margaret hamilton played the wicked witch of the west in the original wizard of oz musical film from 1939.
margaret hamilton played the wicked witch of the west in the original wizard of oz musical film from 1939.
who played the the wicked witch of the west in the original wizard of oz musical film from 1939?
margaret hamilton
in the 1939 version of "the wizard of oz", margaret hamilton plays the wicked witch of the west as a green-skinned witch dressed in a long black dress with a black pointed hat. she does not wear an eye-patch like in the novel. this representation of the wicked witch has become a standard for what witches resemble and an archetype of human wickedness. while the relationship is not mentioned in baum's books, in the movie, the witch is the sister of the wicked witch of the east. the movie makes her even more of a primary antagonist, and consequently she appears in the film much earlier (and more often), than in baum's original novel. she demands the munchkins reveal who killed her sister, not long after dorothy's arrival in oz. she is described by glinda the good witch of the north, not the south as in the book, as "worse than the other one". she actively seeks revenge against dorothy for killing her sister, even though it was "accidental". however, as soon as the witch is reminded of the ruby slippers, all interest in her sister's death vanishes and all she cares about is obtaining her slippers, which will enable her to conquer oz. she is more menacing than her literary counterpart, making dorothy too afraid to ever lose her temper with the witch. she makes sure that dorothy knows her power when dorothy meets the scarecrow by throwing a ball of fire at them. before dorothy and her friends get to the city, the witch casts a sleeping spell over a field of poppies through which the group must pass. glinda remotely counteracts the spell with snowfall. the wicked witch then flies on her broom over the emerald city, demanding that the citizens of the emerald city surrender dorothy to her, and the wizard demands the destruction of the witch, with her broom as proof, in exchange for granting the wishes of dorothy and her companions. unlike baum's original depiction, the wicked witch sends the winged monkeys as the first wave of attack. the golden cap is not mentioned but, after the failure of her poppy spell, the witch does hold and then angrily cast away a costume piece that could be considered the cap (it greatly resembles the cap as depicted in w. w. denslow's original illustrations for "the wonderful wizard of oz") and was mentioned as her "wishing cap" in the original shooting script. she is killed when dorothy throws a bucket of water on her, in attempt to put out a fire the witch bestowed on the scarecrow. in the novel, dorothy simply throws it on her in a fit of anger. there is no prior mention of the wicked witch's vulnerability to water in the movie, save for a split-second before the water actually douses her when she screams "don't throw that water!" (this line does not appear in the film's shooting script). after the wicked witch of the west is dead, her soldiers are glad to be free of her power, and quote "hail to dorothy! the wicked witch is dead!" the character ranks no. 4 in the american film institute's list of the 50 best movie villains of all time, making her the highest ranking female villain, as well as placing 90th on "empire" magazine's "100 greatest movie characters of all time".
wicked witch of the west
bullet::::- in the 2013 disney film "oz the great and powerful", the wicked witch of the east, evanora, is the main antagonist. she was portrayed by rachel weisz. in this version, the witch is the older sister of theodora, the wicked witch of the west (mila kunis), and is at war with glinda, the good witch of the south (michelle williams) for control of oz. she originally portrayed herself as a good witch, and had been an adviser to the former king of oz, whom she murdered, so that she could be in charge of the emerald city herself. evanora deceived oscar diggs by framing the king's daughter glinda for the murder and telling him that glinda is the wicked witch instead of herself, which resulted in glinda being outlawed from the emerald city and retreating to the south. evanora manipulates her sister, who is in love with oscar diggs (james franco), and ends up transforming theodora into the wicked witch (of the west, eventually). evanora is later fooled and scared by oscar's tricks and banished from the emerald city. before she flees, glinda encounters her and the two witches fight. evanora seems to have an upper hand, but glinda then crushes her emerald necklace, the source of her power, and the wicked witch's youthful and beautiful appearance turns into that of a hideous old crone, which glinda believes is a reflection of her true nature. furious, evanora tries to attack glinda, but she is blasted out of the window. evanora is then carried away by her last flying baboons, but not before swearing a personal revenge on glinda for foiling her. the emerald necklace she wore enabled her to project her power from her very fingertips in a form that resembled green lightning. the magic shoes that the witch would ultimately become associated with are not even discussed in this film, nor does she officially become the wicked witch of the east during the story, which ends with the wizard taking over the emerald city. this is one of the significant differences from l. frank baum's original books, in which the wicked witches of the east and west were already ruling the munchkin country and the winkie country by the time the wizard first arrived in oz.
wicked witch of the east