Michael_Elliott His Majesty, the Scarecrow of Oz (1914) *** (out of 4)An evil King takes over and wants his daughter to make a no good but when the Scarecrow comes to life he has his eyes on the daughter as well. Here's a very interesting film written and directed by L. Frank Baum who was also the writer of the Oz stories. The visual effects are very effective especially one scene where the evil witch removes the heart of the Princess and then freezes it before putting it back in her body. Another great scene is one that the kiddies shouldn't see but the Scarecrow cuts off a head. This effect is done very well and effective. This is certainly the most "adult" version of Oz I've seen, which makes it quite interesting.

Space_Mafune When his daughter Princess Gloria refuses to marry the courtier Googly-Goo he selected for her because she's in love with the Gardener's Boy Pon, wicked King Krewl takes the Princess to the evil witch Mombi in hopes the witch can cast a spell and destroy his daughter's love for Pon, a boy he considers beneath her station. Well, the Wicked Witch does eventually succeed in freezing the Princess's heart to all potential suitors. In the meantime, the Gardener's Boy Pon having followed the King's trail to Mombi's hut meets and befriends Dorothy (Violet MacMillan), a little Kansas girl taken prisoner by Mombi, helping her escape. Eventually the two, in their continued effort to escape and elude the Wicked Witch, meet up with the Scarecrow, the Tin Woodsman and eventually the Wizard of Oz. Together they try and devise a plan to deal with the Wicked Witch and remove King Krewl from power.While it's truly fun to see so many of the most familiar Oz characters participating in a new story, this one feels all over the place it's so lacking in terms of good direction. In fact, this often feels as though they were deciding what was going to happen next as they were doing it. It's way too hard to keep track of all the different characters and there's way too many unnecessary sub-plots. The best and funniest scenes in this one tend to revolve around Old Mombi the Witch (as played by Mai Wells) and her continual pursuit of our heroes. How's she dealt with time and time again proves more and more creative each time around.

F Gwynplaine MacIntyre As his books about Oz became increasingly popular, L. Frank Baum tried to branch out into other media. His novel "Tik-Tok in Oz" was originally a grandiose stage musical. Eventually, Baum (never a good businessman) used the profits from his novels to finance a low-budget film studio which turned out several silent films, nearly all of them fantasies. "His Majesty, the Scarecrow of Oz" is the best of Baum's films. His Oz book "The Scarecrow of Oz" (still in print) is actually a novelisation of this silent fantasy film, which was produced before the novel was written.Although crudely staged, with some low-budget special effects that were laughably obvious even for 1914, "His Majesty" is an action-filled and imaginative movie that should still appeal to viewers (including children) even today. There are some flaws: the actress playing "little girl" Dorothy is clearly an adult woman; worse luck, the "little boy" Button-Bright is obviously played by a teenage girl (who became Mrs Charlie Chaplin!).The plot of this film is almost identical to the main plot of the novel (which contains several subplots not found here ... including one about creatures named Orks, long before Tolkien invented Orcs). Princess Gloria is in love with Pon, a lowly gardener's boy, and he loves her. Because Pon is far beneath Gloria's station, King Krewl and Googly-Goo decide to break up the romance by engaging Mombi the witch to freeze Pon's heart. There are some interesting Georges Melies-type special effects here: crudely done yet imaginative. Mombi holds her hands in front of Pon's chest. In a slow dissolve, his (valentine-shaped) heart appears in her hands. In another slow dissolve, icicles appear on his heart. Then another dissolve as the heart (now frozen) is replaced within his chest.There is one bizarre scene in which the Tin Woodman uses his axe to chop off a witch's head ... but fear not, parents! Your kiddies will probably laugh when they see how it's done. The special-effects trickery in the decapitation sequence is blatantly obvious to even the most unsophisticated viewer.SPOILERS COMING. Eventually the Wizard of Oz arrives. (Looking a great deal like the Wizard in the Oz books ... which is more than I can say of Frank Morgan in that overrated MGM movie.) The Wizard takes out a tin can with a misspelt label reading "CANNED SANDWITCHES". A wave of his hands, and the can grows giant-sized. Another wave of his hand, and Mombi the witch is trapped inside the tin can, which the Wizard then shrinks back to its original size. He takes a paintbrush and carefully paints out certain letters on the label, so that it now reads "CANNED WITCH". This sort of humour is actually quite effective here.An amazing performance (or group of performances) is given by Fred Woodward, who plays a large number of animals in this movie ... including a human-sized jackdaw. For most of his roles, Woodward walks on all fours, holding short stilts in his hands to lengthen his arms so that they become forelegs.AMAZING TRIVIA NOTE: L. Frank Baum had been involved in amateur theatricals ever since his adolescence, and he owned a large number of costumes. After his death, his widow sold these to a Los Angeles costume jobber. One particular item -- a shabby frock coat which had seen better days -- was later worn by Frank Morgan in his role as Professor Marvel in "The Wizard of Oz". Supposedly, the coat was chosen utterly at random because it fit Morgan and its shabbiness suited the character ... and it wasn't recognised as Baum's coat until his widow saw the film in a preview. True story!I thoroughly enjoyed "His Majesty, the Scarecrow of Oz", and I continue to enjoy it after repeated viewings. I wish that a certain overrated MGM musical (starring Judy Whatsername) were less popular, and that L. Frank Baum's short films were better-known.

WeepingGodFilms Baum's inept adaptation of a couple of his Oz books is a sad sight indeed. Shots are poorly framed, often excluding some of the actor's faces from view. The plot is moronic and the acting stale. The cast is much too large and he seems to throw in characters just to throw them in. The special effects are cheesy, especially when the Tin Woodsman chops off the Witch's head.However, this silent film does feature an excellent performance by the man playing the Wizard and the young woman playing the Princess Ozma. There's a good, melodramatic concept, this young woman walking around with everyone left and right falling in love with her, and she being incapable of loving them back-- it makes for a good visual. But the rest of the film is just so incompetent that's it obscures its good points.