In the movie of The Wizard of Oz, the Tin Man has always been my favorite of Dorothy's three Oz friends, although the Scarecrow is a close second. (I like the Cowardly Lion too, but his hamminess borders on the edge of annoying.)
But each time I've seen a stage production of The Wizard of Oz, the Scarecrow has been my favorite instead. In the production I just recently saw, the Tin Man's actor was too loud, and in the production before that, he was too snarky.
In the movie, Jack Haley is perfectly cast with his sweet, gentle voice and demeanor. He comes across as a truly poetic soul, whose longing for a heart so he can be "tender, gentle, and awful sentimental" makes perfect sense. Yet he has his fair share of humor too, albeit a subtler humor then Ray Bolger's slapstick or Bert Lahr's scenery chewing, and his few lightly snarky lines (e.g. "Well, that's you all over," "I hope your tail holds out!") don't detract a bit from his "heart."
Maybe part of the problem is the difference between film acting and stage acting: a stage actor needs to be bigger and louder. But I wonder if it's become harder than it was in the '30s to accept a sincerely tender, sensitive male character in family media, played with gentle humor but without a trace of caricature or irony. Besides the Tin Man, I'm also thinking of Bashful in Disney's Snow White, and how his sweet, endearing portrayal in the movie contrasts with his overly loud, hammy portrayal in the 1980 filmed stage production from Radio City Music Hall. (I'll be interested to see what the upcoming live action remake does with him.)
Maybe the style of humor we expect from family media has changed so much since the '30s that characters like Bashful or the Tin Man don't fit in anymore. Maybe there's too much of an urge to make the humor broader and less gentle, and to downplay sentimentality, even when it's the character's defining trait, either by undercutting it with snark or by hamming it up for laughs.
If this is the case, then it's unfortunate. I'll always prefer these two sweet characters as they were portrayed in the classic '30s films.
