11m 57s: Lenght
19852View

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz is a 1910 American silent fantasy film, directed by Otis Turner (unconfirmed) and is the earliest surviving film version of L. Frank Baum's 1900 novel, made by the Selig Polyscope Company without Baum's direct input. It was created to fulfill a contractual obligation associated with Baum's personal bankruptcy caused by The Fairylogue and Radio-Plays, from which it was once thought to have been derived. It was partly based on the 1902 stage musical, though much of the film deals with the Wicked Witch of the West, who does not appear in the musical. In Kansas, Dorothy and Betsy are chased into the cornfield by the mule, Hank, and the farmhands draw their muskets at the beast. Dorothy discovers in the field that the family scarecrow is alive. The Scarecrow builds a haystack and warns Dorothy and the farm animals to take cover. A cyclone appears overhead and carries the haystack away, thus letting it fall into the Land of Oz. In Oz, the travelers meet the Tin Woodsman and the Lion. When they enter a forest, Momba the Witch flies out the window as her soldiers come out of the cottage, they are all captured and led into the witch's jail-house. After defeating the wicked witch, the travelers arrive at the Emerald City for the retirement party of the Wizard, who names the Scarecrow king and leaves in a balloon with Dorothy. The credits to this film are lost, and the identity of the director and actors are disputed. There is no definitive proof who is in the cast, or who directed the film. Otis Turner may have directed the film, but Mark Evan Swartz points out that it is highly unlikely that both Otis Turner and Bebe Daniels worked on the film, as they were in different parts of the country at the time (Turner in Chicago, Daniels in California), and neither had a strong impetus for travel. Dorothy does look like contemporary photos of Daniels, which would make Turner's direction improbable. Michael Patrick Hearn disputes this, and has found ample evidence that both were in California at the time. At any rate, that Baum knew of Turner is confirmed by his spoofery of an "Otis Werner" in his Aunt Jane's Nieces Out West, a fictional account inspired by his optimism as an independent filmmaker. Other reported cast members include Hobart Bosworth, Robert Z. Leonard, Eugenie Besserer, Winifred Greenwood, Lillian Leighton, Olive Cox, Marcia Moore, and Alvin Wycoff. Swartz suggests Bosworth was the Scarecrow and Leonard the Tin Woodman, but photographs of the actors make this appear unlikely and suggest that Bosworth was the Wizard and Leonard the Scarecrow. Based on photographs, and assuming the cast list is correct, it appears that Cox is Glinda and Leighton is the servant who pulls out a list of Union rules. Besserer is most likely Momba, and Greenwood likely to be Aunt Em. There is quite a large cast before the camera, and it is unlikely that they will all ever be identified. Michael Patrick Hearn emphasizes that this cast list is not contemporary with the film and may have no basis in fact. The character Imogene the Cow did not appear in the novel. The cow was used as a replacement for Toto the dog in the stage musical. Many of the costumes and much of the make-up in this film, though notably, not of the Tin Woodman, resemble those used in the 1902 Broadway musical The Wizard of Oz. (None of the songs in the stage show, however, were used in the later MGM film which has become so famous.) As is clear from the plot descriptions below, the presence of Eureka the kitten is drawn from the commingling of material from The Marvelous Land of Oz and Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz--Eureka appears in the latter novel. Writing credits: L. Frank Baum novel "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz" Otis Turner scenario Cast (in credits order) Bebe Daniels ... Dorothy Gale Hobart Bosworth ... Wizard of Oz and King Eugenie Besserer ... Aunt Em Robert Z. Leonard ... Scarecrow Winifred Greenwood ... Momba Lillian Leighton ... Union Enforcer Olive Cox ... Glinda the Good Alvin Wyckoff Marcia Moore Produced by: Selig Polyscope Company, William Nicholas Selig 300 m, 20 fps Resources: wikipedia.org, archive.org, imdb.com New soundtrack and dubbing: TheGreatClassics Music: Kevin Mac Leod (incompetch.com) licensed under Creative Commons licence: Attribution 3.0 Unported (CC BY 3.0).