Between silent & sound; shorts & features; large & small screen; adaptations of the L. Frank Baum OZ books (he wrote 14) come by the score. Tellingly, new attempts dried up for over a decade after 1939's THE WIZARD OF OZ, the classic M-G-M musical. (So expensive to produce, it didn’t go into profit till re-releases & tv showings pushed it over.) This try, by legendary Sound Editor Walter Murch in his sole feature film directing credit, has its faults (he’s no natural at calling the shots), but is by leaps & bounds the best of a pretty bad lot. Officially adapted from ‘Ozma of Oz’ and ‘The Land of Oz,’ this accreditation presumably contractual as it’s ‘peopled’ & plotted to mirror the M-G-M film, equivalents & substitutions in character & story beats reordered but hard to miss. Ergo, Jean Marsh’s Wicked Nurse, Nicol Williamson’s Great & Powerful Nome King, mechanical Tik-Tok in for Tin Man, Toto stuck on the farm, replaced by a chicken(!), Flying Monkeys OUT/Skating ‘Wheelers’ IN, an egg where once water destroyed a villain. And the Ruby Slippers? Still the Ruby Slippers. This time, the narrative engine isn’t Dorothy wanting to go home, but Dorothy needing to get back to Oz to save her pals, currently turned to stone. The substitution psychologically inadequate, so too most of Murch’s casting choices. Voice casting for the non-human pals particularly off-putting. But just as much works well enough to get you over the bumps in a very episodic plotline. With one flying exception, the effects are super; a gallery of decapitated heads positively alarming, and the Claymation stop-motion work (especially a talking red stone tablet) a triumph. Held down commercially on release as being too dark for kids, it’s easy to forget just how terrifying the ‘39 film is outside of the musical comedy business. (I’m not the only kid to run out of the room during the chase around the castle. Yikes!) But it’s true that the sensibility is closer to Tim Burton than to M-G-M musicals. So, let the nightmares begin!
DOUBLE-BILL/LINK: Instead of trying another OZ adaptation, go for John Boorman’s whackadoodle dystopian adventure ZARDOZ, a futuristic mystery play with Sean Connery, who else, as the last potent man on earth, and OZ showing up in a most alarming manner. https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2012/03/zardoz-1974.html
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