The Wonderful Movies Of OZ!

The Wizard of OZ by L. Frank Baum was a hugely successful book that generated movies almost from the get-go. I've looked at a few of the silents as we've been going along. Now I'd like give some snapshot reactions to some of the more famous OZ film efforts. 

The 1925 Wizard of OZ is a wild ride. Mostly it's a comedy vehicle for Larry Sermon who portrays the Scarecrow and is supported by Oliver Hardy who is briefly the Tin Man. This movie famously failed because the studio collapsed and despite some decent reviews the movie just didn't get to theaters. Larry Sermon was the man behind the production and played the Scarecrow and sadly he lost a lot of money. This loss haunted him until his death. 

There's no denying that the 1939 The Wizard of OZ is a blockbuster and was intended as such. Special effects were brought to screen to give the viewer a colorful notion of what OZ might be like. I was introduced to the land of OZ by way of this movie which played every Spring on CBS (as I recollect). Judy Garland was a top-notch celebrity even in the 60's when I was growing up. There's little to say. It's a classic and fun to watch. 

Filmation's Journey Back to OZ is notable for its cast which includes Liza Minnelli, the daughter of Judy Garland. Dorothy ends up back on OZ where she meets Jack Pumpkinhead (Paul Lynde) who becomes her ally to save the Scarecrow from the evil witch Mombi (Ethel Merman). We only briefly get new looks at the Cowardly Lion (Milton Berle) and the Tin Woodman (Danny Thomas) because basically they profess to be too busy to help out. There's lots of running around from the exact same green elephants, but animation is expensive. 

The Wiz is something else. I appreciate it more than I enjoy it. I've always thought that Diana Ross is miscast in this movie, though I understand the attraction. She was a big star in the 70's, but I don't think her acting skill was sufficient to lead a big film. Michael Jackson is a draw of course, but his whispery mouthings don't help things either. Nipsey Russell gives the show a much-needed jolt when he finally joins the group on the way to OZ. My biggest problem with it, is that the songs are too long, and the editing isn't spry. Scenes just linger on the screen forever before we finally slip to a new one. It definitely needs to be tightened up. 

Return to OZ might be my favorite OZ movie. This 1982 production from Walt Disney is darker than the lavish 1939 musical and actually casts a girl in the role of Dorothy. She is thought to have mental issues because she won't stop talking about her trip to OZ and Aunty Em decides she needs medical treatment. She's just about to get electro-shock therapy when a power failure saves her. Rescued by Ozma she runs to a river and is swept away only wake up in OZ with her chicken Bellina. She meets Jack Pumpkinhead, and Tik-Tok among others. The Scarecrow has been captured by the Gnome King and they need to save him.

Tin Man was a SyFy Channel production. It's a mini-series that updates many of the details of the classic Baum tale, some in quite ingenious ways. Neal McDonough plays the title character, not a man of metal but a man of metel it turns out. The "Scarecrow" is a man who has had his brains removed and his head zipped up. The "Cowardly Lion" is a man from from a race that can read minds.  D.G. as she's called in this one is a princess who has been transported to Earth under the care of two well-meaning robots and has had her memory wiped. Richard Dreyfuss appears as the "Mystic Man" or wizard in tihs one. The story is her searching for her memories and family. It's okay, but too long. 

OZ the Great and Powerful is a missed opportunity. The problem for me was casting, as I find James Franco an incredibly unlikable actor. The Witches are fine but my favorite parts of this movie is Finley the flying monkey who serves as the Wizard's sidekick and the China Doll who tags along. These two seem to capture the charm which is missing from many of the other characters. The visualization of OZ is tremendous though, and the movie might be recommended just for that aspect. 

And that's a wrap. I've had a great deal of fun exploring OZ over the last several months. I have to say the novels are not as strong as I expected given the praise I've seen heaped on them over the years, but it was fascinating to see how Baum created each of them. 

Next month something completely different. 

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Glinda Of OZ!

Glinda of OZ is the fourteenth installment of the OZ series and the final book written by L. Frank Baum, the creator of OZ. Baum died after completing this novel but before it could be published in 1920, two decades after the publication of the original The Wizard of OZ. Sadly, like so many of the later OZ books this one too is overwhelmed by a cast made up of pretty much anyone who had appeared previously in the series.

