(8.28) Acclaim for the 1939 classic “The Wizard of Oz” was nearly universal when the movie first premiered . . . except for one Otis Ferguson, owner of a malignant and abandoned heart, writing for The New Republic.
The Wizard of Oz was intended to hit the same audience as Snow White, and won’t fail for lack of trying. It has dwarfs, music, technicolor, freak characters and Judy Garland. It can’t be expected to have a sense of humor as well—and as for the light touch of fantasy, it weighs like a pound of fruitcake soaking wet. . .
[Frank] Morgan in fact is the only unaffected trouper in the bunch; the rest either try too hard or are Judy Garland. It isn’t that this little slip of a miss spoils the fantasy so much as that her thumping, overgrown gambols are characteristic of its treatment here: when she is merry the house shakes, and everybody gets wet when she is lorn.
Movies on the Block runs through September, four installments remain. The Wizard of Oz is rated PG (winged monkeys, apple tree, etc.) and runs 102 minutes.
Free, dusk, Thursday, August 28, Grant’s Block, 260 Westminster Street at Union (directions)