Wizard of Oz is a 1925 silent film directed by Larry Semon, who also appears in a lead role. The first major film adaptation of L. Frank Baum's novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, this film features a young Oliver Hardy as the Tin Man. Although the original title card of the film reads The Wizard of Oz, many prints of the film have a different opening credits sequence which simply read Wizard of Oz.
Plot
A toymaker (Semon) tells an intriguing story about how the Land of Oz was ruled by Prince Kynd (Bryant Washburn), but he was overthrown by Prime Minister Kruel (Josef Swickard). Dorothy learns from Aunt Em (Mary Carr) that fat, cruel Uncle Henry (Frank Alexander) is not her uncle, and gives her a note due on her eighteenth birthday, which reveals she is actually Princess Dorothea of Oz, and is supposed to marry Prince Kynd. She, Uncle Henry, and two farmhands (Semon and Oliver Hardy) are swept to Oz by a tornado. Snowball (Spencer Bell, credited as G. Howe Black), a third farmhand, soon joins them after a lightning bolt chases him into the sky.
They land in Oz, where the farmhands try to avoid capture. Semon sees a real but inanimate scarecrow hanging on a pole in a cornfield, promptly dismantles it, and takes its place; Hardy briefly disguises himself as a Tin Woodman; and Snowball is given a Lion suit by the Wizard (Charles Murray), which he uses to scare the Pumperdink guards. Ambassador Wikked (Otto Lederer) is the film's antagonist. He prevents Dorothy's righteousness as the Princess of Oz. Virginia Pearson is Prime Minister Kruel's aide, Lady Vishuss. Frederick Ko Vert, a female impersonator, plays The Phantom of the Basket.
Production history
The film departs radically from the novel upon which it is based, introducing new characters and exploits. Along with a completely different plot, the film is all set in a world that is only barely recognizable as the Land of Oz from the books. The film focuses mainly upon Semon's character, who is analogous to Ray Bolger's Scarecrow character in the 1939 version.
The major departure from the book and film is that the Scarecrow, Tin Man (played by Hardy), and Lion are not actually characters, but are in fact disguises donned by three farm hands who find themselves swept into Oz by a tornado. Dorothy is here played by Dorothy Dwan — Semon's wife. Her version of the character is a young, seductive woman who has just turned 18 and who finds herself in the middle of a love triangle between Semon and Hardy. In a drastic departure from the original book, the "Tin Man" is a villain in this version, as Hardy's jealousy over Dorothy leads him to become the henchman for the evil Prime Minister Kruel. Semon vies unsuccessfully for Dorothy's love, losing at first to the farmhand played by Hardy, and then to Prince Kynd.
Some elements of the narrative have their roots in earlier adaptations of The Wizard of Oz. For example, Prime Minister Kruel has a predecessor in King Krewl, the antagonist of His Majesty, the Scarecrow of Oz. The note explaining Princess Dorothea's true heritage is signed "Pastoria", a name used for the exiled King of Oz in the 1902 stage version of The Wizard of Oz and for the father of Ozma in The Marvelous Land of Oz and later Oz books.
Reception
Many theatres that had originally booked this film never received it because its production caused Chadwick Pictures to go bankrupt, and distribution ceased long before it was intended to.
Home media
The film is in the public domain, and many home media releases of the film, including Betamax, VHS, Laserdisc and DVD, are available. The film is also included in the 2005 3-Disc Collector's Edition DVD of the more popular 1939 film of the same name (though not the more common 2-Disc Special Edition), along with earlier silent films based on the Oz stories.
Versions
The version with a piano score is included in all of the home media releases of the film. A majority of the unofficial releases contain a version of the film narrated by Jacqueline Lovell, who also provided narration for several other home media releases of public domain Oz films.
The version with an orchestral score is included in the 2005 3-Disc Collector's Edition DVD of the more popular 1939 film of the same name, and features original music composed and arranged by Robert Israel, as performed by the Robert Israel Orchestra (Europe).[1]
See also
References
- ^ from the cable television broadcast of "Wizard of Oz," Turner Movie Classics, Monday, December 1, 2008, 12:15 AM EST - 2:00 AM EST, with Introduction by Robert Osborne
External links
