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The Wizard of Oz(1925)
1925
Starring Dorothy Dwan, Mary Karr, Larry Sermon, Oliver Hardy
Unrated
72 Minutes
A Toymaker tells a bizarre story about how the Land of Oz was ruled by Prince Kynd, but he was overthrown by Prime Minister Kruel. Dorothy learns from Aunt Em that fat, cruel Uncle Henry is not her uncle, and gives her a note due on her eighteenth birthday, which reveals she is actually Princess Dorothea of Oz, and is supposed to marry Prince Kynd. She, Uncle Henry , and two farmhands are swept to Oz by a tornado. Snowball, a black farmhand soon joins them after a lightning bolt chases him into the sky. They land in Oz, where the farmhands try to avoid capture. Semon becomes a scarecrow, Hardy briefly disguises himself as a Tin Woodman, and Snowball is given a Lion suit by the Wizard, which he uses to scare the Pumperdink guards.
Rating:2/10
When most people think of the Wizard of Oz, they think of the beloved 1939 version that stars Judy Garland. What I found very interesting is that there were several versions of the movie made before that. Not all of them were up to par, but this was one of the worst ones. It had no resemblance to the book from what I understand and it seemed more to be a slapstick movie than a dramatic fantasy kind of movie. The slapstick comedy really took away form this movie as it really drew the film way too long and it got boring really fast. It was way overacted even for silent films and the pace was so frentic, that it was really hard to keep my atention. It was neat seeing Oliver Hardy in a different kind of movie, but really this is one to really skip.
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