The Wonderful
Land of Oz
(1969, U.S.) color 72 minutes
With: Channy Mahon (Tip), Mike Thomas (the Scarecrow), George Wadsworth (Jack the Pumpkinhead), Al Joseph (the Tin-Woodman), Gil Fields (the Wogglebug), Caroline Berner (General Junjur), Hilary Lee Gaess (Glinda the Good Fairy), Joy Webb (Ozma), Zisca Baum (as "Zisca")(Mombi), "with General Jinjur's Rebellious Army"
Plot Outline: In the wonderful land of Oz, a mean old witch named Mombi keeps Tip, a young boy, prisoner. The lonely boy makes a companion out of stuffed clothes and a pumpkin. Mombi turns the Pumpkinhead into a living creature. When Mombi threatens to turn Tip into a statue, the boy takes Pumpkinhead and runs away. They meet General Jinjur, a woman warrior who plans on taking over Oz. Pumpkinhead arrives at the city of Oz, and meets with the Scarecrow, who is now the ruler. Meanwhile, General Jinjur and her army, with Tip in tow, advance upon the Emerald City. Tip catches up with Pumpkinhead and the Scarecrow. The Scarecrow gladly gives up the throne; he considered it a bother! Indeed, Jinjur and her lazy girls also find running a kingdom more trouble than its worth. Soon, the Tin Man joins Tip's group. It is discovered that the rightful ruler of the Emerald City is a young girl named Ozma. The Witch Mombi reveals that Tip is actually Ozma, put under a spell long ago! Reluctantly, Tip allows himself to be turned back into Ozma, who then proceeds to rule the Emerald City with the help of a highly educated Wogglebug. The others venture onward to new adventure.
***
Against some stiff competition, THE WONDERFUL LAND OF OZ is the most unique film ever released by Childhood Productions, an amazing, microbudget musical fantasy that is quite without peer in the world of Grade-Z Kiddie flicks. We love it to pieces.
Producer-director Barry Mahon (known primarily for his sexploitation films such as GOOD TIMES WITH A BAD GIRL) creates a completely artificial universe, where everything is fabricated, which is exactly how OZ should be depicted. (Oz purists maintain that Baum was striving for a "naturalism" in his Oz books that is absent from virtually all screen adaptations, so perhaps we have been fatally spoiled by the marvelous plastic universe created in MGM's 1939 Ozian adventure.) No semblance of the natural world is evident, and the acting and scenario are entirely theatrical. The set design is avowedly fake, in fact quite expressionistic, and really captures the visual spirit of the classical fairy tale.
The film is stagnant, paralyzed, even "drugged-out". It is curious that the film's tagline is "So Many Thrills, You'll be Ozified!", as one gets the sense that many of the characters in this weird photoplay are in fact, ossified, that is, turned to stone...
This is Minimalist cinema, not in the lazy theatrical sense of something like SANTA VISITS THE MAGIC LAND OF MOTHER GOOSE, but in a conscious, cinematic sense. The plot unwinds on cramped, underlit sets, with no action to speak of. There is virtually no camera movement, and most of the film consists of two or three people talking out the plot. Transitions in locale are depicted via a crummy, hand-drawn map, aided by hasty narration! Indeed, OZ may be Minimalist cinema at its purest and most fascinating.
In fact, the whole notion of being paralyzed is even part of the plot; the Witch Mombi threatens to turn little Tip into a statue, which prompts Tip to sing the hilarious "I Don't Want to Be A Statue."
Our young hero, Tip is played by the director's son Channy, who by all standards is an incredibly bad child actor. His ill-timed, lethargic performance gives OZ much of its cult energy and unintended charm. Certainly, starring as the lead in a no-budget OZ movie is a thankless task, trying to follow in the luminous footsteps of Judy Garland's immortal Dorothy. Sad to say, Channy doesn't even try.
Tip's creation, Jack the Pumpkinhead (George Wadsworth), is a somewhat creepy and diabolical beast, with his hideous fixed grimace and echoey, pathetic voice. The Scarecrow and the Tin Man (Mike Thomas and Al Joseph) are both quite good, and come across by far the most professional of the cast. Considering the budget, their makeup ain't bad either.
But the females in this movie are simply amazing. The Witch Mombi (Zisca Baum), is overplayed in just the right measure for children's theatre, and comes across as a lovable grotesque. Jinjur, the Girl-General (Caroline Bermer) snorts and pouts and chews her way through her lines like Gloria Steinam on speed, and in her candy-colored drum majorette's costume, becomes a most bizarre icon of 1960's feminism. Glinda, the Good Fairy (Hilary Lee Gaess) is quite weird as well, with a most affected and trance-like acting style.
And the songs, which include "The Wonderful Land of Oz", "The Powder of Life", "I Don't Want to be a Statue", "The Powder of Life", "Try to Touch a Star", etc. are pleasant, predictable, and even a little pathetic.
