Wizard of Oz is a 1925 silent film directed by Larry Semon, who also appears in a lead role--that of a farmhand disguised as a Scarecrow. 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 Woodsman." "L. Frank Baum, Jr." is top-billed with the writing of the script. This is Frank Joslyn Baum, Baum's eldest son, although his actual contribution to the screenplay is doubted by Baum scholar Michael Patrick Hearn, although he was certainly involved in the business angle. A toymaker makes a Scarecrow doll... for his granddaughter, who asks him to tell her the story about Oz. He tells her about how the Land of Oz was ruled by Prime Minister Kruel , after the baby princess of Oz was mysteriously snatched away from her crib.
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