The Patchwork Girl of Oz
About The Patchwork Girl of Oz
Ojo and Unc Nunkie leave home because they have no food and head for the Emerald City. A mule, Mewel, leads them to Dr. Pipt, who has been stirring the Powder of Life for nine years. Ojo stuffs Margolotte's patchwork servant with extra brains. When Scraps comes to life she knocks the Liquid of Petrifaction over Unc Nunkie, Margolotte, and Danx, the boy promised to Pipt's daughter Jesseva. The others split up to hunt the ingredients of an antidote.
Cast & crew
More about The Patchwork Girl of Oz
L. Frank Baum wrote and produced it from his 1913 book. J. Farrell MacDonald directed. Paramount released it on September 28, 1914. The picture adds Jesseva, her boyfriend Danx, the mule Mewel, and a Lonesome Zoop, and it drops the Glass Cat, the Shaggy Man, and Dorothy. Intertitles barely use the book's dialogue.
Themes
Background
The book had come out in 1913. Paramount put the film out the next September, when Oz was still a stage and book property more than a film series.
Making
Baum set up the Oz company to film his own books. This feature leans on Couderc's acrobatics for Scraps and on Woodward in several animal suits.
Audiences
The release failed commercially and was part of the collapse of the Oz Film Manufacturing Company's distribution.
Music
A score written for the film was used again at a 2013 screening.
Preservation
One of three surviving features from the Oz Film Manufacturing Company. A copy is on the Internet Archive.
Notes
- Violet MacMillan plays Ojo. Pierre Couderc, an acrobat, plays Scraps. Frank Moore is Unc Nunkie. Raymond Russell is Dr. Pipt.
- Fred Woodward plays the Woozy, the Zoop, and Mewel. Hal Roach plays the Cowardly Lion. Bert Glennon plays the Scarecrow.
- The commercial failure hurt the Oz Film Manufacturing Company and its distribution.
- It is one of three Oz Film features that survive.
- A 2013 screening used a surviving original score.
- The effects stay modest. Most of the reel is dancing, slapstick, and costumes.
Scenes
- Ojo pours extra brains into the patchwork servant before the powder is used.
- Scraps knocks the Liquid of Petrifaction onto Unc Nunkie, Margolotte, and Danx.
- The party breaks up to search for the antidote.
Influenced by
- L. Frank Baum's 1913 novel The Patchwork Girl of Oz
Also available
- Internet Archive (PatchworkOZ)
