Film Nuts

I consider myself a film buff and I love collecting movies.

My collection has over 1000 titles, spanning more than 100 years of filmmaking. The movies are available in various formats - DVD, Laser Disc, and even lowly VHS.

In the case of some movies, I’ve bought them more than once because of new releases with improved picture quality or supplemental materials. But recently I was looking over my collection and realized that I now have three different versions of The Wizard of Oz.

Taking them down from the shelf, I glanced at the supplemental material available on each, and asked myself, “is it possible to have too much material about one movie?”

The first version I bought was on Laser Disc in 1993, called, The Ultimate OZ (released by MGM and Turner).

For those of you who don’t know, Laser Disc was the precursor to DVD, and was available from the late ‘80’s into the ‘90’s. The discs were big – 12” wide – the same size as old record albums. But the video information stored on them was analog not digital - although many did include digitally encoded audio tracks. The picture quality was far superior to VHS but well behind DVD.

Oh yeah, I almost forgot, they were EXPENSIVE! This set of 3 discs, retailed for over $100.

Here is a list of the supplemental material available in this collection:

• Restored “Wizard of Oz” feature – including an audio commentary by John Fricke

• Behind-the-Scenes documentary hosted by Angela Lansbury with rare footage and interviews

• Original Music Recording Sessions – featuring 270 different tracks, including unused takes, underscores, and post-scoring. This is literally the complete audio sessions for the movie

• Additional Film Rarities including outtakes, behind-the-scenes footage, and the theatrical trailer

• Original Script Reproduction – the 1939 continuity script with deleted scenes and a forward by Oz historian John Fricke

• Five rare 8x10 B still photos

Then, shortly after buying my first DVD player in 1998, I picked up the Warner Brothers release of the DVD. This version featured a brand new, digitally remastered copy of the movie, with true stereo sound. It duplicated some of the material from the Laser Disc set (like the documentary hosted by Lansbury) but it added a few more supplementals:

• Behind-the-Scenes: including Sketches/Storyboards, Costume tests, Make-up tests, and Special Effects stills

• Vintage Movie and Cartoon clips from various versions of the story

• 5 different movie trailers – including the 1939 original, the 1949 re-issue trailers, and a 1970 Children’s Matinee trailer

• A new 5.1 surround soundtrack

• Newsreel Excerpts

• Cast Interviews

• The complete Shooting Script

• Radio Broadcasts
  
  

Well, that should be it, right?

What else can there be?

Jump ahead 8 years and Warner Brothers has just released the Three-Disc Collector’s Edition of The Wizard of Oz. It includes a new, remastered version of the film, from restored film elements, making the movie look even better than the last DVD release.

The supplemental material includes:

• A new commentary by John Fricke including Archival Interviews with the cast and crew

• A look inside the film’s restoration

• The 5.1 surround track, the original Mono soundtrack and a Music-and-Effects-Only audio track

• Harold Arlen’s Home Movies

• The Tornado Tests

• Vintage Featurettes

• Extensive Stills Gallery

• Over 6 hours of Audio-only treasures

• Radio Shows and Promos

• Documentaries: “The Making of a Movie Classic”, “Memories of Oz”, “The Art of Imagination”, “A Tribute to Oz”, “The Legacy of Oz” and “The Man Behind the Curtain”.

• The Wizard of Oz (1910)

• The Magic Cloak of Oz (1914)

• The Scarecrow of Oz (1914)

• The Wizard of Oz (1925) featuring Oliver Hardy

• The Wizard of Oz (1933) cartoon

Okay…so there it is.

I’m NEVER going to need to buy another version of The Wizard of Oz for as long as I live…

…until the High Definition version is released in a few years.