Daily Dialogue — February 5, 2015

Miss Gulch: [stopping bicycle and getting off] Gale?
Uncle Henry Gale: Well, howdy, Miss Gulch.
Miss Gulch: [comes into the Gales’ yard] I want to see you and your wife right away about Dorothy!
Uncle Henry Gale: Dorothy? Well, what has Dorothy done?
Miss Gulch: What she’s done? I’m all but lame from the bite on my leg!
Uncle Henry Gale: Oh! You mean she bit you?
Miss Gulch: No, her dog!
Uncle Henry Gale: Oh, she bit her dog, eh?

Uncle Henry tries to shut the gate, but it hits her on the backside.

Miss Gulch: [exasperated] No!

Inside the house.

Miss Gulch: That’s dog a menace to the community, I’m taking him to the Sheriff to make sure he’s destroyed.
Dorothy: Destroyed? Toto? Oh you can’t, you mustn’t. Auntie Em, Uncle Henry you won’t let her will you?
Uncle Henry Gale: Of course we won’t, ah will we Em?
Dorothy: Please Aunt Em, Toto didn’t mean to. He didn’t know he was doing anything wrong. I’m the one that ought to be punished, I let him go in her garden. You can send me to bed without supper.
Miss Gulch: If you don’t hand over that dog, I’ll bring a damage suit that’ll take your whole farm! There’s a law protecting folks against dogs that bite!
Auntie Em: How would it be if she keeps him tied up? He’s really gentle… with gentle people, that is.
Miss Gulch: Well, that’s for the Sheriff to decide. Here’s his order allowing me to take him. Unless you want to go against the law.
Auntie Em: Well, we can’t go against the law Dorothy, I’m afraid poor Toto has to go.
Miss Gulch: Now you’re seeing reason…
Dorothy: No.
Miss Gulch: [grabs basket] Here’s what I’m taking him in so he can’t attack me again.
Dorothy: No, no I won’t let you take him. You go away or I’ll fight you myself.
Auntie Em: Dorothy.
Dorothy: You wicked old witch. Ah Uncle Henry, Auntie Em don’t let her take him, please. Stop her.
Auntie Em: Put him in the basket Henry.
Dorothy: No, no, oh Toto.

Dorothy runs out of the room crying.

Auntie Em Gale: Almira Gulch, just because you own half the county doesn’t mean that you have the power to run the rest of us. For twenty-three years, I’ve been dying to tell you what I thought of you! And now… well, being a Christian woman, I can’t say it!

— The Wizard of Oz (1939), screenplay by Noel Langley & Florence Ryerson and Edgar Allan Woolf, adaptation by Noel Langley, book by L. Frank Baum

The Daily Dialogue theme for the week: Pets. Today’s suggestion by James Schramm.

Trivia: One early script had Aunt Em as the abusive witch who wanted to kill Toto to punish Dorothy.

Dialogue On Dialogue: Commentary by James: “The most famous pet in the world and this scene is the catalyst for Dorothy and Toto running away and setting the rest of the movie in motion. Come on, admit it, you cheered when Toto escaped from that escape-proof basket.”

If you have any suggestions for this week’s theme, please post in comments.