TV Review: "Ruby Red Handed" - A True Crime Tale with Sparkle
ABC News leaves no stone - or sequin - unturned in the 90-minute special Ruby Red Handed: Stealing America’s Most Famous Pair of Shoes. True-crime producer Maria Awes (pronounced like Oz) leads this investigation into the disappearance of a pair of screen-worn ruby slippers from MGM’s 1939 classic The Wizard of Oz. Like the road of yellow brick the shoes famously traversed, the story takes on many twists and turns along the way.
In 2005, a private collector’s pair of Ruby Slippers was stolen while on loan to the Judy Garland Museum in Grand Rapids, MN. Ruby Red Handed fills in the blanks between the theft and when the slippers turned up in 2018, following the shoes to their recent record-breaking auction.
Awes strikes a lighthearted and quirky tone in this documentary special. Leaning into the aesthetic of L. Frank Baum’s original novel is adapted in the film, which uses chapters with W. W. Denslow’s illustrations to break up the information. Parallels are constantly being made to the most famous film adaptation of it, with a score evocative of “If I Only Had a Brain" and B-roll of recreated behind-the-scenes moments from the set. Plenty of local color is also added, including interviews with Oz enthusiasts who attend the town’s annual Judy Garland Festival.
One of the most lighthearted true-crime docs ever made, Ruby Red Handed is more than a film about a pair of priceless shoes - it’s an eye-opening look into the good-intentioned efforts of a small town police department doing their best with an impossible case. The film connects viewers with Grand Rapids Police Department Sergeant Bob Stein and Investigator Brian Mattson, evoking a sense of their yearning to make their town proud. It demonstrates what is possible when an agency like the FBI intervenes.
If you’re already familiar with the curious case of these “traveling slippers," Ruby Red Handed is still a fun watch thanks to its quirky tone and the variety of angles it approaches the story from, including consulting Smithsonian curators of “pair one" and a super fan who makes a living by producing screen-accurate replicas. If you don’t already know the story, there’s no better way to experience it. And if nothing else, you’ll pay closer attention to Dorothy’s footwear the next time you watch The Wizard of Oz.
Ruby Red Handed: Stealing America’s Most Famous Pair of Shoes is now streaming on Hulu.