Plot Synopsis (continued)
In
the next memorable scene set in the Haunted Forest near the Witch's
castle, with eerie bird cries and gargoyle-faced gnarled trees, a
sign states: "Haunted Forest, Witches Castle, 1 mile" and "I'd
Turn Back If I Were You." The quartet carry their weapons at
the start of their adventure: a gun, a giant wrench, a net, and a
spray gun of Witch Remover. The Lion reads the sign and whirls around,
ready to comply, but his determined companions grab him firmly and
turn him around. After the Tin Man has been mysteriously lifted into
the air and dropped with a loud clanging noise to the ground, the
Lion chants as he wrings his tail:
I do believe in Spooks, I do believe in Spooks, I
do, I do, I do, I do, I do, I do believe in Spooks, I do believe
in Spooks, I do, I do, I do, I do, I do, I DO!
Once again, the Witch watches them from her crystal
ball. She turns to Nikko, the captain of her squadron of Winged Monkeys
and issues commands for an assault:
Take your army to the Haunted Forest and bring me
that girl and her dog. Do what you want with the others, but I
want her alive and unharmed. They'll give you no trouble, I promise
you that. I've sent a little insect on ahead to take the fight
out of 'em. [The reference is to the song "The Jitterbug" that
doesn't appear in the final film release.] Ha-ha-ha-ha. Take special
care of those ruby slippers. I want those most of all. Now fly,
fly!
Suddenly, they are set upon by the army of bluish,
ugly winged monkeys sent by the Witch. The attackers swoop down,
tear apart the Scarecrow, and snatch Dorothy and Toto. They kidnap
the two and carry them off to the mountaintop castle.
The three companions are left on their own - the Scarecrow
explains to the Tin Man and the Lion how he was treated by the monkeys
- he was de-strawed:
"They tore my legs off and they threw them over there. Then they
took my chest out and they threw it over there." For comic relief,
the Tin Man observes humorously: "Well, that's you all over." The
Lion adds: "They sure knocked the stuffin' out of you, didn't
they?" The Scarecrow plots: "Don't stand there talking. Put
me together. We've got to find Dorothy."
With Dorothy imprisoned in the tower room of her castle,
the Wicked Witch sets up a blackmailing scheme - she places Dorothy's
beloved dog ("What a nice little dog") in a wicker basket,
taunts her captive with fears of a drowned pet, and offers to exchange
Toto for the ruby slippers [Likewise, Miss Gulch, the Witch's alter
ego also played by Margaret Hamilton, had also threatened Dorothy's
dog in Kansas]:
Witch: And you, my dear, what an unexpected pleasure.
It's so kind of you to visit me in my loneliness.
Dorothy: What are you gonna do with my dog? Give him back to me.
Witch: All in good time, my little pretty. All in good time.
Dorothy: Oh please give me back my dog.
Witch: Certainly, certainly, when you give me those slippers.
Dorothy: But the Good Witch of the North told me not to.
Witch: Very well. (To her winged-monkey captain) Throw that basket
in the river and drown him.
Dorothy: No, no. Here, you can have your old slippers but give me
back Toto.
Witch: That's a good little girl. I knew you'd see reason.
When Dorothy surrenders to the Witch's horrible plan,
the Witch attempts to take the slippers off by herself. She eagerly
curls her long green fingers over them to take them, but her hands
are electrocuted/zapped by voltages of sparks from the magical slippers.
Dorothy apologizes and continues to bargain for her dog: "Oh
I'm sorry. I didn't do it. Can I still have my dog?" The crafty
Witch shouts: "No!" and hints at Dorothy's death to get
at the enviable slippers:
Fool that I am. I should have remembered. Those slippers
will never come off, as long as you're alive. But that's
not what's worrying me. It's how to do it. These things
must be done delicately or you hurt the spell.
Toto leaps out from the hamper/basket [for the second
time in the film] and successfully runs out the door of the castle
room as Dorothy screams encouragingly:
"Run Toto, Run!" Nikko gives chase and castle guards
toss their spears [accompanied by the second part of Mendelssohn's Three
Fantasies or Caprices (Opus 16, No. 2) on the soundtrack]. Her
dog runs down the staircase and scampers over the drawbridge to the
outer embankment: "He got away!" Exasperated, the Witch threatens
that time will soon run out for Dorothy. She has only has a short time
longer to live - the time it will take for the red sand [symbolic of
Dorothy's blood?] in a large hourglass timer to reach the bottom bulb.:
[He got away]...which is more than you will. Drat
you and your dog. You've been more trouble to me than you're worth,
one way or another, but it'll soon be over now. Do you see that?
