Oz on Screen
by Marc Berezin
The marvelous Land of Oz was created by writer L. Frank Baum (1856-1919) in 1900, but for more than half a century his work (and all it's other manifestations) has stood in the shadow of MGM's 1939 THE WIZARD OF OZ starring Judy Garland. So potent is this identification, that some individuals (who apparently don't read credits) even mistake the book for a novelization of the film! Nevertheless, the cinematic legacy of Oz began several decades before '39.
Baum's first love was the theater, and after the success of THE WONDERFUL WIZARD OF OZ, he helped create a 1902 musical extravaganza inspired by the book. Thanks to some script-doctoring by the producer, it bore little resemblance to the original story, (a harbinger of things to come) but was a great success in Chicago, New York City, and on the road. Baum attempted to recapture this achievement with two other (not so fortunate) Oz based shows in 1904 and 1913. Beside the stage, the new medium of motion picture also beckoned.
The first Ozian film footage was a portion of THE FAIRYLOGUE AND RADIO PLAYS (1908) a 'multimedia' program consisting of tinted films and slides accompanied by a live lecture by Baum (there was no "radio" in the modern sense, various theories have been offered for the use of the word). Unfortunately the expenses involved in it's exhibition were such that it led to the author's bankruptcy. Only some slides and advertising survive.
As part of a settlement, in 1910 Baum permitted the Selig Polyscope Co. (which filmed the FAIRYLOGUE material) to release four new one reel titles: THE WONDERFUL WIZARD OF OZ, DOROTHY AND THE SCARECROW OF OZ, THE LAND OF OZ and JOHN DOUGH AND THE CHERUB (a non-Oz fantasy). Only the first of these exists and is now held at the George Eastman House in Rochester, NY.
Better known are the trio of five reel Oz Film Manufacturing Co. movies produced by Baum himself in 1914. The first, THE PATCHWORK GIRL OF OZ was based upon the 1913 Oz book of the same name, THE MAGIC CLOAK OF OZ was his 1905 non-Oz tale QUEEN ZIXI OF IX relocated to Oz and the third, HIS MAJESTY THE SCARECROW OF OZ was a new story (later novelized in the 1915 book THE SCARECROW OF OZ). While possessing a childish, old-fashioned charm and many clever visual effects, they are not up to the highest standards of even 1914 filmmaking, and are best regarded as historical pieces. None of the three were financially successful either. Long forgotten by all but Oz fans, prints eventually emerged over time and are now staples of several video labels although they are often marred by missing and damaged footage and inappropriate musical scores.
However, they are truly brilliant compared to the in-name-only 1925 WIZARD OF OZ, a slapstick vehicle for once-popular comedian Larry Semon. Featuring a trite, pointless plot (an 18 year old Dorothy - played by Mrs. Semon, Dorothy Dwan - is a "princess of Oz") and precious little magic, this WIZARD is nothing more than a succession of patented gags that had already appeared in earlier Semon movies (along with a pre-Laurel Oliver Hardy). All in all, perhaps the worst Oz film ever.
Other than LAND OF OZ (1932) a two reel short with the Meglin Kiddies troupe, and an unreleased eight-minute WIZARD OF OZ cartoon (1933), there was no screen Oz until the coming of The Big One.
Much (perhaps too much) has been written about the 1939 THE WIZARD OF OZ, which has passed from the status of "classic" into the rarefied realm of "cultural icon." Suffice to say that it remains an overwhelmingly excellent film, with fine performances by Garland, Ray Bolger, Jack Haley, and especially that most wicked of all witches, Margaret Hamilton. The songs are still fresh today and all the technical details are first-rate. However, it is not perfect. There is too much sentimentality, and scatterbrained Billie Burke is not the stately and powerful Glinda the Good. The appealing concept of Oz as a believable "secondary universe" has been replaced by vaudeville clowning, melodrama and a cop-out "it's all a dream" ending.
"Your negative review of MGM's THE WIZARD OF OZ ('There is too much sentimentality, and scatterbrained Billie Burke is not the stately and powerful Glinda the Good. The appealing concept of Oz as a believable "secondary universe" has been replaced by vaudeville clowning, melodrama and a cop-out "it's all a dream" ending.') shows your stupidity and desire to be noticed. This wonderful classic will live forever as a masterpiece, while your sorry little page will, thankfully, be soon forgotten. I, for one, will never visit it again.
Suffice it to say we love THE WIZARD OF OZ, although we stand by our claim that it is more of "Hollywood" than "Baum"! Thanks for writing, Doug!
