The Patchwork Girl of Oz (1914 film)

The Patchwork Girl of Oz
Directed by J. Farrell MacDonald
Produced by L. Frank Baum
Louis F. Gottschalk
Written by L. Frank Baum
Based on The Patchwork Girl of Oz by L. Frank Baum
Starring Violet MacMillan
Frank Moore
Pierre Couderc
Fred Woodward
Raymond Russell
Dick Rosson
Music by Louis F. Gottschalk
Cinematography James A. Crosby
Production
company
Distributed by Paramount Pictures
Release dates
  • September 28, 1914 (1914-09-28)
Running time
 81 minutes
Country United States
Language Silent
English intertitles

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 book The Patchwork Girl of Oz.

The film was written and produced by L. Frank Baum and directed by J. Farrell MacDonald. It makes almost no use of the dialog 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 with good effect. 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, the Yoop, and the phonograph, but also adds Mewel, a donkey, and "The Lonesome Zoop", both slapstick animals.

Production

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, would go on to work 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, due to social restrictions.

Distribution and preservation

The movie was a commercial failure, a fact which caused distribution problems for the other Oz Film titles that followed it. This would also contribute to the failing of The Oz Film Manufacturing Company.

The movie is one of three made by the Oz Film company that have not been lost. It is available inexpensively on DVD. Grapevine Video offered it on VHS for a time. 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.

Cast

Credited cast

Additional cast

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