Dr. Cheryl

So I guess I am less wrong than I thought! Had I made the movie, there would have been a reprise of "Ding, Dong" in the castle after the witch is melted. "I'm melting! I'm melting!" Here's a quarter. Call someone who cares!

I've already said that I made a boo-boo. Everyone is allowed to make mistakes, GLSkipper. None of us is perfect, not even you.

That's an excellent point. It's funny how memory can fool us sometimes, isn't it?

What struck me in this "battle of the sexes" is how much fun both Astaire and Rogers are having! If it's a competition, then it's certainly a friendly one.

Interesting. So I wasn't entirely wrong in thinking that "Ding, Dong, the Witch Is Dead" is sung in the castle after the witch is melted! Thank you for the additional information about the film.

Yes, you're right. Somehow I thought that it's sung much later in the movie in the castle after Dorothy accidentally douses the witch in an attempt to save the Scarecrow. Sorry about all of the confusion.

Really, "Ding, Dong, the Witch is Dead" was NOT in the movie as it aired tonight on TCM. Dorothy douses the Scarecrow with water, and accidentally, she also douses the witch with water. The witch withers away and dies, and Dorothy thinks at first that the witch's guard is angry with her. Then she realizes that the witch's guard is delighted with what she's done, but there was no DING, DONG, THE WITCH IS DEAD song, not tonight. The movie aired in less than two hours, and I recall it being quite a bit longer. I know that TCM is very careful about showing movies in their entirety, so I find the c

As Dr. Ament pointed out tonight during the 8 p.m. introduction to "The Wizard of Oz" with Ben Mankowitz, when Judy Garland sings "Over the Rainbow," she interacts with her environment at the same time that she contemplates leaving it. What a great insight, one that I would not have thought of myself. Question: what happened to "Ding, Dong, the Witch Is Dead"? Did I really just watch a truncated version of the movie? It did seem to be moving along really quickly, but I didn't know that TCM allows for the editing of any movies, much less a classic movie like "The Wizard of Oz."

Wes Gehring makes a point in the lecture about "Top Hat" that really surprised me: Fred Astaire does improv! That's an association that I would have never made myself.

For those who are interested in the video "I Never Will Forget Jeanette MacDonald" featuring Judy Garland, click on the following link: http://thegreatkh.blogspot.com/2012/08/i-never-will-forget-jeanette.html

Until now, my only perception of Jeanette MacDonald came from the way that Judy Garland pokes fun of her during the concert that she performed with a very young Liza Minnelli at the London Palladium during the late 1960s. Until I watched the second Daily Dose of Delight, I had no idea why Garland clearly had no use for MacDonald. Now I understand completely: MacDonald technically may have had a fine operatic voice, but she had no idea about how to reach an audience emotionally, as Garland (and Minnelli) did so powerfully.

An aside: one of the best stage musicals I've ever seen is Stephen Sondheim's "Follies," which, of course, refers to the Zeigfeld Follies. So this Hollywood musical essentially spawned a Broadway musical many, many decades later.

Yes, I agree. The men rather than flowers would have been in her dressing room!

I agree!