LJWorld.com

WAMEGO — When “The Wizard of Oz” first hit theaters in August 1939, flying monkeys were the least of America’s worries.

The Depression, already almost a decade long, continued to grind away, and Germany stood on the verge of invading Poland, igniting a global conflagration that would envelop the United States just two years later.

Moviegoers needed escape. And along came Judy Garland’s Dorothy Gale, a Kansas farm girl whose ruby slippers stepped out of the dreary present and into a Technicolor future, a magical Oz populated by talking scarecrows, Munchkins, witches and a con man of a wizard who showed that all we ever needed was within ourselves.

Seventy years after its first screening, “The Wizard of Oz” is headed back to theaters nationwide Wednesday for one night as Warner Bros. unveils a technologically updated and improved version ahead of its release on Blu-ray Hi-Def.

“A film like this, which is so unlike any other motion picture and so beloved by the public all over the world, it deserves to be seen in the best possible light,” said George Feltenstein, senior vice president of WB’s theatrical catalog marketing.

The world is no less scary than it was 70 years ago, and the fantasy genre has tilted ever darker through the years — nightmarish images from “Pan’s Labyrinth” or the “Harry Potter” and “The Lord of the Rings” films can make a wicked witch’s castle look downright homey.

But despite its campy tone and crude special effects, “The Wizard of Oz” has retained its popularity.

Between regular television airings and the many fan conventions and festivals around the country, there’s no shortage of Oz. The Oz Museum in tiny Wamego, west of Topeka, draws tens of thousands of visitors to view some of 24,000 pieces of Oz memorabilia.

“I think I first saw the movie when I was 4,” said Shelley O’Neil, 45, of Greeley, Colo., during a recent visit to the museum. “I was sitting there just mesmerized until the monkeys came on and apparently I just started screaming. My mom had to come save me. I think we watched it every year.”

For many fans, the Wednesday showing will be the first chance they’ve had to see “The Wizard of Oz” on the big screen since its last national theatrical release in 1955. And even frequent viewers will be in for a surprise, Feltenstein said, as the new version, digitally sharpened and brightened, provides textures and details that were invisible in past prints.

“I’ve seen it so many times on television but when I saw (the new version) it was like seeing a brand new film,” said Robert Osborne, film historian and host of Turner Classic Movies, who will introduce the film before its showing.

The movie was based on L. Frank Baum’s 1900 children’s book, “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz,” which itself amassed quite a following. Baum wrote 13 sequels and authors approved by his estate later penned 26 more.

Evan I. Schwartz, author of “Finding Oz: How L. Frank Baum Discovered the Great American Story,” said Baum set out to create a fairy tale that used the traditional “quest” story to teach lessons about wisdom, compassion and courage but eschewed the knights and dragons of European folklore. Instead, he used American images, such as the scarecrow and the tin man, inspired by Baum’s time in the oil industry. He also used the hidden wizard pulling the strings to touch on the nation’s naivete.

“We’re an inventive people but we’re also a very gullible people,” Schwartz said, noting that headline writers regularly referred to disgraced financier Bernard Madoff as “the man behind the curtain.” “I think Frank Baum had the ability to hear what people were thinking and it taps into this collective unconscious of America and it’s still there.”