It begins well enough when Ozma and Dorothy consult Glinda and then go on a mission to the less known areas in the North of OZ where they have become aware of an impending war between the Flatheads and the Skeezers. The Flatheads are just that, with diminished brainpower. They are led by a tyrannical sorcerer named Su-Dic. He threatens Ozma and Dorothy who move on to the Skeezer city which sits in a lake. The queen of the Skeezers is also a mystic and as it turns out a tyrant as well. When the war happens the city of the Skeezers is sunk to the bottom of the lake for security, but this time with Ozma and Dorothy inside it. The battle goes poorly for Queen Coo-ee-oh who is turned into a swan. Since the city can only be raised by her magic the Skeezers and hour heroines are stuck.

(MGM's Glinda with Dorothy)

Glinda becomes aware of this threat and gathers a mob of trusted OZ people to journey to the rescue. The Wizard is included as are the Tin Woodman, the Scarecrow, the Cowardly Lion, the Patchwork Girl, Cap'n Bill, Button Bright, and Jack Pumpkinhead among others. This gang get to the lands of the Skeezers and find that they cannot get the sunken city rise. A solution presents itself but it's a very roundabout journey. 

(Can you see Glinda's nipples?)

Maybe I'm just burned out on OZ books, but this one seemed to have even less spark than many of the lackluster later efforts by Baum. Despite being the title character Glinda is not in the book all that much. One thing though, it's a book ripe with different kinds of magic. I read in some sources that Ruth Plumly Thompson, who takes over the series, might have had a small hand in polishing this one for the publisher. One thing for certain is that L. Frank Baum created a blockbuster moneymaker with his OZ books, the first real modern American fairy tales. His publishers were not going to allow the series to stop with his demise. 

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One more visit to OZ when we take a look at some of the movies derived from the books. 

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The Magic Of OZ!

The Magic of OZ - A Faithful Record of the Remarkable Adventures of Dorothy and Trot and the Wizard of OZ, together with the Cowardly Lion, the Hungry Tiger, and Cap'n Bill in their successful search for a Magical and Beautiful Birthday Present for Princess Ozma of OZ

The title and wildly elaborate sub-title rather say it all -- almost. The story begins on Mount Munch on the far reaches of OZ and at the top of the mountain live the Hyups. One young Hyup is the boy Kiki Aru who grows restless and when he learns a powerful magic word of transformation (Pyrzqxql) leaves his home and seeks adventure. He meets Ruggedo the Gnome King who had been banished from OZ and together they hatch a scheme to return to OZ and encourage the wild animals there to revolt against the rule of Ozma. 

Meanwhile Dorothy and Trot and others start to wonder what they can get Ozma for her upcoming birthday. Dorothy wants to make a cake with monkeys hidden inside. Trot learns of a magical flower from the Glass Cat which is on a remote island. So, they head off to look, the Wizard with Dororthy as they ride the Cowardly Lion and the Hungry Tiger and Trot and Cap'n Bill on foot. The former turn up in the forest at the same time the two baddies are pitching their scheme and get changed into various animals. The latter get trapped on the island of the flower literally when they take root. Of course, eventually they are all saved, but it's a wild ride. 

Now I'm not the target audience for these books by any stretch of the imagination, but Baum's constant fault in my estimation is that he's always adding characters and never taking them away. And apparently his readers expected to have their favorites at least name checked. I think every OZ character is at Ozma's party at the end of the story save perhaps for the elusive glass cat. I found I liked the Eureka the glass cat a lot in this one as her stuck up attitude was fun and very catlike. 

The Magic of OZ was the last OZ book to be published in his lifetime. The authorship of the next one is open to some speculation. We'll get into that next with Glinda of OZ. 

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The Tin Woodman Of OZ!

The Tin Woodman of OZ: A Faithful Story of the Astonishing Adventure Undertaken by the Tin Woodman, Assisted by Woot the Wanderer, the Scarecrow of OZ, and Polychrome, the Rainbow's Daughter by L. Frank Baum is the twelfth main novel in the series and was first published in 1918. As usual the novel features illustrations by John R. Neill. The OZ books had been declining in sales but this one changed the trajectory of the series. 

Woot the Wanderer is a youngster who wanders into the Winkie kingdom ruled by the Tin Woodman. He and the Scarecrow are reminiscing, and the Woodman is reminded of Nimme Aimee,a long-lost love before he was transformed. He wants to make her his queen and to that end, the trio strike out for the land of the Munchkins. As you might suspect they run into some trouble. 

