This week marked the 35th anniversary of The Dreamer of Oz, a telefilm based on the life of L. Frank Baum — the man who wrote The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and launched one of the most imaginative and enduring worlds in literature.
The film stars John Ritter as Baum, Annette O’Toole as his devoted wife Maud, and the incomparable Rue McClanahan as Maud’s mother, the American writer and activist Matilda Joslyn Gage. It opens at the premiere of the 1939 film the world has come to know and love, framing the story through a reporter’s interview with Maud — played in an early role by John Cameron Mitchell, years before Hedwig and the Angry Inch would make him an icon of a different color.
As charming as Oz feels now, the road to its creation was anything but easy. Before Baum ever found success, he endured personal struggles and repeated financial failures. Even after The Wonderful Wizard of Oz was completed — with its now-classic illustrations by W. W. Denslow — the book was rejected again and again. Still, when Baum was ready to give up, Maud stood firmly beside him, offering unwavering encouragement even when success seemed unlikely. She was his rock.
Thirty-five years later, the film remains as heart-tugging and magical as it was when I first saw it as a seven-year-old, swept up in the glow of Oz during the film’s 50th anniversary. Watching it now carries a deeper emotional weight, knowing that both John Ritter and Rue McClanahan are no longer with us. The Dreamer of Oz is a beautiful film — and a welcome reminder of imagination and perseverance, especially as the world spins once more in the spell of Wicked: For Good.
There will be more film reviews soon so…
Stay tuned!
Life In Cartoon Motion 