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At 08:15 AM 11/6/96 -0800, you wrote:
>Good morning,
>        According to _The official 50th anniversary pictorial history of the
>Wizard of Oz_ the director was Ernst Lubitsch.
>S. Clark
>
Ernst Lubitsch did not direct the Wizard of Oz -- Victor Fleming did.  Two
excellent books on the making of this movie are:

The Making of the Wizard of Oz, by Aljean Harmetz, Delta, 1989

and

Down the Yellow Brick Road, by Doug McClelland, Pyramid, 1976.

BTW, Fleming finished the final cut and editing of Oz on a Friday.  Monday
moring he took over the directing of Gone With The Wind, from which Cukor
had been fired.  George Cukor actually spent three days on the set before
Fleming, doing tests with Garland.  His lasting contribution to the film was
removing the blond wig Garland had worn up until that time in the film.  But
wait, there's more.  Richard Thorpe was the original director and lasted two
weeks.  Fleming did the great bulk of the film, but was himself replaced at
the end by King Vidor, who mopped up some final scenes for ten days, and
directed Garland in 'Over the Rainbow'.  Fleming is given screen credit.

Hope this clears things up!

Mark
Mark Williams
Librarian
Colton High School
"For a list of all the ways technology has failed to improve the quality of
life, press 3 now."


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