His Majesty, The Scarecrow Of Oz

[Music] a girl named Dorothy a tin man a scarecrow a lion an evil witch and a kindly wizard are the main characters in a series of children's books written by Frank bomb this 1914 film written and directed by bomb himself was called his majesty the Scarecrow of Oz and was released by his own company Oz pictures [Music] bomb's film begins with Dorothy already in the land of ozs the evil King crru has brought the lovely princess Gloria to the witch because she has refused to forget her love for paon the gardener son [Music] the slap Dash sets were put up in a wooded area and shot with natural sunlight for illumination here our heroin Dary played by Violet McMillan and the gardener son played by Todd Wright secretly spy on Old Mambi [Music] director bomb had gained some cinematic knowledge and his trick shots are fairly good for the period in this scene The Witches appear by means of a camera dissolve and then turn into three beautiful maidens by means of a second dissolve [Music] old Mambi casts a spell on princess Gloria played by the Oz girl Vivien Reed whose likeness appeared on the trademark of all the Oz films [Music] Mambi in a further series of dissolves freezes princess Gloria's heart this was an interesting piece of screen magic for 1914 and was much more sophisticated than the somewhat oldfashioned and exaggerated acting style of the cast [Music] the enchanted donkey comes to help Dorothy in pawn and scares the witches into an early departure they fly away on wires and provide a thrilling exit without the benefit of camera tricks [Music] [Music] the first of darth's three companions appears the Scarecrow played by Frank Moore in this version he is the real star of the picture and is played in the same Nimble fashion as he was portrayed in 1925 by Larry Seaman and in 1939 by Ray buer in the musical version [Music] [Music] the old witch attacks anyone who tries to befriend the princess and with a help of stopmotion Photography she tears the Scarecrow apart the camera is stopped for a moment and scarecrow dummy is substituted when Dorothy and the others put him back together again the camera is again stopped while the actor returns to his form of position this is an old movie technique and was used in such early films as The Great Train Robbery as well as many trick films in the early period of the movie's development [Music] [Music] a new character appears in the form of button brights played by pretty young Mildred Harris who later was to become the first wife of Charlie Chaplain [Music] the story now moves to the castle of the tin Woodsman played by Pierre kerk who has rusted and stands motionless by the tree he was chopping as in the other versions he is oiled and restored to life [Music] [Music] soon the witch finds them and we see a gruesome scene which is as violent as anything seen on today's screens a black sack provides the illusion against the black doorway for a good effect a dummy head and stop motion photography complete this visual illusion [Music] the witch turns Pon into a kangaroo to stop his interference with her Wicked scheme [Music] the lion makes his first appearance and he has an excellent if immobile facial mask which is very lifelike he is in much contrast to the costuming of a donkey who appeared in earlier scenes [Music] [Music] the tin Woodsman professes his love for princess Gloria but her heart is frozen even to his love the gardener son who still loves her deeply intervenes [Music] to escape the Witch and seek help for the princes from The Wizard of Oz Dorothy and her friends depart for the heart of the mythical country [Music] the scarecrows fall into the water gives us a short but effective underwater sequence full of visual Illusions it is obvious that Frank bom must have admired the trick films of Frenchman George MZ whose movie career had just ended as bombs was beginning bomb wrote The Wonderful Wizard of ours in 1900 and it was successfully produced as a musical in Chicago and on tour the next season in 1903 he wrote the new Wizard of Oz and afterwards penned a new Oz book almost every year until [Music] 1913 e [Music] after the spectacular Rescue of the Scarecrow Dorothy and her friends Rejoice at his good fortune and continue on their Journey [Music] we are now going to see the most striking effect in the film The Wall of Water by merely tilting the camera bomb showed his Mastery of film technique by giving the impression that the raft goes over the top of the wall of water on the way to the heart of the land of odds [Music] Frank bom began his career in Theatrical stock companies although an attempt to form his own touring company had failed after a decade in journalism he finally wrote the children's books which were to make him famous both in print and on film [Music] [Music] at last we are introduced to the Wizard of Oz himself a much different character than was later portrayed by Frank Morgan in the musical film [Music] the sequence abounds in both camera tricks and one lowly and outrageous pun [Music] for [Music] after finally meeting up with a Cowardly Lion the adventurers set out to find princess Gloria but cruel finds her first and the brave band goes in [Music] Pursuit Frank bom's first encounter with the movies was a series of films made by the selig polscope company in 1908 which was used to illustrate bomb's talks with which he took the country selig was later to use sequences from these films as short subjects which he released to theaters in [Music] [Music] 1910 our friends storm the walls the Scarecrow despite the fact that he is riddled with arrows is named the new king from here on the story moves to a predictable but happy conclusion bom form the Oz film Manufacturing Company in 1914 and the first production was the patchwork girl of Oz followed by the magic cloak of Oz the third production was the one we are seeing now with a screenplay based on the plot and characters of the other Oz books books this film later inspired a book derived from the screenplay in 1915 the Oz company disbanded and bomb himself died four years [Music] later since this version the Oz story has been filmed at least four times first as a classic silent film in 1925 with Oliver Hardy and Larry Seaman for Chadwick pictures by Metro Goldwin mayor in a Technicolor musical version in 193 9 with Judy Garland a television cartoon version in the 1960s starring Miss Garland's daughter Liza Manelli and a liveaction film released by childhood Productions in 1969 [Music] [Music] princess Gloria and The Gardener's son are released from their spells the king pleads for mercy and everything ends happily as all pay homage to their hero his majesty the Scarecrow of Oz and we pay homage to Frank Bal whose imagination made the Oz series some of the most popular books ever written for children they are still read and loved by young people all over the world to this very day [Music] [Music]