After getting away from some pernicious balloon people called the Loonies, the trio fall into the clutches of a giantess who uses magic to turn the Woodman into a tin owl, the Scarecrow into a stuffed bear, and Woot into a green monkey. They also find Polychrome already a captive having been changed into canary. The transformed quartet eventually escape and find their way eventually to the home of Jinjur in an earlier story had led a revolt against OZ. She, having reformed, raises caramels now and greets them warmly once their identities are known. 

The scene then switches to OZ where we discover that Ozma has been keeping an eye on our group and she and Dorothy come to the rescue and quickly the Tin Woodman, the Scarecrow, and Polychrome are themselves again. Woot proves to be a bit more difficult but at last it is accomplished. They then head off to complete the quest and run into Captain Fyter the Tin Soldier, another being who has suffered the fate of the Woodman. They then encounter Ku-Klip who made both the Woodman and the Soldier and learn that their parts that had been replaced were fitted together to make a whole other composite being named Chopfyt. After some more difficulties they at last find Mount Munch and Nimme Aimme who is happy with her husband, the aforementioned Chopfyt. It's an abrupt end to their quest but that's what they find and so they head home. 

This adventure was a better read than the last simply because the cast was smaller. We had four main protagonists and not a mob headed out to search for the goal. We never lose track of any of them, and each is given a chance to shine and contribute to the quest. We do learn that OZ was once a more normal land until in its far past the fairy Queen Lurline made it so that no one ever aged. I expected to find out more about Woot the Wanderer, but in this story he's pretty much a cypher. The interplay between the Woodman and the Scarecrow was excellent. 

Next up is The Magic of OZ, the last OZ story written by Baum published in his lifetime. 

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The Lost Princess Of OZ!

The Lost Princess of OZ by L. Frank Baum is the eleventh book in the OZ series which continued into the 1960's. And after a few retrofits, we get an OZ book proper. These are children's books and so I cannot grade according to my preferences as an adult, so it makes sense to me that Baum at the very least namechecks most all the characters who have appeared in the series so far. But it's getting to be quite a list. In this one he goes further and has quite a lot of them actively involved and frankly it feels like too many. 

The title is accurate. Ozma the ruler of OZ along with assorted magical items go missing and Dorothy leads a kingdom wide search for her. She divides the players into teams to search the whole of OZ both fully explored and otherwise. In her cadre we have Dorothy herself, Toto (who talks quite a bit in this one), the Cowardly Lion, the Wizard of OZ, Button Bright, Trot, Scraps the Patchwork Girl, Betsy Bobbin, and more. It all gets to be a bit much to keep track of everyone. They go past spinning rubber mountains to find a mysterious realm in which the strangely shaped folks eat only thistles. At the same time that this is happening Frogman (a giant frog who considers himself the smartest creature in the kingdom) has left his kingdom of Yip where he was considered the smarted creature around to help Cayke the Cookie Maker find her special and also magical golden dishpan.  Turns the culprit is a chap dubbed Ugu the Shoemaker and eventually our two teams join forces to confront him. 

Where I have breezed through some of the earlier novels, this one was a trudge. Perhaps it the avalanche of characters, because many of them disappear into the crowd. Why include them if they aren't going to do anything special. Also, I think Baum's tone seems to have shifted from a spritely sense of fun to a more rigorous write-by-numbers approach. He had been trying to get away from OZ for years, but always he had to come back to the series to make money. Perhaps he just considered it a chore. That's being unfair to the book most likely, but that was my experience reading it. 

Next time it's The Tin Woodman of OZ and we hopefully will get some attention paid to Nick Chopper who has been surprisingly absent from most of the stories. 

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Iulius!

It looks to be a hot summer, and I can think of no better way to endure it than to hide in my hovel and read books. This month the Dojo will take a look at the Marvel Comics work by Neal Adams. Adams wasn't with the company very long, but he made a big impression on books such as The Uncanny X-Men and The Avengers among others. He created a number of fantastic covers for Marvel in the Silver and Bronze Ages and most if not all of those will get a glimpse. Later work by Adams will get an examination as well. 

