The Magic Cloak of Oz
About The Magic Cloak of Oz
Fairies in the forest of Burzee weave a cloak that grants one wish, if the cloak was not stolen. Bud, also called Timothy, becomes king of Noland through a legal loophole. His sister Fluff, also called Margaret, is with him. The mule Nicodemus and the minstrel Quavo are in the story, which follows L. Frank Baum's Queen Zixi of Ix. A longer cut adds Nicodemus going to four witches, the Roly-Rogues clapping on a hill, and a sailor making a necktie from a piece of the cloak.
Cast & crew
More about The Magic Cloak of Oz
J. Farrell MacDonald directed. L. Frank Baum wrote the script from his 1905 novel Queen Zixi of Ix and produced the film with composer Louis F. Gottschalk, who also wrote the score. It was the Oz Film Manufacturing Company's second picture, after The Patchwork Girl of Oz, and it was released on 28 September 1914. Paramount distributed it. After Patchwork Girl failed, this feature was cut from five reels into two two-reelers, The Magic Cloak and The Witch Queen. Violet MacMillan plays Bud. Mildred Harris plays Fluff. Fred Woodward plays Nicodemus. Vivian Reed plays Quavo. It was the last Oz production released in Baum's lifetime. He died in 1919.
Themes
Making
Baum's company had already lost money on The Patchwork Girl of Oz. Distributors split this five-reel story into two shorts, and the prints now in circulation are rebuilt from those shorts.
Music
Louis F. Gottschalk wrote a score. The copies on video do not use it.
Preservation
The five-reel original was split into The Magic Cloak and The Witch Queen. Current prints are incomplete assemblies of those two films, with the titles missing. The Library of Congress holds a three-reel print running 38 minutes at 18 frames per second. A longer cut was issued on video in 2009.
Notes
- A Library of Congress print is three reels, timed at 38 minutes at 18 frames per second.
- A longer version, 42 minutes at 24 frames per second, appeared in 2009 on the Ultimate Collector's Edition of The Wizard of Oz, without Gottschalk's score.
- The 2005 three-disc Wizard of Oz set also carries a copy.
- 16mm prints have been sold by Em Gee. None of the home-video copies use Gottschalk's original music.
- Surviving prints have lost their titles. A card calls the fairies of Burzee "fairies of Oz," which is the film's only Oz label.
- Juanita Hansen and Pierre Couderc are in the cast. Woodward may also play animals besides the mule.
Scenes
- The fairies weave the cloak in Burzee.
- In the longer cut, a sailor cuts a necktie from the cloak.
Influenced by
- L. Frank Baum's Queen Zixi of Ix (1905)
Also available
- Internet Archive (Magic_Cloak_of_Oz_1914)
- Wikimedia Commons (The Magic Cloak of Oz (1914).webm)
- The Wizard of Oz, Ultimate Collector's Edition (2009 DVD and Blu-ray)
