The Dreamer of Oz
The Dreamer of Oz
| 10 December 1990 (USA)
The Dreamer of Oz Trailers

The film is the biography of Frank Baum, the children's book author and creator of the fantasy world Oz.

Reviews
Laikals The greatest movie ever made..!
Peereddi I was totally surprised at how great this film.You could feel your paranoia rise as the film went on and as you gradually learned the details of the real situation.
Curapedi I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.
SeeQuant Blending excellent reporting and strong storytelling, this is a disturbing film truly stranger than fiction
blairf27 This sentimentalized biography of Oz creator L. Frank Baum (1856-1919) stars John Ritter in the title role. Richard Matheson's teleplay accurately depicts Baum as a business failure with the singular gift of being able to communicate with children. In keeping with Matheson's grounding in fantasy and the supernatural, Baum's characters occasionally come to life to palaver with the author and bring him inspiration. Annette O'Toole co-stars as Mrs. Baum, while Charles Haid is seen in the dual role of "Badham" and the Cowardly Lion. Also on hand as a Munchkin is Jerry Maren, who played one of the Lollipop Guild in the 1939 Hollywood adaptation of The Wizard of Oz. Made for television, Dreamer of Oz: The L. Frank Baum Story debuted December 10, 1990.If interested in a DVD copy of this film email sojourn (at) frodelius (dot) com
Stebaer4 You'll be taken away most immediately starting with the prologue to the movie as you will the start of the movie as many prologues to TV-Movies are supplementary but it's also very interesting to see the many faces of Oz as L.Frank Baum dreams them up.to see how he gave a boy guts while he was sitting in a widow sill & told the story of a farm boy & later to a girl on her ailing bed "Remember that story,I told you of The Boy on The Farm?;Well it was really a girl." and then he kept it this way in her memory as she passed away.You'll find it intriguing as you see Lyman as all of the characters in his dreams and as he is then suddenly it's just as intriguing when you see his wife then yelling at him "Frank!"as she tries to get him back to reality.It was also most intriguing as he was telling these stories to the kids how one of them even asked "Well what's the name of this place?"and then he looked on the bottom drawer of the file cabinet and said " Oz."As I also know from another source it was his Mother-in-Law of whom said to him "You'd be a fool if you didn't publish them.But as this TV-Movie also shows one publisher after the other rejected them and so out of despair he actually going to rip them up and discard them but his wife had then stopped him insisting that they'd still make it big some day and she was right and as the movie ends with the interview of Baum's widow wrapping up she was then asked "You mean to tell me that if it wasn't for you then The Wizard of Oz would never have been?"She then said to him "Young man their's only one dreamer of Oz and That's L.Frank Baum." of which to some like my Mom said makes totally no sense but to others like me it's more than just a blind metaphor like many of them that are in the movie itself and means "What difference does that make if there's only One Dreamer of Oz?"Truthfully Stephen "Steve" G. Baer a.k.a."Ste" of Framingham,Ma.USA
boldkic Please, who ever can get this on a DVD would be doing a justice!!! John Ritter was so excellent in this movie!!! It would be a great thing in his memory!!!!! I wish I was one of the footnote enough to of tape it when it was on!! I wonder why it is not on DVD...especially now that John has passed on!!! Like I said it would be SO great to have this movie!!!This movie has heart & soul and the characters are ones you can identify with!!! I have John in other movies and his comedy series but this movie showed his acting talent and should be on DVD!!! The feeling of this movie is one that has always touched my soul as I remember watching this movies after I got the kids to bed and it has always brings great memories!!! Please, who can help get this movie on DVD??!!!
mikeandjean1961 I have seen many movies in my time, but Dreamer of Oz is my all time favorite movie. John Ritter was outstanding in his performance as L. Frank Baum. I taped Dreamer of Oz on my VCR about 15 years ago, when it was first televised. My VCR was old and the copy is not that good, but I will never get rid of it, since it's the only copy in existence. Why it was not released as a VCR tape, or DVD is beyond me. It is a classic. I would be the first to buy it if Mr. Kirschner decided to have it available for the general public to purchase it. I wish it could at least be shown on TV again so I can get a better copy. If anyone knows how to get in touch with Mr. Kirschner, please let him know what a great movie this is. If I could get in touch with him, I would let him know myself. Thanks