His film was a pretty big bomb when it was released. Heart attack not long after its release.
You can see by the sets and special effects that a good deal of money was poured into the making of the movie.
There are fairly elaborate miniatures used, opulant sets, and even some animation thrown in.
Unfortunately, the problem is that the story is attached to the Wizard of Oz but does not follow the book in the slightest.
The entire first half of the movie has very little directly to do with Oz. In fact, the premise makes no sense. The people of Oz want their Queen back, only we learn that the "Queen" was brought to the farm in Kansas as an infant!
And therein lies the rub: It actually would be a decent picture if it had nothing to do with the Oz story. The acting is good, the directing is great and it's got a nice budget to make it look good. There are plenty of comedic bits that can stand the test of time. Both Oliver Hardy and Larry Semon prove able funny men. And the straightmen are pretty good too.
If you can get beyond the Oz thing, and pretend you're watching a movie with good guys and bad guys knocking around, this is not a bad film.
You can see by the sets and special effects that a good deal of money was poured into the making of the movie.
There are fairly elaborate miniatures used, opulant sets, and even some animation thrown in.
Unfortunately, the problem is that the story is attached to the Wizard of Oz but does not follow the book in the slightest.
The entire first half of the movie has very little directly to do with Oz. In fact, the premise makes no sense. The people of Oz want their Queen back, only we learn that the "Queen" was brought to the farm in Kansas as an infant!
And therein lies the rub: It actually would be a decent picture if it had nothing to do with the Oz story. The acting is good, the directing is great and it's got a nice budget to make it look good. There are plenty of comedic bits that can stand the test of time. Both Oliver Hardy and Larry Semon prove able funny men. And the straightmen are pretty good too.
If you can get beyond the Oz thing, and pretend you're watching a movie with good guys and bad guys knocking around, this is not a bad film.