Captain America gets a good look as well, given that this is the month we celebrate the nation's birthday in arguably the most important year to the nation's internal welfare since the Civil War. I want to revisit some of my very favorite Cap yarns by Jack Kirby, Steve Englehart, and Sal Buscema, stories which speak to what has made the nation strong. 

Also, in the works this month are some posts about the vintage hero The Green Hornet. The Green Hornet broke into my world via the short-lived 60's TV show that, among other things introduced the world to the late great Bruce Lee. 

Created by Fran Stryker and George Trendle for radio, The Green Hornet shares a universe with the great western star The Lone Ranger. It's pretty obvious that given the success early 30's success of the Ranger, that Stryker and Trendle just took that formula and moved into a modern setting. A doughty and mysterious white hero assisted by an ethnic sidekick proved to be a formula that rang the bell for quite some time in decades past. While it's lost its cache for good reasons, there's no denying its legacy. Look for both the Hornet and the Ranger this month. 

July will see the finale of my looks at the Avon novel starring "The Ghost Who Walks". Lee Falk's creation knows worldwide success and these novels have been both entertaining and informative as to  what makes the Phantom so exciting and enduring. There will also be some reviews of the Phantom's brief but impressive stay at DC Comics. 

Likewise, we will put a wrap on The Wizard of OZ novels by L. Frank Baum. Baum found success with the OZ books and went back to them time and again because the audience wanted them. But his early death brought a stop to his work on the books, though the novels continued to be produced by various writers into the 1960's. I'll be stopping with Baum's books. And I'll be taking a glimpse at some of Baum's other fantasies as well. 

There might be time for another thing or two such as my ongoing look at the Atlas-Seaboard line, but that's a pretty hefty schedule. If this blog were not so much fun, I think I'd quit this job. But that's not in the cards anytime soon. Enjoy. 

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Rinkitink In OZ!

Rinkitink in OZ is an odd addition to the OZ canon. The story involves a small island which is invaded and the population taken into slavery. The only folks available to save them all is a young prince spared by chance and an overweight visiting monarch of questionable character along with his talking goat. Now that I've actually written that sentence, maybe this oddball is an OZ book after all. The book began life as a non-OZ project developed soon after the success of the first OZ titles around the same time that Baum was writing classic fairy tale stuff like The Enchanted Island of Yew and Queen Zixi of Ix. But the grind to keep putting out OZ material in 1916 was such that Baum reached back to his unpublished effort and added bits to it to make it an OZ book. 

The story begins on Pingaree where a good king by the name of Kittikut is trying to maintain things on the small island of Pingaree. He dreads an invasion from the islands of Regos and Coregos and this proves to be a valid fear. Before that invasion though he and his court are visited by a portly monarch named King Rinkitink and his talking goat named Bilbil. This stout fellow is a blowhard and a gourmand. After the devastating attack Rinkitink ends up in a well and the young Prince Inga is safe because he was good distance from the savagery. These two set out to save the people, Rinkitink reluctantly. Prince Inga is aided by three magic pearls, the first of which gives him strength, the second which gives him protection, and the third which gives him wisdom. But soon after getting to where his parents and people are imprisoned, he loses the shoes. He eventually gets them back when a peasant girl finds them. He and Rinkitink then have to travel to the kingdom of the Gnomes where they discover that the Gnome King is holding his parents. The Gnome King is the first OZ character to appear in the book and later on page 190 out of 222, Dorothy and the Wizard travel to the Gnome kingdom to help. And as it turns out Bilbil has a secret as well. 

This is an OZ book by the narrowest of margins. It seems that Baum did little aside from having the Gnomes, and later Dorothy and gang arrive as a garden variety deus ex machina to save the day. We get the usual roll call of names of other OZ folks at the end. It's getting crowded in OZ, I think. I was put in mind of the Avengers who after a few decades seemed to have a roster of dozens. Rinkitink in OZ is an okay read, but it has little to do with OZ. 

Next up is an actual book about OZ titled The Lost Princess of OZ. But before that I think we need to take a look at some of Baum's other OZ-adjacent titles. 

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The Scarecrow Of OZ!

The Scarecrow of OZ is reputed to be Frank Baum's favorite of his numerous yarns about this strange territory. Perhaps this story's strange origins have something to do with that feeling on his part. The book was published in 1915, but before that there had been a movie. 

