The Patchwork Girl of Oz
(1914)
Fantasy, Adventure | 28 September 1914
Cast:
Frank Moore, Pierre Couderc , Raymond Russell [ More ]Writer:
L. Frank BaumProducer:
L. Frank BaumProduction Company:
Oz Film Manufacturing Co.Some sources list L. Frank Baum as director or supervisor, but because advertisements, reviews, and news items give conflicting information, it is unclear what role Baum had in the actual direction of the film. A title card at the beginning of the film states: "Copyrighted 1914 by L. Frank Baum." The 18 Jul 1914 Moving Picture World reported that veteran director J. Farrell MacDonald had “joined the forces of the Oz Film Company at Hollywood, Cal., as producing director,” and that his first assignment was The Patchwood Girl of Oz, the new company’s first project. Macdonald's credit on the title card is "staged by."
Production began on 15 Jun 1914 at the Oz studio on Santa Monica Boulevard, between Gower and Lodi, in Hollywood, CA, according to the 25 Jul 1914 Moving Picture World, which added that “Over nine thousand feet of film was taken to cover the first four reels, of which the very best photography and cleverest of scenes were selected.” The 8 Aug 1914 Motion Picture News noted that the film “was recently completed at the Oz studio and laboratory,” and that an exhibition would be given at Clune’s Auditorium on Main Street in downtown Los Angeles for company members only.
The title character was performed by French acrobat Pierre Couderc of the Folies Bergere in Paris, who was introduced in an advertisement in the 8 Aug 1914 Moving Picture World as “The Marvelous Couderc (Positively first American appearance, on Stage or Screen) Together with Eighty Others as Munchkins, Royal Guards, Tottenhots, Horners, Hoppers, Soldiers, Courtiers, Throne Guards and Train Bearers.” Violet MacMillan, who played the ...
Some sources list L. Frank Baum as director or supervisor, but because advertisements, reviews, and news items give conflicting information, it is unclear what role Baum had in the actual direction of the film. A title card at the beginning of the film states: "Copyrighted 1914 by L. Frank Baum." The 18 Jul 1914 Moving Picture World reported that veteran director J. Farrell MacDonald had “joined the forces of the Oz Film Company at Hollywood, Cal., as producing director,” and that his first assignment was The Patchwood Girl of Oz, the new company’s first project. Macdonald's credit on the title card is "staged by."
Production began on 15 Jun 1914 at the Oz studio on Santa Monica Boulevard, between Gower and Lodi, in Hollywood, CA, according to the 25 Jul 1914 Moving Picture World, which added that “Over nine thousand feet of film was taken to cover the first four reels, of which the very best photography and cleverest of scenes were selected.” The 8 Aug 1914 Motion Picture News noted that the film “was recently completed at the Oz studio and laboratory,” and that an exhibition would be given at Clune’s Auditorium on Main Street in downtown Los Angeles for company members only.
The title character was performed by French acrobat Pierre Couderc of the Folies Bergere in Paris, who was introduced in an advertisement in the 8 Aug 1914 Moving Picture World as “The Marvelous Couderc (Positively first American appearance, on Stage or Screen) Together with Eighty Others as Munchkins, Royal Guards, Tottenhots, Horners, Hoppers, Soldiers, Courtiers, Throne Guards and Train Bearers.” Violet MacMillan, who played the part of “Ojo,” came directly from a stage play of The Wizard of Oz in which she was “Dorothy Gale.”
An article in the 4 Jul 1914 Moving Picture World described in detail the new block-long Oz Film Company studio, which was still under construction on Santa Monica Boulevard. It included an old three-story mansion whose rooms had been broken up into offices, new stages, and a huge 65 x 100-feet stage with a large trap capable of making scenes disappear.
According to an item in the 19 Sep 1914 Moving Picture World, the Oz Film Company signed contracts with the Paramount Pictures Corporation to distribute The Patchwork Girl of Oz and future films. The issue date was incorrectly given as 25 Sep 1914, three days before the film’s actual release.
The film was also known as The Ragged Girl of Oz, and was re-issued under that title in 1919 with some alteration of the characters' names. Mildred Harris, having recently married comedian Charles Chaplin, was billed as “Mrs. Charles Chaplin” at that time.
This was the first of three Oz-related films that the Oz Film Manufacturing Co. made in 1914; the other two were The Magic Cloak of Oz and His Majesty, the Scarecrow of Oz (see entries). Four years earlier, Selig Polyscope released The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, Dorothy and the Scarecrow in Oz, and The Land of Oz (1910, see entries).
Of all the Baum books adapted into film, the most famous is the 1939 Victor Fleming production for M-G-M, The Wizard of Oz, starring Judy Garland (see entry). Walt Disney studios made a version of the story in 1985 called Return to Oz. An animated, television version of The Patchwork Girl of Oz was made in 2019.
The Patchwork Girl of Oz (1914) is extant.