(She holds up a large hourglass timer with blood-red sand and turns
it over to mark the last remaining minutes of Dorothy's life.)
That's how much longer you've got to be alive. And it isn't long,
my pretty. It isn't long. I can't wait forever to get those shoes.
The Witch locks her prisoner in the tower room and
stalks away. Dorothy sobs to her ultimate protector - her guardian: "I'm
frightened, Auntie Em. I'm frightened." In one of the film's
most terrifying moments, Dorothy is left alone to view the Witch's
crystal ball. She sees the anguished and worried face of Auntie Em
inside the glass and calling out to her:
Auntie Em: Dorothy...where are you? Please, it's
Auntie Em, we're trying to find you...
Dorothy: I'm here in Oz, Auntie Em - I'm locked up in the Witch's
castle...(the crystal ball turns black) and I'm trying to get home
to you, Auntie Em. Oh, Auntie Em, don't go away, I'm frightened.
Come back!
She sees her caring Aunt's image horrifyingly turn
into the destructive Witch's mocking green face ("Come back,
Auntie Em, come back! I'll give you Auntie Em, my pretty") -
wildly cackling ("Ah, ha ha ha ha hah hah!!") and then
vanishing.
Toto finds Dorothy's three companions in the Haunted
Forest and retrieves them. The Scarecrow interprets Toto's barking: "Why,
don't you see? He's come to take us to Dorothy." They climb
the rocky mountain to the Witch's castle to rescue her. On the cliff's
edge, the Lion fears: "I-I-I hope my strength holds out." The
Tin Woodsman, hanging on to the Lion's tail to scale the mountain,
replies: "I hope your tail holds out!"
Outside the castle in a concealed hiding place, the
three watch the Witch's Russian Cossack-like, enslaved, green-skinned
sentinels march and chant the dirge-like "March of the Winkies." The
Winkies are the Witch's guards, with helmets, long coats, and spears.
['Winkies' is an offensive term for Asians. Their chant is difficult
to decipher, and sounds like: "O--Ee--Yah! Eoh--Ah!", although
some claim they are saying: "All we own, we owe."] During
the rescue sequence, each of them displays the qualities that they
wish for: compassion, brains, and courage. The Lion bolsters up his
courage: "I'll go in there for Dorothy. Wicked Witch or no Wicked
Witch. Guards or no guards, I'll tear 'em apart. I may not come out
alive, but I'm goin' in there. There's only one thing I want you
fellas to do...Talk me out of it." They are ambushed by three
of the sentry guards, but manage to overpower them after a brief
scuffle. Even Toto manages to help - he grips in his mouth a red
tassel he has ripped from one of the guard's uniforms. The three
steal their uniforms for a disguise (although the Lion cannot hide
his protruding tail). The Lion asks: "Do you think we'll be
polite dropping in like this?" They smuggles themselves into
the castle by marching at the rear of the procession.
Led by Toto, the rescuers find Dorothy in the tower
where she is being held captive. [They are accompanied by the music
of Mussorgsky's Night on Bald Mountain on the soundtrack.]
Dorothy is terrified as she looks at the hourglass running out: "The
hourglass is almost empty." The Tin Man splinters the thick
wood of the door with his axe after eleven whacks. After liberating
Dorothy, they try to escape out of the castle, with the Scarecrow
encouraging them: "Hurry, we've got no time to lose." They
are cornered and captured by the cackling Witch: "Going so soon?
I wouldn't hear of it. Why, my little party's just beginning." When
she hurls her hourglass before them, it bursts into flames and is
destroyed. The Scarecrow cuts a rope holding a chandelier and they
escape, but her guards chase them through the corridors, up and down
the steep staircases and along the battlements and parapets of the
castle. Without a way to escape from the mad pursuit, they are soon
trapped, cornered and surrounded by guards holding spears:
Ring around the rosey. A pocket-full of spears. Thought
you'd be pretty foxy, didn't ya?