The film opens with a nice pre-credits musical montage, as the theme song plays against a collage of footage showing us all the settings in the film to come.
Tip and his pet, Jack the Pumpkinhead, escape evil Mombi and travel through cheap set after cheap set, singing and talking, talking and singing.
Enter General Jinjur, a militant radical feminist, who plans on taking over the Ozian government in an army-led military coup! Jinjur comes across more as a super-bratty slut than a Marxist revolutionary, especially spouting Freudian dialogue like, "That's the trouble with boys; they're always hungry!"
Jack reaches the Gates of the Emerald City first, and discovers that the Scarecrow has become the ruler of Oz. Jack and the Scarecrow think they need the help of an interpreter, a little blond cutie in a minidress, but she gigglingly tells them that they speak the same language already. Odd.
And as far as General Jinjur's Royal Army of Go-Go Chicks, we know that their mission is doomed when we discover that their weapons are knitting needles! At their camp, they sing an amazing song, "On This Great Takeover Day", a song of female emancipation like no other. Lyrics like "No more homework, no more scrubbing up!", further clarifying that this Girly-Girl revolution is merely adolescent rebellion, doomed to extinction upon contact with reality.
Indeed, soon after "taking over" the Emerald City (with the Scarecrow's blessing!), General Jinjur finds out that running a kingdom isn't as easy as it looks; if there is no money for food or water, there is no kingdom!
On the other hand, as Jinjur intones threateningly, whoever sits on the throne makes the rules. This harsh lesson in elemental politics is brought to life marvelously as Jinjur's shaky regime is overthrown by a little white mouse which Tip finds, and throws onto the throne!
Our heroes (now joined by the Tin Man and a Wogglebug) escape political persecution in a flying couch brought to life with Mombi's "Powder of Life". Glinda sings, "I Know When You've Been Good," to all the characters, in a scene which comes across as a meditation on the characters' costume design.
OZ concludes on a dizzyingly high note, as it is revealed that Tip is actually girl-Princess Ozma, put under a sex-change spell by Mombi! Tip's wheezy reaction: "I? I'm no Princess! I'm not a girl!"
Even more shocking, Tip's good "friends" immediately try to persuade him to give up his boy-self without a thought, and oddly, Tip agrees. Glenda turns Tip back into Ozma, a near-mute blonde girl played with just the right amount of studied apathy by Joy Webb.
A curious point in both the book and film is that although Tip will lose his physical boy-self when he turns into Ozma, the "soul" of Tip will remain, "an adventurous spirit" to wander the ether. It is a strange metaphysical fixation in the book, and it is translated faithfully in the film.
Finally, Jinjur's army of silly bimbos all leave the city, pouting for the camera. Jack, the Scarecrow and the Tin Man walk out of the Emerald City, on to new adventures, singing the main theme once again.
Wow.
It's easy to mock OZ and take cheap potshots at its ineptitude and bizarrity. Yet curiously, the film does effectively create a wholly imaginary world. Against all odds, it evokes a hyper-real, parallel fairy tale universe in which men in costumes successfully convey both symbol and myth.
And as for producer-writer-director Barry Mahon, the real irony is that although OZ is atypical for him, it also happens to be Mahon's most accomplished narrative film, and indeed, his masterpiece. Mahon's capacity for art fluctuated dramatically depending on the project and budget. Some of his nudie films of the early 1960's are plotless wonders with nary a thought to the audience. In OZ, however, he goes whole hog, and gives the audience every penny of their money's worth. In fact, Mahon's entire Floridian output (including THUMBELINA and MUSICAL MUTINY) is very strong.
Luckily, super-collector Jeffrey C. Hogue, who now owns this grand film, has licensed it to Something Weird Video, and one can now see OZ in all its pristine Kiddie Matinee glory on a fabulous DVD double bill with Mahon's equally odd JACK AND THE BEANSTALK. As witness the plethora of Internet reviews of the film (see below), THE WONDERFUL LAND OF OZ is a bonafide cult film hit!
Filmed in North Miami, Florida, OZ was first released on Halloween Day, 1969! Spooky!
Video/DVD availability: VHS + DVD (Something Weird Video)
Links of related interest:
"Everything you wanted to know about Oz but were afraid to ask"
a biography of Barry Mahon (minus his directing career)
Tip, Jack and the Scarecrow welcome the Tin Man to Oz.
Glinda reveals the shocking identity of the rightful ruler of Oz!
Glinda wishes the others well on their new adventures.
Cinetron / Childhood Productions (October release)
National Screen Service #69-266
Story: L. Frank Baum ("the Marvelous Land of Oz")
Screenplay: Barry Mahon
Music: George Linsenmann
Lyrics: Ralph Falco
Set Designer: Ray Menard
Makeup: Mike Thomas (as "Michael R. Thomas"), Tom Brumberger
Wardrobe: Penni Praig
Cinematography: Barry Mahon
Produced by Barry Mahon
Directed by Barry Mahon
original book text
