Behind The Scenes Secrets: The Wizard Of Oz

Early Special Effects

The Wizard of Ozwas shot all the way back in 1939, and since then special effects have come quite a long way, although you must admit that the effects were quite impressive for their time. For scenes with the winged monkeys, piano wires were used to suspend them in the air. However, this did not always go well and several actors were injured when the wires snapped during the haunted forest scene.

Also, when the Wicked Witch is seen trying to remove the ruby slippers and fire springs up around her hands, this is actually apple juice which was squirted out of the shoes and then the film was sped up. In the tornado scene, a lot of special effects came into play. For Dorothy’s falling house, a miniature house was dropped onto a sky painting. Then the film was reversed which made it look like the house was falling towards the camera. To make it look as though a tornado actually came on the scene, a 35-foot-long muslin stocking was used. Filmmakers then took the stocking and spun it through miniatures of the farm and fields, of course with added dust.