Small House of Everything

Small House of Everything

Tuesday, August 23, 2016

OVERLOOKED FILM: THE PATCHWORK GIRL OF OZ (1914)

L. Frank Baum produced this film based on one of his classic Oz novels under the guise of The Oz Film Manufacturing Co.  J. Farrell MacDonald directed.

In their modest home, there is no food (the bread trees in the back yard had no yield) and Munchkin Ojo (Violet MacMillan) insists the he and hs guardian Unc Nunkie (Frank Moore) go to the Emerald City because nobody starves there.  Meanwhile, the crooked magician Dr. Pipt (Raymond Russell) is working on the Elixir of Life -- a task that has occupied his for six years.  Pipt's wife (Leontine Dranet) is tired of doing housework and decides to use the elixir to make a servant girl.  She heads to the attic and gathers old cloth and rags to make her servant -- the Patchwork Girl.

On their journey, Oj and Unc Nunkie stop at Dr. Pipt's house where Pipt's wife is about to animate the Patchwork girl, who has very little in the way of brains because the less brains a servant girl has, the better.  But mischievious Ojo sneaks into a Magic Brain cabinet that holds the various things that make up a brain (Judgement, Intelligence, Ingenuity, Cleverness, etc. -- but with very little Obediance).  Ojo, that scamp. infuses the Patchwork Girl with brains.

And then...well, things get complicated.

The Patchwork Girl of Oz is a surprisingly clever and witty film.

Enjoy.

https://archive.org/details/PatchworkOZ

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