Initially, the film was not a raging success, but several re-releases (including a 1972 Kiddie Matinee) and annual television airings have made it profitable indeed. There have been numerous home video releases in various formats, and in 1989 the National Film Registry officially designated the film as a "culturally, historically, or aesthetically" significant work. Needless to say, it's influence on the fantasy genre has been considerable.
The following two decades yielded no Oz features. The rights to the first book were owned by MGM, and Disney eventually purchased rights to the later ones. The latter studio planned to film THE RAINBOW ROAD TO OZ (starring the popular Mouseketeers) in the 1950s, but never got beyond composing some songs which were performed on a 1957 segment of the DISNEYLAND TV show.
There were a few TV projects in the 1960s (see the 'TV & DIRECT-TO-VIDEO' section below). The most notable was a dramatization of the second Oz book (which had just gone into the public domain) as an hour long 1960 episode of THE SHIRLEY TEMPLE SHOW, "The Land of Oz." Most of the characters and plot was retained, excepting the Woggle Bug and General Jinjur's proto-feminist army which was replaced by the more prosaic male General Nikidik (Jonathan Winters). Besides Temple as Tip/Ozma, the seasoned cast included Ben Blue (Scarecrow), Sterling Holloway (Jack Pumpkinhead), Gil Lamb (Tin Woodman) and Agnes Moorhead as old Mombi the witch.
The same book was the basis for the first large-screen Oz production in three decades: THE WONDERFUL LAND OF OZ (1969) . It was an extremely low-budget affair and released as a Kiddie Matinee (the genre celebrated on this website). The director-writer-producer-cinematographer was Barry Mahon, previously known for decidedly non-kiddie fare like THE BEAST THAT KILLED WOMEN and GOOD TIMES WITH A BAD GIRL. With his trademark "nudies" being pushed out of the market by more explicit stuff, Mahon decided to give the kiddie flick market a shot.
It is easy to pick on this little film, with it's cramped cardboard sets, poor lighting and awful juvenile lead (Barry's son Channy Mahon is "Tip"). Yet there are pluses -- fidelity to Baum, attractive costumes, at least some adequate performances and one hummable song ("The Powder of Life").
After its too-brief Kiddie Matinee run, THE WONDERFUL LAND OF OZ was forgotten until it emerged on VHS in 2001 and DVD (along with Mahon's JACK AND THE BEANSTALK) in 2002. (Incidentally, the best LAND to date was a 1981 taped performance of the Children's Theater of Minneapolis that was sold commercially by MCA Home Video.)
The next theatrical release was JOURNEY BACK TO OZ (1974), a full-length cartoon which had been in production for nearly a decade at Filmation, the studio best known for it's prodigious Saturday morning output. The plot was loosely inspired by LAND OF OZ, with Mombi (Ethel Merman) threatening the Emerald City with a herd of green elephants. The animation was better than usual (though that's not saying much) and a gaggle of celebrity voices (Mickey Rooney as the Scarecrow, Danny Thomas as the Tin Man, Milton Berle as the Lion) joined a young Liza Minelli (in her mother's signature Dorothy role). Margaret Hamilton also returned to Oz, this time as Aunt Em.
However, the songs were unremarkable, and the script makes the characters from the first book completely inept and lacking in the brains, heart and courage they supposedly obtained. The task of saving the day instead falls to Pumpkinhead (Paul Lynde) and Woodenhead the horse (Herschel Bernardi). Distribution was limited and most have seen it either on television or home video.
The first live action Oz in nearly a decade was 1978's THE WIZ, a large-budgeted rendition of the hit all-black Broadway show of the same name. While the play was homey, affable, had clever musical numbers and followed the book closely, the film is big, flashy and not terribly appealing. Indeed, very little of the original play script survives in this version. The big gimmick here is that Oz is a stylized New York City, with such landmarks as the Brooklyn Bridge, Coney Island or the World Trade Center (sigh) fancifully worked into the landscape. If used sparingly, the device might have worked, but instead it was overdone to death. Even more problematic was the casting of 33 year-old superstar Diana Ross as an improbable 24 year old Dorothy who has "never been south of 125th Street" (yeah, right). Equally miscast was Richard Pryor as an unfunny, Wizard, who doesn't even give out the gifts the companions want (using the musically challenged Pryor also necesssitated removing most of his character's songs). Michael Jackson (back when he needed makeup to look strange) does make an interesting Scarecrow. Despite much hype, the film WIZ flopped badly with both audiences and critics alike.
