The Wizard of Oz (1939): My Experience of Seeing it in Theaters in 3D

“As for you, my galvanized friend, you want a heart. You don't know how lucky you are not to have one. Hearts will never be practical until they can be made unbreakable.”

            The Wizard of Oz has held a special place in my heart and memories since I was a little kid. When I was in pre-school my grandma made me Dorothy’s dress for Halloween and my mom bought white shoes and painted them in red sparkle paint. My costume was complete with pigtails and a basket with a stuffed dog in it. I used to love playing with action figures and my one of favorite ones to play with was Dorothy. I still have that Dorothy figure as well as the costume somewhere in my basement. My parents and grandparents have their own special memories of me constantly watching The Wizard of Oz over and over and singing along to the songs.

            I went many, many, many years without watching the film. I watched the film for the first time in many years after I became an Old Hollywood fanatic. I appreciated it and loved it since it has always held such a special place in family. But over the last three years I would say The Wizard of Oz has become even more special to me. I see just how incredible of a film it is and how it is such a fantastic, wonderful, incredible escape from reality for the two hours and five minutes it runs. That form of escapism was the intention for the film when it was released seventy-six years ago and that is what it is still providing for audiences today. I like watching The Wizard of Oz when I need an escape from the real world and life’s problems. For its run I am a sixteen year old girl walking to see a powerful wizard through a world full of vibrant colors and lovable friends in the forms of a scarecrow, a lion, and tin man.

            Yesterday I wrote up how I was afforded the opportunity to see the silent serial House of Hate at the Museum of the Moving Image in Queens, NY. I was also given the opportunity of seeing The Wizard of Oz in 3D. This opportunity was a surprise. I thought I was just going to see House of Hate and I got to see The Wizard of Oz as well. I have to admit I was not too happy at first about having to sit through a film I know by heart and can sing all the songs to. I was at a museum I had never been to and had always wanted to go to and all I wanted to do was go look around. But once the film got started and Miss Gultch rode by on her bicycle and the Wicked Witch’s theme music came on I was done I was on cloud nine. I actually started to tear up because I thought of my grandma and how she does the most spot on impression of the Wicked Witch laughing and saying “I’ll get you my pretty.” (We got her the ornament of Miss Cultch on her bicycle for Christmas one year and it is one of her favorite gifts we have ever given her. It takes pride of place on her Christmas tree every year).  

            I nearly started blubbing like a baby when Dorothy opens the door and steps into the color world of Munchkin Land. I had never seen The Wizard of Oz in theaters before this so I was tearing up because the kid in me was so happy and because I did feel like an excited little kid again. I always get excited as soon as Dorothy opens the door and steps into this fantastical world but seeing that moment larger than life in all its Technicolor glory was unbelievable. One thing that was crazy to see in 3D was Glinda coming down in her big pink bubble! It was like that bubble was coming right for you!

            The 3D aspect of the film was incredible. The picture was so clear you could see the texture of the clothing, all the wrinkles in Dorothy’s shirt, the brilliant yellow of the Yellow Brick Road, the different shades of green in the Wizard’s outfit, the green on the Wick Witch’s fingernails, all the rust on the Tin Man, the blades of grass, etc. I was floored by how clear the detail on everything was in 3D especially in the costumes. I have a new appreciation for Adrian’s costume designs and how brilliant they were after watching the film in 3D.

            I never thought I could possibly love The Wizard of Oz as much as I already do but after seeing it 3D I now know it to be possible. I do not get emotional over films I rarely cry no matter how sad or happy the plot but I did seeing The Wizard of Oz yesterday. I got emotional because of all the memories I have associated with it. As soon as it was over, I texted my mom and told her how happy that made me and how I teared up a bit. She responded how great it was that I got to see it on the big screen and that she probably would have cried too ha ha.  If you have yet to see The Wizard of Oz, in regular format or 3D it does not matter, in theaters I hope you get the chance to in your life. You will never forget that experience for as long as you live.

            Once again I would very much like to thank The Museum of the Moving Image for such a great opportunity. I will cherish that memory of seeing my childhood movie on the large screen for as long as I am a film fanatic and as long as I live. 

Sweehearts (1938)

"Six years with you are like six minutes- six minutes without you are like six years."

