The Wizard of Oz

The Wizard of Oz is a 1925 American silent fantasy-adventure comedy film directed by Larry Semon, who also performs in the lead role as a Kansas farmhand and later in the story disguised as the Scarecrow. This production, which is the only completed 1920s adaptation of L. Frank Baum's 1900 novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, costars Dorothy Dwan as Dorothy, Oliver Hardy as the Tin Woodman in a portion of the film, and Curtis McHenry briefly disguised as a less "cowardly" Lion than in the 1939 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer version of Baum's work, The Wizard of Oz (1939 film). In the film, Dorothy Gale (Dorothy Dwan), a Kansas farm girl is told a story about Uncle Henry (Frank Alexander) not being her uncle after all. Suddenly a tornado blows into Kansas and whisks the farmhands and Dorothy to Oz, where Dorothy is discovered as Princess Dorothea by Kruel (Josef Swickard). The farmhands are disguised as a scarecrow, a tin man and lion. Plot A toy-maker (Semon) reads L. Frank Baum's book to his granddaughter. In the story the Land of Oz is ruled by Prime Minister Kruel (Josef Swickard), aided by Ambassador Wikked (Otto Lederer), Lady Vishuss (Virginia Pearson), and the Wizard (Charles Murray), a "medicine-show hokum hustler". When the discontented people, led by Prince Kynd (Bryant Washburn), demand the return of the princess, who disappeared while a baby many years before, so she can be crowned their rightful ruler, Kruel has the Wizard distract them with a parlor trick: making a female impersonator (Frederick Ko Vert) appear out of a seemingly empty basket. Kruel sends Wikked on a mission.