The Wizard of Oz - 1939 Film - Unused / Deleted Scenes

STILL UNDER CONSTRUCTION
Regarded as the most viewed film in history, The Wizard of Oz is a 1939 american musical fantasy film produced by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), directed by Victor Fleming and (an uncredited) King Vidor. Produced by  Mervyn LeRoy, the film stars Judy Garland, Frank Morgan, Ray Bolger, Bert Lahr, Jack Haley, Billie Burke, and Margaret Hamilton, and was written by Noel Langley, Florence Ryerson, and Edgar Allan Woolf with songs by Harold Arlen and E. Y. "Yip" Harburg.

The most famous and successful adaptation of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum, the film was a bit of a nightmare during production. With a total of five directors, a plethura of lost footage was shot that was scrapped, and cut of of the film during previews.

Norman Taurog - Summer 1938
In July 1938, MGM announced that they had tapped director Norman Taurog, who had a reputation of guiding young performers, to helm their upcoming film adaptation of the classic L. Frank Baum story.

Working on the film during the extensive wardrope and makeup tests for the summer of 1938, Taurog was paid for three-days of directorial work for the project, most likely for test shots performed in July / August.

During the first week of September, however, Taurog was reassigned to The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, which would be released on Febuary 10, 1939, and replaced by Richard Thorpe.

Though some pictures from the set have surived, the test footage shot by Taurog is presumed lost.

Richard Thorpe - Fall 1938
MGM brough in director Richard Thorpe in September 1938. According to the book The Wizard of Oz: The Official 50th Anniversary Pictorial History, Thorpe "had a reputation for bringing in pictures on budget and on schedule, which must have been a real attraction as the studio watched preproduction costs mount on The Wizard of Oz."

On October 13, filming began on the MGM Studios lot, and continued for a total of nine days. The scenes filmed included Dorothy and the Scarecrow's first encounter in the cornfield and various sequences in the Wicked Witch's castle.

After an on set mishap caused the production to shut down, producer Mervyn LeRoy reviewed Thorpe's footage and decided that it lacked the childlike wonder and innocence the production needed, and that Thorpe was rushing the production. Thorpe was subsequently fired.

As a new director was saught out and hired, director George Cukor took over while waiting for his next film, Gone With the Wind, to begin filming. Staying with the film for less for a week, he was brough on to help shape the film.

All footage from his reign was scrapped, and it's presumed to be lost.

Two notable aspects of the Thorpe include...

The Original Dorothy


Under Thorpe's reign as director, the makeup and costume designs for Dorothy, the Scarecrow, and the Wicked Witch differed from what they would be in the final film. Though subsequent changes to the Witch's and the Scarecrow would be fairly minor, Dorothy proved to be another story.

Under studio direction, Garland wore a long, blonde wig, heavy, "baby-doll" makeup, and a blue cotton pinafore with a blue poka-dot border, and directed to be played in an exaggerated fashion.

After Thorpe was taken off the production, Cukor had her makeup and wardrobe altered, and gave her a more naturalistic look. He also told Garland to play Dorothy more down-to-earth, to remember that she was "just a little girl from Kansas."

T​he Original Tin-Man
Originally cast as the Tin-Man was MGM contract player MGM Buddy Ebsen.