His Majesty, the Scarecrow of Oz (1914)

Directed by

J. Farrell MacDonald

Genre

silent film

Country

United States

Runtime

59 min

Rated

G

Rating

5.6 of 10 from 23 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

A silent fantasy film from 1914 that reimagines the story of Oz and the Scarecrow's origin. The Scarecrow gets his life from a spirit of the corn. A villain king causes trouble for the characters.

whimsicalfantasticalclassicslow-pacednostalgicearthysimpleold-timeyquaint

What happens

His Majesty, the Scarecrow of Oz is a 1914 American silent fantasy adventure film directed by J. Farrell MacDonald, and written and produced by L. Frank Baum. It stars Violet MacMillan, Frank Moore, Vivian Reed, Todd Wright, Pierre Couderc, Raymond Russell, and Fred Woodward. The film had a troubled distribution history; it opened on September 28, 1914, to little success, though it was received as well above average fare by critics of the time. Early in 1915, it was reissued under the title The New Wizard of Oz and was slightly more successful. The film is loosely based on Baum's 1900 book The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, but in the screenplay, Baum introduced many new characters and a large new story that later became the basis for the 1915 book The Scarecrow of Oz. Similar to The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, the Scarecrow's origin is revealed, although his life is now attributed to "the Spirit of the Corn", who appears as a conventional Hollywood depiction of a Native American. This was the third film by the Oz Film Manufacturing Company, following The Patchwork Girl of Oz and The Magic Cloak of Oz. Some elements, such as the villain King Krewl, were reworked into the 1925 silent film of The Wizard of Oz, where he is renamed Prime Minister Kruel. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

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