13 Background Distractions That Completely Ruined Movie Scenes
2. The "Hanging Munchkin"
Now for another rumour, which has blighted the legacy of a classic movie: the urban legend that The Wizard Of Oz accidentally captured the tragic final moments of an Extra playing one of the Munchkins is one of the most infamous on the internet. It states that there is a scene in the movie, which unwittingly features said actor taking his own life in the quaint forest background of the Yello Brick Road.
This rumour was pushed for years by the fact that footage was inconclusive, and that people are generally awful and will immediately believe any rumour relating to a grizzly death, rather than looking for any kind of real facts. It took on a life of its own, compelling viewers to pause and closely examine the scene endlessly to spot the rumoured figure, and completely changing the way that scene was digested. Or ruining it, in other words.
Sadly for conspiracy theorists, and happily for Munchkin Protection groups, this has subsequently been proved to be the rubbish that most sensible people would have immediately thought it. The suspicious shape in the background was in fact a bird, but that hasn't stopped the theorists...