#Flying monkeys wizard of oz movie

The film’s original director, Richard Thorpe, conceived an entirely different look for the film - in the whole two weeks he helmed the film. Recent reports suggest that the toxicity of Harlow’s hair dye may have been partly to blame for her untimely death.ģ. The studio planned on trading her for Clark Gable and Jean Harlow - but the deal got nixed when Harlow unexpectedly died of liver failure at 26.

#Flying monkeys wizard of oz movie

The other problem was that Temple was contracted to 20th Century Fox, and only would have been able to appear in the movie were she with MGM. Shirley Temple was a better fit in terms of age and a much bigger star than Garland was at the time, but producers felt that she couldn’t carry the film vocally, as her singing voice left something to be desired. Although Garland was always a favorite by the studio for the part, she was hardly the only actress considered. In an earlier adaptation of the film, Dorothy rang in her 18th birthday, just old enough to smoke, and the character would later be played by the 24-year-old Diana Ross and the 10-year-old Fairuza Balk.Ģ. To fit the character’s tween body, Garland had to wear a constricting corset to flatten her chest, a painful one that made it hard to breathe during filming. According to studio publicity, Dorothy Gulch was twelve-years-old, four years younger than the actress who played her, Judy Garland, even though author L. Did you know that half of the cast was either injured or nearly died during production, and one potential cast member did - before she was signed onto the film? Here are just 23 of the many, many weird little-known (and well-known) facts about everything that went wrong to give us a movie that was so right.ġ. The Wizard of Oz has one of the wildest and most infamous productions of any movie ever filmed.