            After I saw Love Me Tonight starring Jeanette MacDonald and Maurice Chevalier I swore I would never sit through one of her films. She got on my nerves so bad I thought she was a bad actress and her operatic singing annoyed me. But what have I wound up doing? I wound up watching another Jeanette MacDonald film. I am a tumblr nerd and most of the Old Hollywood blogs I follow are fans of hers so I got curious and decided to give MacDonald another try. Well I have to admit I am glad that I gave the actress another chance because Sweethearts was so enjoyable and MacDonald was so funny and adorable.

            It is the sixth anniversary of the hit Broadway show Sweethearts. In those six years the lead stars have been real life husband and wife Gwen Marlowe (MacDonald) and Ernest Lane (Nelson Eddy). They love each other more than they did when they first started the show. Every day Ernest leaves little love notes under Gwen’s door and she has kept every single one.

            Before the show runner and stage manager Felix Lehman (Frank Morgan) has his hands full with trying to keep a Hollywood talent agent Norman Trumpett (Reginald Gardiner) from getting close to his leading stars to lure them out west. Without his “kiddies” as he calls Gwen and Ernest, there will be no show.

            After the show all Gwen and Ernest want to do is go out to a quiet little restaurant by themselves without having to hear any of the songs from the show or be bothered by people looking for autographs. Their plan almost works but Felix guilts them into coming to a party he organized for the anniversary. The party turns out to be an extravaganza that is broadcasted live throughout the nation and the pair wind up having to sing a song from the show. Since Trumpett cannot get to them at the theater he calls up the restaurant to have the Lane’s chauffer sent home and he and his chauffer will pick them up. Trumpett’s plan works, he puts the irresistible idea of leaving New York and Broadway to go out to Hollywood to make pictures at their leisure in their heads. As soon as Gwen and Ernest walk through the door of their home they are immediately bombarded by their families. Both sets of parents were once stars of Broadway and never let each other forget that as they act all theatrically crazy and conceited. The parents also have Ernest and Gwen’s life planned for them without even consulting them. They have enough and call Trumpett to tell them they are going to Hollywood.

            Felix is distraught over his “kiddies” abandoning him. He, the writer of the play Leo, the conductor, and another manager want to find a way to keep Ernest and Gwen in the city. Leo comes up with the idea to tell Gwen about a play he has written and to use Ernest’s letters. As Gwen is packing Leo comes to her saying he has a new idea for a play he wants to run by her. Gwen listens and she recognizes some lines from her husband’s notes to her. She asks Leo where he got them and he says from a lady in the strictest confidence because they were written by a married man.

            Gwen has a fit thinking Ernest was writing the same letters he wrote to her to another woman. She thinks who the other woman could be and then realizes she is their personal assistant Kay Jordan. She just happens to look outside when Ernest picks Kay up and kisses her. He runs upstairs to tell Gwen that Kay has decided to go to Hollywood with them but Gwen is too upset to be bothered by him. Gwen walks into Kay’s to looks around for any letters. She sees Ernest slip a note under the door saying that if she were to look in the mirror she would see his favorite person. Gwen storms out of the room. Kay walks in and so does Ernest and he asks her if she got the note with the saying to be engraved on a vanity case for Gwen.

            On the night of their last show Trumpett comes backstage with a group of lawyers with the Hollywood contract for the couple to sign. Gwen tells Trumpett she no longer wants to go out to Hollywood but Ernest will happily go out. Ernest comes in and Gwen just lays into him and he has no idea why. Their confrontation forces them to miss their opening for the first time since the show started.

            Felix and Leo’s plan works. Felix has another idea using the two understudies. He breaks Gwen and Ernest up sending them each out on their own tour of Sweethearts with the understudies. The couple are sad and lonely without the other. Gwen’s mother reads the review of Leo’s new play that was based on the situation he put Gwen and Ernest in. Gwen realizes that that was the same situation she and Ernest and in. Ernest apparently read the same article and they each try to call each other but get a busy signal. Eventually Ernest gets through and they apologize to one another.

            Back in New York Ernest and Gwen go to Felix to tell them they are going out to California but once again he guilts them into coming back to the show.

            The story was so cute and so much fun to watch. It sounds like a mushy romantic musical comedy MGM pushed out by the thousands and it is but it is not overly romantic or silly and none of the acting by any of the actors seemed forced.

