liza minnelli played wicked witch of the west in oz.
liza minnelli played wicked witch of the west in oz.
who played wicked witch of the west in oz?
liza minnelli
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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