Closer USA – August 12, 2019

The Munchkins “used

to sneak under my

dress,” griped Judy

Garland (with director

Victor Fleming, left).

reporter she wanted a dog just like it.”

Critics and audiences didn’t lap up The

Wizard of Oz right away, however. “It was per-

ceived as overdone,” says Burr. The film was a

minor hit and won just two Oscars, one of them

for best song (“Over the Rainbow”). It was

overwhelming for kids to see on the big screen,

so it was only after the film started showing

annually on TV years later that it developed

its fanatical following. “It had great music, an

amazing cast and brilliant Technicolor,” says

Stillman. “It was the perfect storm.”

Its message also resonated deeply. “We’re

so spread out, there’s so much social move-

ment in this country and everybody remem-

bers home,” says Hamilton Meserve, the son

of Margaret Hamilton, aka the Wicked Witch

of the West. “Dorothy gets home, and that’s

satisfying to a lot of people.”

A MIGHTY WIND

With the arrival of fall, more serious pictures

rolled out, like Ninotchka and T he Women. A

few weeks before the election, Frank Capra

released Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, with

Jimmy Stewart as an ethical senator who

WUTHERING

HEIGHTS

While wife

Vivien Leigh

was making

Gone With the

Wind, Laurence

Olivier set fans’

hearts racing as

Heathcliff in his

own romance.

DARK

VICTORY

Bette Davis
said this melo-
drama about
a socialite
with a brain
tumor was her
favorite film.
It was also her
biggest box-
office hit up to
that time.

THE HUNCHBACK

OF NOTRE DAME

“I have a face

like the behind

of an elephant,”

lamented Charles

Laughton, yet he

brought genuine

pathos to the role

of Quasimodo,

opposite a fiery