“Living in a lonely forest in the Munchkin Country of the Land of Oz with Unc Nunkie is Ojo, an orphan boy. Ojo discovers that their supply of food is gone, so he and Unc Nunkie start for Emerald City where there is plenty. Before they reach the city, they stop at the house of Dr. Pipt, who has just completed a magic concoction which, when applied to any inanimate object, will infuse it with life. Margolotte, the wife of Dr. Pipt, has become tired of doing her housework and makes a dummy girl of a patchwork quilt, whom she proposes to use as a servant after applying the magic lotion. Ojo asks Margolotte if she is going to give the servant brains, and she tells him that such persons do not need any. Whereupon Ojo injects too much of the magic brains invented by Dr. Pipt, with a result that when the patchwork girl is brought to life, she has a superabundance of gray matter. This so startles Unc Nunkie that he knocks a bottle off a shelf containing petrifying liquid and it falls upon himself, Margolotte and Danx, the sweetheart of their daughter Jesseva, turning them to stone. In order to bring the persons back to life again, Dr. Pipt tells the bereaved Ojo and Jesseva that it will take six years to make some more of the spilled powder of life. As he is too tired to start working on this powder, he finds in his book of magical recipes an antidote for petrifaction consisting of three hairs from a Woozy’s tail and a six-leaved clover to be mixed in a pail of water taken from ...
“Living in a lonely forest in the Munchkin Country of the Land of Oz with Unc Nunkie is Ojo, an orphan boy. Ojo discovers that their supply of food is gone, so he and Unc Nunkie start for Emerald City where there is plenty. Before they reach the city, they stop at the house of Dr. Pipt, who has just completed a magic concoction which, when applied to any inanimate object, will infuse it with life. Margolotte, the wife of Dr. Pipt, has become tired of doing her housework and makes a dummy girl of a patchwork quilt, whom she proposes to use as a servant after applying the magic lotion. Ojo asks Margolotte if she is going to give the servant brains, and she tells him that such persons do not need any. Whereupon Ojo injects too much of the magic brains invented by Dr. Pipt, with a result that when the patchwork girl is brought to life, she has a superabundance of gray matter. This so startles Unc Nunkie that he knocks a bottle off a shelf containing petrifying liquid and it falls upon himself, Margolotte and Danx, the sweetheart of their daughter Jesseva, turning them to stone. In order to bring the persons back to life again, Dr. Pipt tells the bereaved Ojo and Jesseva that it will take six years to make some more of the spilled powder of life. As he is too tired to start working on this powder, he finds in his book of magical recipes an antidote for petrifaction consisting of three hairs from a Woozy’s tail and a six-leaved clover to be mixed in a pail of water taken from a dark well. Before the doctor, Ojo, and Jesseva start out to look for the necessary ingredients, Dr. Pipt, at the request of his daughter, reduces the statue of Danx to six inches so that she may carry it around with her. The pranks of the Patchwork Girl cause the doctor so much annoyance that he throws her away, but she comes back again on the assumption that she is now one of the family. She, Ojo, Jesseva, and some of Jesseva’s friends go looking for the Woozy and a six-leaved clover while the doctor himself hunts for water from a dark well. When Ojo and his co-workers come upon the Woozy, they cannot pull the hairs from his tail, so they take the Woozy with them. A short distance from Emerald City, Ojo discovers a six-leaved clover, but is told by Jinjur, a female inhabitant of Emerald City, that it is a violation of the law of Oz to pluck one. But Ojo, desiring to bring his Unc back to life, breaks the law and places the clover in Jesseva’s basket. Witnessing this act, Jinjur informs the Emerald City officers when Jesseva refuses to give her the statue of Danx, and all of them are attired in prison garb and marched through the streets. When Jinjur proclaims that the statue belongs to her, the officers immediately take it from Jesseva and give it to her. The Patchwork Girl, observing all this, follows Jinjur, succeeds in overtaking her, and replevins the statue. Not recognizing her friends as they are being marched through the streets in prisoner's garb, the Patchwork Girl goes to the mountain country and rescues Dr. Pipt, who has been having trouble in his search for a dark well, from Hoppertown, where only one-legged men are allowed, by allowing to have one of her legs amputated in place of his. After several other trying experiences, Dr. Pipt and the Patchwork Girl finally find a dark well and draw the precious water. Jinjur overtakes them on their way to the Emerald City and snatches the statue from the Patchwork Girl. The trial of the prisoners is about to be called before Ozma, the ruler of Emerald City, when the Scarecrow of Oz, one of the jurymen who is too good-natured to decide what punishment shall be meted out, escapes. He meets Dr. Pipt and the Patchwork Girl and falls in love with the latter. At the palace of Ozma, Dr. Pipt entreats Her Majesty to let him use the six-leaved clover in his concoction to bring his petrified wife to life again. Ozma consents, but demands that it must be done in her presence. Since the statues are some distance away, the Wizard of Oz prepares a magic which brings the statues of Unc Nunkie and Margolotte in her presence, but the one of Danx is missing. Presently, Jinjur appears with the small statue of Danx, and Dr. Pipt accuses her of theft. Jinjur is ordered by Her Majesty to relinquish the statue. Dr. Pipt then cuts three hairs from the Woozy’s tail, which he mixes in the precious well water with the much desired clover. He then sprinkles the magic upon the statues and they all come back to life. As Danx is still in his diminutive size, Dr. Pipt brings him to his natural size by the application of more of his magic compound.”—26 Sep 1914 Moving Picture World
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