For years, Oz fans had pined for a big budget production that would faithfully follow Baum's stories and illustrator John R. Neill's character depictions. These wishes were only partially granted with RETURN TO OZ (1985) from Walt Disney Productions. While the studio had owned the rights to the later books, (see above) little interest was expressed until the early 80s. This was a period of flux at the Mouse House, which was trying to stay relevant while youth-oriented filmmakers like George Lucas and Steven Spielberg were stealing their thunder.
The men behind RETURN TO OZ were renowned film editor Walter Murch and Gary Kurtz, producer of the first two (and best) STAR WARS installments. The production period was a rough one with Murch almost being fired as director (friends Lucas and Francis Ford Coppola bailed him out). By the time of the June 1985 release, two studio regimes had come and gone and Michael Eisner et al looked upon RETURN TO OZ (and THE BLACK CAULDRON) as rather unwanted stepchildren.
Truthfully, it WAS a rather odd bird. Instead of using made-up actors, puppets and performers in full body anamitronic outfits portrayed characters. Based upon elements taken from LAND and OZMA OF OZ, (both of which were in public domain and could be filmed by anyone) characters and incidents were indeed taken from Baum, but combined and altered in strange ways: Mombi the hag and the vain head-changing Princess Langwidere are telescoped as the evil Princess Mombi (Jean Marsh). Baum's wicked but humorous Nome King became a shape shifting rock man (Nicol Williamson). Most alarming was a downbeat, gloomy tone rarely felt in the books, as well as several terrifying scenes. Particularly unsettling is one in which Dorothy (a nice, understated Fairuza Balk) is threatened with electroshock therapy by a quack doctor (Williamson again), while his previous victims howl in the basement!
Since 1985, a number of Oz themed films have been announced, but none so far none have gone into production. After the bad experiences of THE WIZ and RETURN TO OZ, Hollywood (even in this day of Harry Potter) is understandably Oz shy, and as always the shadow of MGM looms large.
OZ ON TV AND DIRECT-TO-VIDEO ANIMATION (dates are for US release only):
These include:
*OFF TO SEE THE WIZARD (1967-68)a MGM film anthology show with brief Oz bumpers created by Chuck Jones.
*Assorted Japanese versions, including THANKSGIVING (or DOROTHY) IN THE LAND OF OZ (1980), a WIZARD OF OZ released in 1982, a series taken from four books and shown in the US in 1987 on HBO, and other ones in 1991 and '92, including a SPACE ADVENTURE IN OZ (1990), that never made it to the US. A cheap Korean animated OZ emerged in 1992.
*A WIZARD OF OZ series ran on ABC in 1990-91 "officially" using depictions from the MGM film (but no Judy Garland).
*THE WIZ KIDS (1997), featuring the exploits of "the next generation" of Ozites.
*THE LION OF OZ (2000) Based upon a book by Baum's great grandson, with celebrity voices.
Baum's non-Oz LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF SANTA CLAUS has been the basis for stop motion and cel animation (1985 and 2000) and a 1994 Japanese cartoon series.
OZ ABROAD
*FANTASIA...3 (Spain, 1967) a little-seen anthology of three fantasies including THE WIZARD.
*AYSECIK VE SIHIRLI CUCULER RUYALER ULKESINDE ("Aysecik and the 7 Magic Dearfs in Dreamland", Turkey, 1971) a low budget WIZARD OF OZ-SEVEN DWARFS crossover that has become a fixture on the cult bootleg video circuit as "TURKISH WIZARD OF OZ"
*VOLSHEBNIK IZUMRUDNOGO GORODA ("Wizard of the Emerald City") Alexander Volkov's rendition of WIZARD as been filmed several times in the USSR/Russia including a stop-motion TV serial (1973-74) and a live action film (1994). Beautiful cartoon adaptations of WIZARD and LAND were produced in 1999 and 2000.
*OZ (US title 20TH CENTURY OZ, Australia, 1976) an R-rated rock musical reimagines Dorothy as a groupie and her friends as assorted young Australian types
*The Trapalhoes ("Bunglers") a Brazilian comedy team, turned up in the 1984 comedy
OS TRAPALHOES E O MAGICO DE OROZ.
*Local WIZARD OF OZ plays have been taped and sold on videotape in Mexico and Israel.
Awhile back we received a curious response to our rave review of the 1939 WIZARD, from Doug Webb:
*Rankin/Bass' TALES OF THE WIZARD OF OZ (1961); a series of five minute humorous vignettes, and RETURN TO OZ (1964, no relation to the 1985 title) an hour long special.
Considering it's special status as "America's Own Fairyland", it is remarkable that many (often excellent) productions have never officially been released in the USA. They include: