The Patchwork Girl of Oz (film)

The Patchwork Girl of Oz (1914) is a silent film made by L. Frank Baum's The Oz Film Manufacturing Company. It was based on the 1913 book The Patchwork Girl of Oz.[1]

The Patchwork Girl of Oz
Directed byJ. Farrell MacDonald
Written byL. Frank Baum
Based onThe Patchwork Girl of Oz by L. Frank Baum
Produced byL. Frank Baum
Louis F. Gottschalk
Thomas Edison
StarringViolet MacMillan
Frank Moore
Pierre Couderc
Fred Woodward
Raymond Russell
Dick Rosson
CinematographyJames A. Crosby
Music byLouis F. Gottschalk
Production
company
Distributed byParamount Pictures
Release date
  • September 28, 1914 (1914-09-28)
Running time
81 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguagesSilent
English intertitles

The film was written and produced by L. Frank Baum and directed by J. Farrell MacDonald. It makes almost no use of the dialogue from the book in the intertitles. While there are a number of modest special effects, the movie relies largely on dancing (or rather cavorting), slapstick, and costuming. The Patchwork Girl uses acrobatics regularly. Dr. Pipt's daughter is added for love interest, as well as an additional plot thread: her boyfriend is turned into a small statue which women find irresistible. The plot omits the Glass Cat, the Shaggy Man, Dorothy, Mr. Yoop, The Lazy Quadling, and the phonograph, but also adds Mewel, a donkey, and "The Lonesome Zoop", both slapstick animals, as well as Jinjur, Jesseva and Danx, and Jesseva's friends.

The film was followed by The Magic Cloak of Oz and His Majesty, the Scarecrow of Oz.[2]

Plot edit

Cast edit

Credited cast edit

Additional cast edit

Production edit

Much of the film was shot on the grounds of the Panama-California Exposition in San Diego. Other scenes were presumably filmed at The Oz Film Manufacturing Company's studio facilities in Los Angeles, located on Santa Monica Boulevard.

Notable cast members, one uncredited, were future producer/director Hal Roach and comedian Harold Lloyd. The two of them, after meeting on this film, worked together for several years.

Baum cast acrobat Pierre Couderc in the title role because he was unable to find a woman with the level of acrobatic training to do the role.

Distribution and preservation edit

The film was a commercial failure, a fact which caused distribution problems for the other Oz Film titles that followed it. This contributed to the failing of The Oz Film Manufacturing Company.[2]

The film is one of three made by the Oz Film company that have not been lost. Some versions contain uncredited narration by Jacqueline Lovell. The International Wizard of Oz Club has extensive information on the production, for example in The Baum Bugle, Christmas 1972. The original film was screened at the 2013 Winkie Convention of the International Wizard of Oz Club with the original Gottschalk score played live by Joe Cascone on piano from Gottschalk's original manuscripts.

References edit

  1. ^ Swartz, Mark Evan (2000). Oz Before the Rainbow: L. Frank Baum's The Wonderful Wizard of Oz on Stage and Screen to 1939. Johns Hopkins University Press. p. 23. ISBN 0-8018-6477-1. Retrieved 11 February 2024.
  2. ^ a b Simpson, Paul (2013). A Brief Guide to Oz. Constable & Robinson Ltd. pp. 71–74. ISBN 978-1-47210-988-0. Retrieved 10 February 2024.

External links edit