Not Rated, 81 minutes, Comedy
Starring: Larry Semon, Dorothy Dwan, Oliver Hardy, Josef Swickard
I can honestly say that I’m not a fan of the silent era of film. The original moving pictures require a greater amount of focus and attention to detail than I care to place into a recreational activity most of the time. The same goes for things like reading subtitles and Easter egg hunting–I have to be in the mood. Fortunately, I love the heck out of slapstick.
In this go-round of Oz we are presented with a not exactly accurate version of the story. In fact the 1925 version of The Wizard of Oz barely touches upon the original subject matter. And it’s fantastic. Acting only in name, the story focuses on a farmhand (Semon) fawning over the farmer’s daughter (Dwan). After great struggles with her father and her suitor (Hardy–yes, THAT Hardy), the entire crew is whisked away to the Land of Oz where political strife has gripped the nation. It’s up to our heroes to battle the evil Minister Kruel (Swickard) and restore order to Oz.
So yeah, this is hardly the Baum book. It feels as though his original story was more of a marketing gimmick aimed at luring audiences into the theater. It may have worked, but I can’t help but wonder if this sly bait-and-switch act angered a public expecting kalidahs and Winkies. This effect came across me as well. To be honest, I expected much, much less from this film the moment they introduced the bizarre villains and their political subplot.
However–and I’m placing a fairly large HOWEVER here–this film is an artifact of a time when comedy was based on physical circumstance instead of crude shock value. As eye-roll-inducing as the “love story” turned out to be, it did lead to one great chase scene. Who else could survive a five story drop? As “sensitive” as the treatment of the black farmhand was, he quite literally stole the show. Who else could outrun lightning? As unrealistic as it was, the scene involving our heroes running around inside of boxes had my sides splitting. Even Solid Snake would be impressed!
Technically speaking this movie really doesn’t do much. It has “color” in a manner, but that was limited to the chemical treatment the physical film received. Scenes shot on the farm were sepia in tone whereas scenes in the throne room are shot in a magenta. This adds a definite break to the overall feel of the movie as we are presented with the colors to show us a new segment is about to begin. In reality this was probably a tactic used to keep the reels separate. The reels though… The pacing of the story in places makes me wonder if some of those reels went missing as the only versions I’ve been able to find are labeled the “cut” edition. Ugh.
Finally… Lions. Honest to goodness breathing, roaring overgrown kitties. While obviously under restraint for the actor’s safety they used flesh-and-blood cat kings in the presence of human beings. You just can’t get away with that these days. The lions would most likely be CG constructs replacing a contortionist covered in ping pong balls. I’m pretty sure they don’t even use split screen anymore, so seeing REAL MCCOY lions was amazingly refreshing.
Let’s face it: you’re not going to find fine cinema here, but you will probably have a good time. There’s enough here to keep you interested whether it be the scenery, the over-the-top costumes, or watching them dump a guy into a vat of shiny muck. It’s funny, it’s family friendly, but most of all it’s an excellent capture of zeitgeist.
Rating: Give a go and enjoy the show!
tl;dr
Watch: Lions and thematics and boxes–OH MY!
Don’t watch: Because you’re blind… in which case how are you reading this?
FirstMateRummy 