The 1939 version of The Wizard of Oz is considered the definitive adaptation of L. Frank Baum’s The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. There’s been countless variations, adaptations and spin-offs. You have Wicked of both the stage and screen. Then there is The Wiz, also of the stage and screen.
Yet, it wasn’t the first adaptation. There was a version made in 1910, a short silent version. And then there were other sequels that are considered lost as most short films and features are of this era. But maybe it was because the 1939 touched on a nerve as America was trying to get out of the Great Depression. Trouble was brewing in Europe but Adolf Hitler hadn’t ordered the invasion of Poland just yet when the movie opened.
Judy Garland turned Dorothy into the role she was most famous for. And Margaret Hamilton, who was a very nice, pleasant woman became infamous as one of the greatest villains ever as the Wicked Witch of the West. Yet, the movie has so many tales that have been rebuffed and disputed. There wasn’t footage of a Munckin extra hanging himself in the background. Another rumor was that the little people and dwarves hired to play the Munchkins basically went full Animal House behind the scenes.
Now, that’s been debunked as well by many actors who said the rumors weren’t true. Yet, the idea of dozens of little people running around a hotel like college frat boys during Spring Break with an open bar is a wonderful concept, even if might seem a little politically incorrect now. Yet, can’t people who are just four feet tall have fun?
Under the Rainbow is a dark comedy screwball farce that takes no prisoners on the subject of comedy. The plot involves a Nazi spy, Otto Kriegling (Billy Barty), a Japanese spy, Nakomuri (Mako), a dwarf, Rollo Sweet (Cork Hubbert) with dreams of making it big, and because it’s the early 1980s, Chevy Chase and Carrie Fisher. Yet, even though they get top billing, this is more of an ensemble movie.
Chase plays Bruce Thorpe, a Secret Service agent escorting the Austrian Duke (Joseph Maher) and his gullible wife, the Duchess (Eve Arden), as their lives are under threat from an assassin (Richard Donner). The Duchess is so naive she can’t tell that her dog, Strudel, keeps dying. (So, yes, if you’re a pet lover, you may not like this. But I think the humor is how oblivious people are to their pets’ well-being while using them as personal accessories.)
Fisher plays Annie Clark, a young Hollywood production assistant who has been named special talent coordinator, which means she basically has to play den mother to the 150 dwarves and little people the production of Wizard of Oz has cast. And from the get-go, there are problems as the hotel in Culver City, Calif. didn’t book the reservations for the guests because the manager, Henry Hudson (Adam Arkin), is incompetent. And his uncle who owns the hotel took off for a weekend trip with the young receptionist clerk who discarded the phone call message by accident.
The movie is a comedy of errors and mistaken identities as Otto is told that his Japanese contact will be wearing a white suit pretending to be a photographer. Yet, as chance has it, the Japanese Amateur Photography Society had their charter bus break down outside the hotel’s front. And they’re all wearing white suits too.
Also, Rollo who stowed away on the train from Kansas to Los Angeles is mistaken himself as a movie extra because of his smaller stature. And Otto mistakes a kindly Japanese tourist for his contact when the Duchess loses her pearl in her dinner plate of liver. Hitler, himself, tells Otto the special phrase is “The pearl is in the river.” However, the tourist’s broken English leads Otto to think he’s his spy, thus giving him the plans.
But the Assassin has also traced the Duke to the hotel and tries to kill him put keeps killing the Japanese tourists by accident. Yes, it might seem offensive but the hotel’s staff member “Tiny” (Pat McCormick) keeps finding the photographers right after they’ve been killed. There’s also something funny about McCormack, who stood at 6-foot-7, towering over the little people.
As for the dwarves and little people themselves, this is the first film credit for actress Debbie Lee Carrington (most remembered for Total Recall) and Zelda Rubenstein (Poltergeist movies). Other famous dwarf actors, Tony Cox, Phil Fondacaro and Daniel Frishman also appear in the movie as hotel guest. Jerry Maren, who actually appeared in The Wizard of Oz, also is a hotel guest. Yet, Maren later regretted making this movie for its portrayal of little people.
Both Chase and Fisher said they didn’t care for this movie both calling it one of the worst movies they made. It’s also been reported that Chase was battling depression and grief following the death of his friend, Douglas Kenney, who had died under mysterious circumstances while in Kauai, Hawai’i. Chase and Kenney were taking a vacation in Hawai’i following the initial poor reception to Caddyshack.
Chase was there three weeks with Kenney before he had to return to work on a project. Kenney traveled from Maui to nearby Kauai where he reportedly went hiking to a lookout spot. His body was found at the bottom of the lookout spot. Some people debated if Kenney had jumped intentionally or fell by accident. His death was ruled accidental and Chase has refuted suspicions that Kenney was suicidal despite being depression. Harold Ramis is reported to have quipped, “He must’ve fallen while looking for a good place to jump,” even though it’s credit to writer Chris Miller, who wrote for National Lampoon, the magazine Kenney co-founded.
Chase has also disputed the reports he was battling depression following Kenney’s death. Under the Rainbow had been Chase’s fifth movie released in three years. He was also dealing with a divorce to his second wife, Jacqueline Carlin. If there is anything good about the movie, he met his third and current wife, Jayni Luke, on the production, so it can’t be all that bad.
Now, I’m not one to say that time changes people’s views on movies and TV shows. If something was awful in 1975, it’s probably still awful in 2025. You can’t look at movies like Robot Monster and compare them to Casablanca just because decades have passed. Under the Rainbow has its problems, but I think it’s all intended as a screwball comedy.
Also the revelation at the end that Rollo has been having a crazy dream and most of the characters are really patrons and friends of his at the Kansas mission he’s been staying at. Just like Wizard of Oz, it follows the same concept of Dorothy dreaming of people she knows as The Tinman and Scarecrow. So, you can be relieved that all the dogs intended to be Strudel are just fine.
What do you think? Please comment.
Zane Says 