For those that find in them a certain joy every time the orchestra of film kicks, when those studio logos lighten the dark of the screen and the familiar trumpet notes sound, you know what I mean when I say that the greatest films ever made are a must see for everyone. Those top 100 or 200, or 500 films that everyone should see before they die. Film is subjective though, and there are many lists. Fortunately for us, the American Film Institute compiled a list of the top 100 films of the 20th Century. From top to bottom, the list compiles the greatest American films released in the first 100 years of cinema.

Number six is The Wizard of Oz. The Wizard of Oz was originally written in 1900 by Frank L. Baum. It was an immediate success not just with children but with adults, play writes and Hollywood alike. By 1939, two other film adaptations had been attempted or made and the rights were as hot as ever. In the rest of his lifetime up until 1919 and his death, Baum wrote another 13 Oz novels, all of them classics with millions of copies of his original and the sequels in print worldwide.

The classic musical tells the story of young Dorothy who after a horrible tornado in her home of Kansas is swept away to the land of Oz. Her house lands on the Wicked Witch of the West and she’s greeted as a liberator. She takes off on a quest on which she meets many friends, the Scarecrow, Tinman, and Cowardly Lion on her journey to see the Wizard and return to Kansas.

The most recognizable product of his work though is the 1939 Judy Garland film. The production of the film was relatively quick though for the time nothing spectacular, taking a mere 19 months from the purchase of the rights until the premier. The film was appropriately altered for the audience of 1939, originally conceived as a musical competition in a dream state. The dream state remained, and the musical, but the plot involving the banning of music in Oz was removed.

The casting was problematic as Ray Bolger forced a switch between him and Buddy Ebsen’s parts from Tinman to Scarecrow. The subsequent result was Ebsen’s near death experience from the aluminum makeup coating his skin which got into his lungs even. And even the casting of Judy Garland was questioned at the time, as some MGM Executives wanted to get Shirley Temple to play the part. Thankfully, Fox had her under contract and wouldn’t loan her out.

Like many of the studio films in those days, director’s chairs were swapped repeatedly. The original director, Richard Thorpe was fired and immediately placed with George Cukor who directed Garland to the Dorothy we know and love today. Ironically he left the filming to work on Gone with Wind and was replaced by Victor Fleming. Fleming would replace him as the director of Gone With the Wind when Cukor was fired from that production on a few weeks later. King Vidor finished up the filming of the Kansas scenes and the film, after four directors was finally done.

Release in the same year as Gone With the Wind, it didn’t win any of the big awards but did take home best song in a motion picture. The film was a moderate commercial success but found it’s biggest following in subsequent television airings beginning in 1949. “Over the Rainbow” was listed as AFI’s number one song from a film.