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His Majesty, The Scarecrow of Oz
1914
Starring Violet MacMillan, Frank Moore, Pierre Courderc, Fred Woodward
Unrated
59 Minutes
A wicked king has taken over the Emerald City, and wants his daughter, Princess Gloria to marry the horrid courtier Googly-Goo, though she loves Pon, the Gardener's Boy. The camera follows two farmers placing a Scarecrow upon a pole in a cornfield. Pon rescues a Kansas girl named Dorothy from the evil witch Mombi, whom Princess Gloria has been taken to by King Krewl to freeze her heart so she will no longer love Pon. An Indian princess has a ceremony to bring the Scarecrow to life. Pon rescues the cold-hearted princess and they flee for help, discovering the Scarecrow, who promptly falls in love with the princess, and Button-Bright, a lost boy from America. They come to the castle of the Tin Emperor, Nick Chopper, and after oiling him, he falls in love with Gloria. After a bit of a chase aided by the Sawhorse and the Wizard, Mombi turns Pon into a Kangaroo, and a slough of Fred Woodward's animals battle it out.
Rating:7/10
This is actually one of the better silent film versions available of the Wizard of Oz series. L. Frank Baum, the creator od the Wizard of Oz series, also directed this movie. The story telling was alot better than the previous versions that I seen and there was not so much jumping around confusing me about what was going on. I do have to wonder what it is with these strange scenes with people dressed as animals. Sometimes it is funny, but also at times it is rather annoying. There were a couple of cool special effects though for its time, especially when the Tin Man cuts off the witches head. That was kind of cool looking. But the longer the movie went, the more boring it got and also a little bit more ridiculous. Maybe it is because I watched so many movies, but still, it did get a little dumb at the end.
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