THE WIZARD OF OZ (1925)
Long before Judy Garland danced down the Yellow Brick Road, the L. Frank Baum novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz had been seen by audiences in play and stage musical adaptations. It is unsurprising the early days of film tackled this popular tale. I think many would be surprised to learn that the 1939 musical is not the first film version of Baum's book. The silent film The Wizard of Oz may surprise fans of the MGM musical or those who have read Baum's book in how it is almost a whole new story. While not without its merits it is also a bit oddball in its presentation.
Using a framing device of a toymaker reading The Wizard of Oz to his granddaughter, we learn that there is discontent in the land of Oz. The rightful Queen has disappeared, and the Ozians are unhappy with the rule of their dictator, Prime Minister Kruel (Joseph Swickard). He stays in power through the work of his aide, Lady Vishuss (Virginia Pearson) and Ambassador Wikked (Otto Lederer). Also helping Kruel is the Wizard of Oz (Charles Murray), who is a flim-flam man and knows it. Only noble Prince Kynd (Bryant Washburn) stands up to them.
If anything, The Wizard of Oz is not subtle.
Meanwhile, in distant Kansas, young Dorothy (Dorothy Dwan) is awaiting her eighteenth birthday. Her Aunt Em (Mary Carr) is sweetness herself, but her Uncle Henry (Frank Alexander) is a literal fat bastard, blustery and bullying everyone around. Dorothy does not escape his wrath, but getting the worst are his farmhands. There is one farmhand (Oliver Hardy, billed as Oliver N. Hardy) who seems to have a better shot of winning Dorothy over. The sad sack farmhand (writer/director Larry Semon) is also sweet on the pretty Dorothy, but he has less of a chance. The third farmhand, Snowball (Curtis McHenry), has no chance and isn't interested.
Dorothy knows that she is a foundling but is unaware of a letter that is to be opened on her eighteenth birthday. Prime Minister Kruel, however, is and is desperate to stop her from reading it. Sending his Zorro-like minions to prevent this, but for once Uncle Henry is on Dorothy's side, refusing to hand the letter over to them. A fight ensues and eventually Dorothy, Uncle Henry and the farmhands are swept by a tornado to Oz. Prime Minister Kruel must stop the future Queen Dorothy of Oz by any means necessary, but will he win out? Will Dorothy ascend the throne of Oz? Who will she choose: the homely but loveable farmhand disguised as the Scarecrow or the more traditionally attractive Prince Kynd?
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In some ways, The Wizard of Oz is surprisingly meta. The use of the grandfather (played by Semon in one of his three roles) reading the story to his granddaughter, who also makes comments about the story, predates a similar scenario in The Princess Bride. We also get a very strange number involving "The Phantom of the Basket", a figure the Wizard whipped up apparently out of thin air. With that, 1920's audiences were treated to a dance by one Fredrick Ko Vert, a drag queen with a name that makes anything from RuPaul's Drag Race look positively Rockwellian.
There was nothing covert about Ko Vert or his dance. It was superfluous to the plot, yet one watches in somewhat stunned disbelief that a drag dance is part of whimsical children's entertainment.
The film did take up a lot of time on both the Ozian political machinations as well as the romantic entanglement of Kansas waifs. It takes an awful long time for the Kansas group to make it to Oz, which is what I think contemporary audiences would look at.
One element in The Wizard of Oz that would look familiar would be the use of the farmhands as the three figures Dorothy meets on the way to the Emerald City. Granted, the story makes clear that they are in disguise. However, this is a development that may have come down in a more familiar form despite it not originally in the Baum story.
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The film does have some strong positives to it. There are some surprisingly good visual effects for the time, such as the tornado. We get a blend of animation and humor with a sequence involving bees and lighting that bounces off Snowball's head. There are clever sight gags, such as when Semon discovers that the eggs he stuffed into his pants and which Uncle Henry smashed with his foot end up hatching baby chicks.
The title cards also feature amusing bits. When Uncle Henry is elevated to a position of power in Oz, the title card reads that he is now The Prince of Whales, an obvious crack at his girth. Prime Minister Kruel nicknames the Wizard "Wizzy".
The Wizard of Oz also has some surprisingly frightening stunts, such as when two farmhands perform a dive into a haystack. Semon filmed this in slow-motion, adding to the overall look.
We even have the positive of having one of the farmhands being black. Snowball's race is never brought up or treated as anything out of the ordinary. For the time, I figure this is extremely progressive. McHenry is introduced in the film eating watermelons, which is cringe nowadays and makes for uncomfortable viewing. Again, this bit, which is mercifully very brief, is a slight hiccup on things. It should also be seen through 1920's eyes, which would have found it acceptable.
As a side note, we have gone in a century from a Wizard of Oz adaptation featuring a black man eating a watermelon to a Wizard of Oz adaptation featuring a black woman as the Wicked Witch of the West. If that does not show progress, what does?
The Wizard of Oz features a pre-Laurel & Hardy appearance by Oliver Hardy. He is pretty adept as the frenemy to Dorothy and her crew, shifting between helping and hindering them. Writer/director Larry Semon was certainly the star, going the Peter Sellers route by playing three characters: the grandfather in the framing story, the lovelorn farmhand and the Scarecrow (or a version of him). He did make himself the center of The Wizard of Oz, so a lot of the action involves him either trying to woo Dorothy, evade Uncle Henry, his farm activities or his adventures in Oz.
Dorothy Dwan is pretty as Dorothy from Kansas, but she does have some of that stereotypical silent film acting that would come across as exaggerated today. Dorothy as a character seems almost secondary to The Wizard of Oz itself.
The film loses a little steam when we get everyone to Oz. It also takes up much too much time in Kansas with Semon's farmhand. However, on the whole The Wizard of Oz is an interesting film separate from the overall Oz mythos. There are some surprisingly effective visual effects and stunts that lift the film to if not a faithful adaptation at least a unique one.
The Wizard of Oz Retrospective: An Introduction
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The Wizard of Oz Retrospective: The Conclusions
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