A quarter century before Dorothy and her compatriots danced and sang their way down the yellow brick road, L. Frank Baum founded a production company and made some movie versions of his novels. One was "The Magic Cloak", which won't be immediately recognizable as part of the series. It centers on a cloak that grants the wearer a wish, but the story jumps around a lot. The best part is when the Rolly Rogues invade the town: these big fat guys look just like what anyone would toss into a movie for comic relief.It's an OK movie, but the other two in this series were better. Even better still is the 1925 adaptation of Baum's most famous novel, featuring Oliver Hardy as the Tin Man.A historical note for this one is that Fluff is played by Mildred Harris, who was married to Charlie Chaplin for a few years. Milla Jovovich played her in Richard Attenborough's "Chaplin".

Whoa....I guess I need to get around to reading those Oz books by Frank L Baum! I haven't yet, but boy are they different from the stuff you saw in the 1939 film!! This film finds a mythical kingdom without a king. Since the dead king had no heirs, the law says that the 47th person to pass through a certain gate will be their new ruler! And, unfortunately, it's Bud--a kid who would rather spend the country's treasury on toys than do anything to help his new subjects. In the meantime, there's a story about a donkey and other animals that are really people dressed up in odd costumes and there is a plot involving a magic cloak. All of this is pretty weird but also pretty entertaining because it is so incredibly strange and oddly entertaining. Overall, it's a really weird but engaging film that made me smile several times due to it's kitschy style and charm. It's NOT a film, however, to show to those unfamiliar with silent films--it might just be too strange and might scare them away from an awesome genre. Fun and weird.

This is the second addition to Frank Baum's personally produced trilogy of Oz films. It's essentially the same childishness as in the other two pictures, although I consider it preferable to the others because it's shorter. As in the other films, there are performers in animal costumes, an adult woman pretends to be a boy, and the characters and plot jump all over the place while the camera-work is static. This time, at the center is a magic cloak that grants wishes, and the boy played by a woman is made a king.Most of the special effects are witnessed at the beginning. Fairies are represented by multiple-exposure photography. And, there's a man in the moon that looks just like those made by Georges Méliès years before, most famously in "Le Voyage dans la lune" (A Trip to the Moon) (1902). Méliès's imaginative fantasies and creative trick effects made him the leading pioneer of early cinema, and the films he made around the turn of the century were far better and even technically more advanced than this trifling Oz series.

Magic Cloak of Oz, The (1914) *** (out of 4) The fairies of Oz create a magic cloak, which will give one wish to the person who wears it. Once again the production design is very good here with wonderful and magical sets. The story is quite touching and I'm sure kids would love this version just as much as adults. The highlight of the film is the scene where a horse (played by a human in an outfit) is scratching his butt up against a tree and tries to teach a monkey how to do it.Wizard of Oz, The (1910) *** (out of 4) Nice if strange version of the classic tale. The production values here are actually pretty nice and it's a rather strange trip seeing humans in outfits playing the various animals including the lion.Wizard of Oz, The (1933) *** (out of 4) Pretty good Technicolor cartoon based on the book. The animation is rather nice and the scarecrow and tin man are pretty funny here as well. This was the first version to show Kansas in B&W and then Oz in color.