Starring vehicle for Margaret Hamilton

Rating: Null/10 (10 May 2001)

There's almost no point in writing about this movie, since it is so familiar. Like almost everyone else in the known universe, I saw this movie about 77 times as a child, and was terrified by the winged monkeys. I also noticed the surfeit of Boston-born actors, complete with Boston accents (notably, Ray Bolger and Jack Haley). And when I grew up, I actually tried watching this movie with the sound turned down and Pink Floyd's "Dark Side of the Moon" playing on the stereo. (Don't bother, by the way; it's no big deal.)
But what I remember today is the performance of that beloved character actress, Margaret Hamilton, as the Wicked Witch of the West, a role with which she would be identified for the rest of her days. This is perhaps unfortunate, as it overshadowed a notable career in which she played prudish spinsters, nosy neighbors, gossipy biddies, and the like. She was to W. C. Fields what Margaret Dumont was to the Marx Brothers. In later years, she became famous (and much beloved) as a small-town innkeeper named Cora in a series of Maxwell House Coffee commercials.
I hope it's not too indecent to admit this, but I had something of a crush on her when I was younger. The old-fashioned clothes, the tight, disapproving face, the whole schoolmarm gestalt - I don't know, it just did something for me. As you can imagine, when I have occasion to share this opinion with my friends, looks of stark terror flash across their faces as they back away from me, ever so slowly.
I guess there's just no accounting for taste.