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The Wonderful
Wizard of Oz
(1910)

This first motion picture based on Oz books by L. Frank Baum was produced in Chicago by Selig Polyscope Company in 1910 and features a very young Bebe Daniels as Dorothy.

Warner Home Video
2009 Blu-ray Disc edition

The Wizard of Oz (1939), color and color-toned black & white, 102 minutes, Rated G, including The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (1910), color-tinted and color-toned black & white, 59 minutes, not rated.

Warner Home Video, 3000024968,
UPC 8-83929-05736-8, ISBN 1-4198-7873-5.
Two single-sided, dual-layered, Region A Blu-ray Discs, 1.33:1 aspect ratio image in pillarboxed 16:9 (1920 x 1080 pixels) progressive scan AVC (MPEG-4) format, SDR (standard dynamic range), ? Mbps average video bit rate, ? Kbps audio bit rate, Dolby Digital 48 kHz 2.0 stereo sound, English language intertitles, no foreign language subtitles, chapter stops; and one dual-sided, dual-layered, Region 1 NTSC DVD disc, (720 x 480 pixels) interlaced? scan MPEG-2 format, ? Mbps average video bit rate, ? Kbps audio bit rate, Dolby Digital 48 kHz 2.0 stereo sound, English language intertitles, no foreign language subtitles; chapter stops; standard three-disc BD keepcase; $49.99.
Release date: 1 December 2009.
Country of origin: USA

Ratings (1-10): video: 6 / audio: 6 / additional content: 8 / overall: 6.

This Blu-ray Disc edition of The Wizard of Oz (1939) contains in its supplemental materials five surviving silent era adaptations of L. Frank Baum Oz stories, including the first known Oz film The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (1910). This edition has been mastered from a very-good 35mm preservation print from the George Eastman Museum, which is a bit flat in its greyscale range.

The film is accompanied by a music score performed on piano by John Thomas and Michael Sushel.

We recommend this home video edition of the film as the best-available on Blu-ray Disc.

USA: Click the logomark to purchase this Region A Blu-ray Disc edition from Amazon.com. Your purchase supports Silent Era.

Canada: Click the logomark to purchase this Region A Blu-ray Disc edition from Amazon.ca. Your purchase supports Silent Era.

National Film Preservation Foundation
2004 DVD edition

More Treasures from American Film Archives (1894-1931), black & white and color, 573 minutes total, not rated, including The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (1910), black & white, 13 minutes, not rated.

National Film Preservation Foundation, distributed by Image Entertainment, NATD2271DVD, UPC 0-14381-22712-3.
Three single-sided, dual-layered, Region 0 NTSC DVD discs, 1.33:1 aspect ratio image in full-frame 4:3 (720 x 480 pixels) interlaced scan MPEG-2 format, SDR (standard dynamic range), ? Mbps average video bit rate, ? Kbps audio bit rate, Dolby Digital 48 kHz 2.0 stereo and mono sound, English language intertitles, no foreign language subtitles, chapter stops; three cardboard wrapped plastic trays in cardboard slipcase; $79.95.
Release date: 7 September 2004.
Country of origin: USA

This 50 film DVD collection includes the earliest known Oz motion picture, here mastered from a 35mm print held by George Eastman Museum. The image was windowboxed to allow the full image to be viewed on older monitors that cropped a portion of the picture on all sides, which is not a concern on today’s HD monitors. The image still looks pretty good on HD systems capable of converting interlaced images to smoother progressive scan images that are also upscaled to a higher picture resolution.

A number of the films have been available on home video for years, but this put-of-print collection presents the best available edition of this film on DVD home video.

USA: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 0 NTSC DVD edition from Amazon.com. Your purchase supports Silent Era.