. 1938 Anschluss
- Kansas emphasized more at beginning, "no place like home"
- Dorothy is a reluctant liberator, falling house kills the Wicked Witch of the East to free the Munchkins
- Wicked Witch of the West became an evil aggressor, commanded the Winged Monkeys as Hitler used the Luftwaffe, used sky writing to try to make Dorothy surrender after reaching Emerald City
- Winkies outside the castle goose-step, needed liberation like the Munchkins, shout "Hail, Dorothy" when she melts the Wicked Witch
- Wizard tells Lion not to "confuse courage with wisdom" (not book: "true courage is in facing danger when you are afraid")
- July 1939 - MGM finished film at budget of $3 million
- Aug. 15, 1939 - premier of MGM's Wizard of Oz
revised 2/25/01 by Schoenherr | Wizard of Oz | Filmnotes