THE WIZARD OF OZ (Chadwick Studios, 1925), directed and starring Larry Semon, is a curious silent screen adaptation labeled in the opening credits to be adapted from the book by L. Frank Baum. In actuality, this version is more Semon than Baum. Though the weasel-faced comedian was one of the more popular entertainers of his time, with more comedy shorts than feature length films to his name, Larry Semon is hardly a memory today. It's through this edition of THE WIZARD OF OZ that keeps the Semon name alive. By this statement, this may seem strange, considering the fact that Semon's WIZARD OF OZ was a commercial flop upon release and regarded to be one of the worst movies ever made. As much as this could have become a lost movie forever, it's still available for viewing regardless of its past and current reputation.
Semon opens the movie with his signed dedication reading: "In the lexicon of life there is no sweeter word than Childhood, its books and its memories to bring back memories, and to bring back those memories and odd mayhap, a smile or two in purely entertainment is my desire." The story introduces a middle-aged toymaker (Larry Semon) with doll replicas of three major characters from "The WIzard of Oz" book. Moments later his little granddaughter is seen coming down the stairs to sit on his lap and have him read the L. Frank Baum story of "The Wizard of Oz." Starting with the opening passage of "Once upon a time," the present day story shifts to a mythical kingdom revolving around such characters as Prince Kynd (Bryant Washburn), Ambassador Wikket (Otto Lederer), Prime Minister Kruel (Josef Swickard), the Princess Vishuss (Virginia Pearson), and The Wizard of Oz (Charles Murray), labeled as "a medicine show hokum hustler." The town folk of Oz discover their baby princess, Dorothea, is gone. The next scene shifts to a Kansas farm where a girl named Dorothy (Dorothy Dwan) is seen living under the care of her Aunt Em (Mary Carr) and Uncle Henry (Frank Alexander). She is also befriended by likable farmhands (Larry Semon, Oliver N. Hardy and Spencer Bell, credited as G. Howe Black). Dorothy later learns she's not related to her aunt and uncle but a founding, and that Uncle Henry holds a sealed letter found on her years ago that's not to be opened until her 18th birthday. Before the letter can be read, a cyclone occurs where the farm hands and Dorothy, taking shelter in the tool shed, find themselves being blown away through the clouds and crashing into the mythical kingdom of Oz. The Prime Minister attempts in keeping his new visitors ignorant of the fact that Dorothy is the long lost princess, followed by a series of incidents nobody in Oz could ever imagine. Also in the cast are Frederick Kovert (The Phantom in Basket), with Chester Conklin and Allan "Farina" Hoskins in smaller roles.
While THE WIZARD OF OZ may have been an attempt on becoming something magical as Douglas Fairbanks overlong fantasy as THE THIEF OF BAGDAD (1924), the character names of Kynd, Wikket and Kruel used in THE WIZARD OF OZ plays more like a spoof than fantasy. In satire fashion, this should have been retitled LARRY SEMON'S BURLESQUE ON OZ. For many who has seen the much better known and admired 1939 sound edition to THE WIZARD OF OZ starring Judy Garland (Dorothy) and Frank Morgan (The Wizard), would be disappointed by this one. First off, this edition does not have Dorothy's dog, Toto, nor the Wicked Witch of the West, which would have been expected. Larry Semon only disguises himself as a Scarecrow to hide from his captures, a disguise he uses throughout the storybook narration. Oliver Hardy (later of the Laurel and Hardy comedy team) briefly dresses as The Tin Man, while G. Howe Black playing the black farmhand by the name of Snowball, reminiscent to Willie Best in the sound era, disguises himself in a lion costume to be mistaken for a real lion. With more misses than hits, much of the humor, cruel or otherwise, falls short on Snowball, namely when flying through the air during the cyclone with strike of lightning rods making him move faster. Dorothy Dwan (then Mrs. Larry Semon) makes due as Dorothy, but is overshadowed most by Semon's comedy antics and cartoonish chasing scenes.
