Wizard of Oz

[Daniel]

Today is Judy Garland's 100th birthday! In celebration, TCM is airing a marathon of her films:

Little Nellie Kelly
Ziegfeld Girl
Presenting Lily Mars
Girl Crazy
For Me and My Gal
The Pirate
In the Good Old Summertime
The Wizard of Oz
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz: 50 Years of Magic
Meet Me in St. Louis
The Clock

Judy is also Star of the Month, so some of these will likely be repeated on Fridays. Tons of gems.

[Ben]

Nice! We just had a doc, the Judy biopic and A Star Is Born play here last night.

I’d still like a n HD copy of the 2.5hr cut of ASIB. The current disc edition is nice, of the celebrated "reconstructed" 1983 version, but it’s incomplete and uses still shots to cover some audio only scenes — a revelation in 1983, but not making for a totally "clean" movie experience. And the shorter cut *was* what was released, so it’s a valid cut (which I have in widescreen on VHS) and should have also been included in the set. Warner Archive can maybe save us sometime, but I haven’t been holding my breath.

Three of those titles also just made their Archives debut: I’ll pick them up in the next sale.

[Randall]

The Criterion Channel is also streaming several of her films right now, including ones that Warner Archive just put out.

[Randall]

I got into the Judy spirit, too. I ended up watching Meet Me in St. Louis - certainly iconic, though I found it uneven. Still, I think it was a good choice to watch when celebrating her life, given its importance in so many ways. The parts that work are certainly charming.

[Daniel]

I re-watched St. Louis yesterday, too. It's one of my favorites. A very sweet, old-fashioned musical. Like vintage greeting cards coming to life. Even though the structure is episodic, it just flows magnificently. Feels like one long take. I especially love the bittersweet "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" and the link to the real world war.

[Randall]

I felt the Halloween part was disjointed from the rest, and found some of that part even confusing. (Like, what is the deal with burning furniture in the street on Halloween and "killing" your neighbors by spraying them with flour? Bizarre. And how exactly did Tootie cut her lip that way? - Doesn't seem like something that would happen in a fall, and even their explanation was not clear. And why so viciously lie that she was attacked by the neighbour? And why were the others not more upset? No one suggested going to the cops. It was all just weird.) Without that section, I would have enjoyed it even more.

[Daniel]

By the way, the "extended musical number" I brought up earlier was the Ray Bolger scene.

[Ben]

Surprise!

[Evergreen]

Oh, so it was Judy's birthday recently. I remember the marathons of her films. I just assumed they were having a day of her films (they do that sometimes, like with Bette Davis) for no particular reason. I watched Meet Me in St. Louis for the first time and really enjoyed it. I recently saw another film she was in, one that her TWoO co-star who played Glinda was also in (playing her mother) that I liked, too.

I'd like to see most of her films one day, but I have to be in the right mood to watch a lot of older films like those. I think I've only see those three + The Harvey Girls and A Star Is Born.

[Ben]

That sounds like Everybody Sing, from 1936 or '38 I think, just before Oz. One of her earliest feature pictures, I haven’t seen that one in *years* but remember it because my sister an I found it funny that Glinda was playing Dorothy's mother! Funny girl Fanny Brice also had a role, as did Reginald Owen, much later Admiral Boom in Poppins, and after that Bedknobs, his last film in an amazingly prolific career. Garland is also great in her late career drama A Child Is Waiting, which is an interesting if frustrating watch that’s not quite as "Judy!" as her last film, I Could Go On Singing.

[gaastra]

https://deadline.com/2022/08/wizard-of- ... 235092446/

[Farerb]

No thank you.

[Ben]

"From the director of Coming 2 America!"



Why doesn’t someone just latch on to the fact that Frank Baum created Middle Earth and Narnia before anyone else and do a straight translation of the original eleven books? It would quite literally be awesome, horrifying, funny, thrilling and amazing.

[EricJ]

I imagine his is going to be a "black" version--We know Michael Jackson is gone, but what about Diana Ross?

[Daniel]

The hourglass prop has sold at auction for $495,000!