His Majesty, the Scarecrow of OZ was a 1914 movie and the second from The OZ Film Manufacturing Company after The Patchwork Girl of OZ. This was a company begun by Baum with other investors specifically to take his OZ creation to the relatively new medium of motion pictures. This second movie was well liked by the critics but didn't do much business. Later it was released again under the title The New Wizard of OZ and did better. The film exists today only in fragmented form, but it does exist. 

Silent movies are an acquired taste for certain. I am not able at this distance of over a century to know if the film is technically fine, but it is compelling to watch if only as a relic of a time lost. 

The book is likewise requires a bit of literary archelogy to understand. It seemed after the massive success of The Wizard of OZ that Frank Baum spent much of the rest of his life trying to divert from the world he'd or at least find a way harvest its popularity on stage and in film. He also wanted to write non-OZ books and to that end he created Trot and Cap'n Bill who had together had adventures under the sea with mermaids as well as in the far distant upper atmosphere on a floating island. These books didn't do as well, so he did the inevitable and inducted Trot and Cap'n Bill into the land of OZ. The Scarecrow of OZ is also it seems using parts of an unpublished Trot and Cap'n Bill adventure blended with the movie story. Baum had a lot of energy put into making this ninth installment of his legendary series. 

The story begins when Trot and Cap'n Bill find themselves lost in a cave and after much wandering about run across a strange bird creature called an Ork with which they strike up a partnership. The escape the tunnels but find themselves stranded on some islands, one of which is Mo, the domain of the Bumpy Man. The then discover their old ally Button-Bright is also on Mo. This trio eventually get to the land of OZ by using strange fruit to make some birds big enough to haul them the land of the Quadlings where they are soon enough battling a tyrant named King Krewel. Eventually the titular Scarecrow gets involved. There is an atypical love story which hits a ditch when the Princess Gloria's heart is frozen by the witch one-eyed witch Blinkie. Cap'n Bill gets turned into a grasshopper at one one point, but as you might suspect gets better. Our whole mob (Trot, Cap'n Bill, Button-Bright and the Scarecrow) are whisked away to OZ in the final pages. 

The next installment is called Rinkitink in OZ and it too has a strange origin. 

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Tik-Tok OF OZ!

The mechanical man Tik-Tok is one of Frank Baum's more clever notions. This "robot" operates when he is wound up properly like a watch and he is prone to run down at the most inconvenient times. That said, he is a stalwart ally against the most frightening foes. He was introduced in the third novel Ozma of OZ, and makes a few appearances along the way. He's a robot, but no one uses that name since it wouldn't be coined for decade after his creation. Tik-Tok of OZ is the eighth installment of the series by Baum and it was published in 1914, after he'd decided to give the public what it wanted and not what he preferred. 

I think he looks remarkably like Teddy Roosevelt, though I don't understand any particular meaning attached to this resemblance. I guess John R. Neill had to get his inspiration from somewhere. 

The story begins when the Queen of a tiny kingdom on the outskirts of OZ gets the notion to conquer the world and she raises an army from her population of dozens and marches off to do just that. Meanwhile a young girl named Betsy Bobbin and a mule named Hank are drawn to OZ after a terrible ship disaster and they wander around until they meet the Shaggy Man and then later others such as Polychrome, the daughter of the Rainbow and a freshly plucked Rose Queen who it turns out is kin to Ozma. It's about this time they find Tik-Tok and wind him up. The gang head to the land of the Nome King to find Shaggy Man's brother who has been missing for quite some time. 

Their adventures lead to the other side of the world through an enormous magical tube and there they encounter a very powerful magical being called "Tititi-Hoochoo" or more simply "Private Citizen". He ultimately sends them back to their usual haunts the by way of a dragon with orders that the Nome King be punished for sending them there in the first place. The whole shebang doesn't actually end up in OZ until the very end. Frankly this one read a bit slowly, and the mob of characters collected in the first part of the story seemed to overwhelm the narrative. Baum had a habit of assembling a bunch of characters in the story and then seeming to forget them. That happens here to a greater degree.

It turns out that the novel was an adaptation by Baum of his own play titled The Tik-Tok Man of OZ produced in 1913. Alas, the play wasn't very successful. But that's a positively charming poster. Maybe this fact is why this OZ story reads a bit differently than its predecessors. 

More OZ coming up, but first there will be a bit of a detour. It will all make sense. 

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