The Wizard of Oz

Larry Semon's 1925 Oz, a slapstick feature that borrowed Baum's names and almost nothing else. Dorothy (Dorothy Dwan) is a farm girl who may be a princess; Semon is a farmhand in blackface for part of the picture, which is the stain the film cannot wash out. Oliver Hardy is the Tin Woodman, more or less. Chadwick Pictures. It is not Fleming's Oz and it is not Baum's. It is a silent comedian treating a children's book as a barn to wreck, and the wrecking is occasionally inspired.