Il mago di Oz (The Wizard of Oz) - オズの魔法使い

• Report rights infringement
• published: 04 Jul 2013
• views: 34902

Il mago di Oz (Wizard of Oz) è un film muto del 1925, per la regia di Larry Semon, tratto dai libri di L. Frank Baum. Fra gli interpreti Oliver Hardy (famoso Ollio del duo Stanlio & Ollio) nel ruolo del boscaiolo di latta oltre a Semon che interpreta il giocattolaio che racconta la storia e all'uomo di paglia. Il film fu uno degli ultimi e più felici del regista, sceneggiatore e attore Larry Semon (West Point, 16 luglio 1889 -- Victorville, 8 ottobre 1928), più conosciuto come la maschera comica di Ridolini. Infatti egli morirà tre anni dopo, a soli 39 anni, per una polmonite, dopo essere caduto in disgrazia. Nel marzo del 1928 Larry Semon dichiarò bancarotta e ciò lo porterà ad andare incontro verso un rapido declino fisico che lo condurrà prima al ricovero in sanatorio per la cura di una grave polmonite, accompagnata ad uno stato di profondo esaurimento nervoso, e successivamente in ottobre a morire in circostanze che non furono mai ben chiarite. Nessuno, neppure la vedova, poté vedere la salma, che fu rapidamente sottoposta a cremazione, in rispetto, si asserì, alle ultime volontà del defunto. Alcuni sostennero potesse essere un'uscita di scena per sfuggire i creditori che lo assillavano; di fatto a 39 anni su Larry Semon calò definitivamente il sipario. Wizard of Oz is a 1925 American silent film directed by Larry Semon, who also appears in a lead role—that of a farmhand disguised as a Scarecrow. Lawrence "Larry" Semon (July 6, 1889 -- October 8, 1928) was an American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter during the silent film era. In his day, Semon was considered a major movie comedian, but he is now remembered mainly for working with both Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy before they started working together. French audiences knew him as Zigoto, Italian ones as Ridolini, and Spanish ones as Jaimito ("Jimmy") in pre-war releases and Tomasín ("Tommy") in the 1940 rereleases by Manuel Rotellar. Semon tried to reverse his financial problems by entering the more lucrative field of feature films. He produced and starred in a few features in the mid '20s, but by 1927 he was back in short subjects released through Educational Pictures. After filing for bankruptcy in 1928, Semon returned to vaudeville. While traveling on the vaudeville circuit, he suffered a nervous breakdown and went back to Los Angeles. After returning to Los Angeles, Semon was sent to a sanatorium in Victorville, California, where, on October 8, 1928, at the age of 39, he died of pneumonia and tuberculosis. The only completed 1920s adaptation of L. Frank Baum's novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, this film features a young Oliver Hardy as the Tin Woodman. "L. Frank Baum, Jr." is top-billed with the writing of the script. This is Frank Joslyn Baum, Baum's eldest son, and although his actual contribution to the screenplay is doubted by Baum scholar Michael Patrick Hearn, he was certainly involved in the business angle of the production. The film departs radically from the novel upon which it is based, introducing new characters and exploits. Along with a completely different plot, the film is all set in a world that is only barely recognizable as the Land of Oz from the books. The film focuses mainly upon Semon's character, who is analogous to Ray Bolger's Scarecrow character in the 1939 version. The major departure from the book and film is that the Scarecrow, Tin Man, and Lion are not actually characters, but are in fact disguises donned by three farm hands who find themselves swept into Oz by a tornado. Dorothy is here played by Dorothy Dwan — Semon's wife. Her version of the character is a young, seductive woman who has just turned 18 and who finds herself in the middle of a love triangle between Semon and Hardy. In a drastic departure from the original book, the "Tin Man" is a villain in this version, as Hardy's jealousy over Dorothy leads him to become the henchman for the evil Prime Minister Kruel. Semon vies unsuccessfully for Dorothy's love, losing at first to the farmhand played by Hardy, and then to Prince Kynd. Some elements of the narrative have their roots in earlier adaptations of The Wizard of Oz. For example, Prime Minister Kruel has a predecessor in King Krewl, the antagonist of His Majesty, the Scarecrow of Oz. The note explaining Princess Dorothea's true heritage is signed "Pastoria", a name used for the exiled King of Oz in the 1902 stage version of The Wizard of Oz and for the father of Princess Ozma in The Marvelous Land of Oz and later Oz books. Many theaters that had originally booked this film never received it because its production caused Chadwick Pictures to go bankrupt, and distribution ceased long before it was intended to. The film's premiere in 1925 featured original music orchestrated by Louis La Rondelle, conducted by Harry F. Silverman, feauring Julius K. Johnson at the piano. オズの魔法使い