            Jeanette MacDonald was a panic. Sometimes she was a bit too much but for the most part she was so funny. Her facial expressions cracked me up especially when she gives this big phony smile to Ernest when they are singing a song at the piano. Nelson Eddy was good but I really did not think anything of him as an actor. MacDonald and Eddy’s chemistry was fantastic you can completely tell that they liked each other romantically in real life. The one part I cracked up with both of them was when Gwen and Ernest just want to go up to best. As they head for the staircase they make like they are two old tired people and put on these funny faces. This is odd but I could have totally have done without their singing. I know that their films together were musicals but their singing started to bother me after a while. I like both of them very much as actors I liked their scenes were they were just talking. There was one number that I liked called “Pretty as a Picture” because they were both very good and funny in it.    

 

            The rest of the cast was very good. It was cool to see Frank Morgan and Ray Bolger in a short scene together since the next year they were be in The Wizard of Oz together.

            Sweethearts was so much fun to sit through. I am glad that I gave Jeanette MacDonald another chance and I look forward to seeing more of her films with and without Nelson Eddy. Sweethearts is a cute musical comedy that does not go overboard story wise and makes you feel so happy when it is over.  

The Great Ziegfeld (1936)



“This is about talent”

            The Great Ziegfeld is the story of the man who knew how to put on extravagant shows Florenz Ziegfeld Jr. The film begins with Ziegfeld’s start as a sideshow runner at the 1893 World’s Fair where he gets his start and taste for exploitation shows. It touches on Ziegfeld’s famous marriages to Anna Held and Billie Burke.

            Ziegfeld was a shrewd business man. He stole many things from his rival a man named Billings including the actress Anna Held. All he wanted was bigger and better. When he saw that Held was not doing well on stage by herself in America he started putting more dancers around her and would later become his famous Follies.

            Of course there are recreations of his famous musical numbers. They were very extravagant and absolutely perfect for MGM to produce since they seemed to have a monopoly on extravagance back in the day. I found the numbers boring and way too long but they had to be shown because that was what Ziegfeld did.

            If it had not been for the great cast I would have found this film so unbelievably boring. Of course I watched this for the William Powell and Myrna Loy pairing but their paring does not come until over two hours into the film. This was my first film seeing Powell and Loy outside of the Thin Man films. Loy plays Billie Burke (for those of you who do not know she played Glinda the Good Witch in The Wizard of Oz) who Ziegfeld marries after his divorce from Anna Held. I found it funny that Loy out of all the other cast members who are in the film for much longer than she gets second billing. Powell and Loy were a draw from their Thin Man films so they both had to get top billing. The pair does have one of the best scenes in the film though. The scene is of them sitting by a river and just talking, you can just see their great chemistry. Powell is amazing as Ziegfeld this was truly his film. There is a famous saying about Powell “William Powell is to words what Fred Astaire is to dance” and it could not be more true. Loy was very good as Billie Burke. I was so used to seeing her as Nora Charles who is so witty that it was really nice to see her acting kind of dramatic. At the time of filming Billie Burke was still alive. Loy in her book said it was odd that she should be playing Burke when the real actress was still alive and able to play the role. But apparently Burke really liked Loy playing the part because she kept bringing her friends to the set to meet the actress.

            I was not to thrilled with Luise Rainer who played Anna Held. She won an Academy Award for her role but I really was not impressed with her and for goodness sake she beat out Carole Lombard and Irene  Dunne who were ten times the better actresses than her. From what I have read though Louis B. Mayer had some voting power for the awards and he swayed a lot of people to vote for Rainer. Her scene she won the Award for is alright to me it is nothing fantastic it is something all actors and actresses should be able to pull off. Rainer did play the scene with great emotion but I do not believe it was enough to beat Lombard for her role in My Man Godfrey which is considered her signature role as well as Irene Dunne for Theodore Goes Wild  (Rainer beat out Dunne again the following year which Dunne should have won for her role in The Awful Truth). Loy also says in her book that Mayer would always threaten her if she did not take a role that he would put either Rosalind Russell or Luise Rainer in the film instead but she said she did not care most of the time because she was friends with both actresses.

            It was very interesting to see Ray Bolger and Frank Morgan in the film because three years later along with Billie Burke would make The Wizard of Oz.

            The comedian Fanny Brice makes an appearance as well. She was discovered by Ziegfeld in the early 1900s and was part of his shows.

            The Great Ziegfeld won the 1936 Academy Award for Best Picture. The film deserved the win it was very elaborately made and excellently acted by the whole cast. William Powell is amazing as Florenz Ziegfeld he is worth watching the film for alone. The film is long and becomes tedious after a while. I wound up fast forwarding some of the musical numbers they seemed to be the longest parts. The Great Ziegfeld is worth sitting through at least once; it is one of the great MGM movie extravagances that should not be missed.