They are held at the evil Witch's mercy - her plan
to do away with each of them has arrived:
WELL - the last to go will see the first three
go before her - and her mangy little dog too.
First, the Witch sets the Scarecrow's straw arm on
fire by jabbing it with the lighted end of her broomstick: "How
about a little fire, Scarecrow?" Dorothy tosses a nearby bucket
of water on his arm to extinguish the flame, also accidentally splashing
and drenching the Witch's face. [Dorothy causes a second death -
a second Witch - but both murders are accidental and non-malevolent.
As the adult witch shrinks in size, Dorothy has indeed proven that
she can emerge greater and more grown-up as a result of her adventures.]
She shrieks piteously in horror, her cries trailing off as she slowly
dissolves and melts in a memorable death scene. Her "wickedness" is
reduced to a puddle of vaporous clothing in front of everyone by
the application of a simple substance - water:
Oh! You cursed brat. Look what you've done. I'm melting!
Melting! Oh, what a world! What a world! Who would have thought
a good little girl like you could destroy my beautiful wickedness.
Oh, I'm gone, I'm gone, I'm going. Oh. Oh.
Toto sniffs around her black cloak and hat, the only
remaining parts of the Witch. Dorothy is confronted by the head of
the Winkies:
She's dead. You killed her.
She meekly stammers an apology but is unexpectedly
hailed and congratulated as the liberator from the evil forces of
a witch: "Hail to Dorothy! The Wicked Witch is dead!" Dorothy
is presented with the defunct witch's broomstick after freeing herself
and her friends - she turns excitedly to them: "Now we can go
back to the Wizard and tell him the Wicked Witch is dead."
The next scene cuts quickly to the Wizard's throne
room. The enormous face between two columns of fire cries out: "Can
I believe my eyes? Why have you come back?" As she places the
broomstick by the throne, Dorothy explains how they have completed
their mission [she has been liberated but is still not enlightened
about her salvation]. She requests that the Great Oz keep his promise:
Please sir, we've done what you told us. We brought
you the broomstick of the Wicked Witch of the West. We melted her.
The Wizard is impressed and uses a pun to congratulate
them: "Oh, you liquidated her, eh? Very resourceful." They
are again fearful of the great Wizard who balks and tells them that
they must go away and come back the next day: "Not so fast.
NOT SO FAST! I'll have to give the matter a little thought. Go away
and come back tomorrow." Dorothy is heartbroken and complains: "Tomorrow?
Oh, but I want to go home now!" The Wizard booms back: "Do
not arouse the wrath of the great and powerful Oz. I said, 'Come
back tomorrow.'" Significantly, Dorothy challenges and criticizes
the omnipotent, boon-dispensing Wizard:
"If you were really great and powerful, you'd keep your promises."
Toto tugs and pulls away a shiny green curtain drape
that covers a small booth, revealing, unmasking and exposing a white-haired,
ordinary man who is furiously and frantically pulling levers, dials,
switches and levers on an elaborate machine to control all the Wizard's
special technological effects in the projected image. The fraudulent
man (Frank Morgan again) suddenly looks over his shoulder and sees
Dorothy and the others. After being found out for his fraudulent
manipulations [similar to the chicanery of the carnival showman Professor
Marvel earlier in the film], he tries to distract them but then sheepishly
identifies himself:
The Wizard (covering up with the curtain): The Great
Oz has spoken. Pay no attention to that man behind the
curtain....the...Great...er...Oz has spoken.
Dorothy (pulling aside the curtain and reprimanding): Who are you?
The Wizard: (stuttering) I, I, I am the Great and Powerful Wizard
of Oz.
Dorothy: You are! I don't believe you.
The Wizard: I'm afraid it's true. There's no other Wizard except
me.
Scarecrow: You humbug.
Tin Man: Yeah.
The Wizard: Yes. That's exactly so. I'm a humbug.
Dorothy: (scolding) Oh, you're a very bad man!
The Wizard (sadly): Oh, no, my dear, I...I'm a very good man
- I'm just a very bad Wizard.
Scarecrow (angrily): What about the heart that you promised Tin Man,
and the courage that you promised Cowardly Lion...
Lion: And Scarecrow's brain?
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