His Majesty, the Scarecrow of Oz

1914 ComedyFamily 59 minutes Directed by L. Frank Baum

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About His Majesty, the Scarecrow of Oz

King Krewl holds the Emerald City and wants his daughter, Princess Gloria, to marry the courtier Googly-Goo. She loves Pon, the gardener's boy. Krewl sends her to the witch Mombi to have her heart frozen. Pon rescues Dorothy, a girl from Kansas, from Mombi. A ceremony by a Native American princess, the Spirit of the Corn, brings a scarecrow to life. Pon, the frozen-hearted Gloria, the Scarecrow, and a lost American boy, Button-Bright, reach the Tin Woodman, Nick Chopper. After they oil him, he also falls in love with Gloria. Mombi turns Pon into a kangaroo. Fred Woodward's animal costumes fight it out. The Sawhorse and the Wizard join the chase.

Cast & crew

More about His Majesty, the Scarecrow of Oz

J. Farrell MacDonald directed. L. Frank Baum wrote and produced it, the third film from his Oz Film Manufacturing Company, after The Patchwork Girl of Oz and The Magic Cloak of Oz. It opened on 28 September 1914 and runs 59 minutes. Early in 1915 it was reissued as The New Wizard of Oz. Violet MacMillan, Frank Moore, Pierre Couderc, Raymond Russell, Todd Wright, and Mildred Harris are in the cast. Vivian Reed and Fred Woodward are also credited. Paramount handled distribution.

Themes

  • A princess ordered to marry Googly-Goo
  • A heart frozen by Mombi
  • A scarecrow brought to life in a cornfield
  • King Krewl
  • Princess Gloria
  • Pon
  • Mombi
  • Scarecrow
  • Button-Bright
  • Nick Chopper
  • Dorothy

Making

Baum's company was already on its third Oz picture in 1914. MacDonald staged the frozen heart, the oiling of the Tin Woodman, and Woodward's animal suits as separate attractions inside one chase.

Reviews

Trade comment at the time put the film above average. The 28 September 1914 opening still drew little business. The early-1915 reissue, under the title The New Wizard of Oz, did slightly better.

Music

Silent.

Preservation

A print survives. It was reissued in early 1915 as The New Wizard of Oz.

Notes

  • The screenplay is only loosely taken from The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (1900). Baum reused much of this new story in the 1915 book The Scarecrow of Oz.
  • The Scarecrow's life is given by the Spirit of the Corn, staged as a Hollywood Native American, not by the usual straw-man origin.
  • King Krewl was renamed Prime Minister Kruel in the 1925 silent Wizard of Oz.
  • Contemporary critics treated it as better than average. The opening still did little business. The 1915 reissue did somewhat better.
  • Woodward plays several animals, including the kangaroo Pon becomes.
  • A Wikimedia file credits MacDonald in the title, matching the direction credit rather than Baum.

Scenes

  • The Spirit of the Corn raises the Scarecrow off his pole.
  • They oil Nick Chopper, and he falls in love with Gloria.
  • Mombi turns Pon into a kangaroo.

Influenced by

  • L. Frank Baum's The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (1900)

Influenced

  • The Wizard of Oz (1925)

Also available

  • Internet Archive (His_Maj_Scarecrow_OZ)
  • Wikimedia Commons (His Majesty, the Scarecrow of Oz (1914) by J. Farrell MacDonald.webm)

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