The Patchwork Girl of Oz (1914 film)


The Patchwork Girl of Oz 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.
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, 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, 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, worked together for several years.
Baum cast acrobat Pierre Couderc in the title role because, due to social restrictions, he was unable to find a woman with the level of acrobatic training to do the role.

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 contributed 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. Some versions contain uncredited narration by Jacqueline Lovell. The 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