Formerly available on video cassette in the 1990s with inferior underscoring and offscreen narration to its title cards, other than an earlier television broadcast on "When Silents Were Golden" on the Nostalgic Channel (shown Saturdays in 1994-95 season), Semon's WIZARD OF OZ began surfacing more frequently on Turner Classic Movies cable channel where it premiered July 3, 2005, restored with new orchestral scoring similar to the Harold Lloyd silent comedies conducted by Robert Israel, the same print found on DVD. While scoring in various shorter prints (some as little as 65 minutes) differ, the fine orchestration by Israel makes this 85 minute edition of THE WIZARD OF OZ worth viewing at least once. (**)
Semon opens the movie with his signed dedication reading: "In the lexicon of life there is no sweeter word than Childhood, its books and its memories to bring back memories, and to bring back those memories and odd mayhap, a smile or two in purely entertainment is my desire." The story introduces a middle-aged toymaker (Larry Semon) with doll replicas of three major characters from "The WIzard of Oz" book. Moments later his little granddaughter is seen coming down the stairs to sit on his lap and have him read the L. Frank Baum story of "The Wizard of Oz." Starting with the opening passage of "Once upon a time," the present day story shifts to a mythical kingdom revolving around such characters as Prince Kynd (Bryant Washburn), Ambassador Wikket (Otto Lederer), Prime Minister Kruel (Josef Swickard), the Princess Vishuss (Virginia Pearson), and The Wizard of Oz (Charles Murray), labeled as "a medicine show hokum hustler." The town folk of Oz discover their baby princess, Dorothea, is gone. The next scene shifts to a Kansas farm where a girl named Dorothy (Dorothy Dwan) is seen living under the care of her Aunt Em (Mary Carr) and Uncle Henry (Frank Alexander). She is also befriended by likable farmhands (Larry Semon, Oliver N. Hardy and Spencer Bell, credited as G. Howe Black). Dorothy later learns she's not related to her aunt and uncle but a founding, and that Uncle Henry holds a sealed letter found on her years ago that's not to be opened until her 18th birthday. Before the letter can be read, a cyclone occurs where the farm hands and Dorothy, taking shelter in the tool shed, find themselves being blown away through the clouds and crashing into the mythical kingdom of Oz. The Prime Minister attempts in keeping his new visitors ignorant of the fact that Dorothy is the long lost princess, followed by a series of incidents nobody in Oz could ever imagine. Also in the cast are Frederick Kovert (The Phantom in Basket), with Chester Conklin and Allan "Farina" Hoskins in smaller roles.
While THE WIZARD OF OZ may have been an attempt on becoming something magical as Douglas Fairbanks overlong fantasy as THE THIEF OF BAGDAD (1924), the character names of Kynd, Wikket and Kruel used in THE WIZARD OF OZ plays more like a spoof than fantasy. In satire fashion, this should have been retitled LARRY SEMON'S BURLESQUE ON OZ. For many who has seen the much better known and admired 1939 sound edition to THE WIZARD OF OZ starring Judy Garland (Dorothy) and Frank Morgan (The Wizard), would be disappointed by this one. First off, this edition does not have Dorothy's dog, Toto, nor the Wicked Witch of the West, which would have been expected. Larry Semon only disguises himself as a Scarecrow to hide from his captures, a disguise he uses throughout the storybook narration. Oliver Hardy (later of the Laurel and Hardy comedy team) briefly dresses as The Tin Man, while G. Howe Black playing the black farmhand by the name of Snowball, reminiscent to Willie Best in the sound era, disguises himself in a lion costume to be mistaken for a real lion. With more misses than hits, much of the humor, cruel or otherwise, falls short on Snowball, namely when flying through the air during the cyclone with strike of lightning rods making him move faster. Dorothy Dwan (then Mrs. Larry Semon) makes due as Dorothy, but is overshadowed most by Semon's comedy antics and cartoonish chasing scenes.
Formerly available on video cassette in the 1990s with inferior underscoring and offscreen narration to its title cards, other than an earlier television broadcast on "When Silents Were Golden" on the Nostalgic Channel (shown Saturdays in 1994-95 season), Semon's WIZARD OF OZ began surfacing more frequently on Turner Classic Movies cable channel where it premiered July 3, 2005, restored with new orchestral scoring similar to the Harold Lloyd silent comedies conducted by Robert Israel, the same print found on DVD. While scoring in various shorter prints (some as little as 65 minutes) differ, the fine orchestration by Israel makes this 85 minute edition of THE WIZARD OF OZ worth viewing at least once. (**)