''The Magic Cloak of Oz'' is a 1914 film directed by J. Farrell MacDonald. It was

written Writing is a medium of human communication which involves the representation of a language through a system of physically inscribed, mechanically transferred, or digitally represented symbols. Writing systems do not themselves constitute h ...

L. Frank Baum Lyman Frank Baum (; May 15, 1856 – May 6, 1919) was an American author best known for his children's books, particularly ''The Wonderful Wizard of Oz'' and its sequels. He wrote 14 novels in the ''Oz'' series, plus 41 other novels (not includ ...

and produced by Baum and

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and Defi ...

Louis F. Gottschalk Louis Ferdinand Gottschalk (October 7, 1864 – July 15, 1934) was an American composer and conductor born in St. Louis, Missouri. The son of a Missouri governor, also named Louis, he studied music in Stuttgart, Germany, where his father, a judg ...

. The film is an

adaptation In biology, adaptation has three related meanings. Firstly, it is the dynamic evolutionary process of natural selection that fits organisms to their environment, enhancing their evolutionary fitness. Secondly, it is a state reached by the po ...

of Baum's 1905

novel A novel is a relatively long work of narrative fiction, typically written in prose and published as a book. The present English word for a long work of prose fiction derives from the for "new", "news", or "short story of something new", itsel ...

, ''

Queen Zixi of Ix ''Queen Zixi of Ix, or The Story of the Magic Cloak'', is a children's book written by L. Frank Baum and illustrated by Frederick Richardson. It was originally serialized in the early 20th-century American children's magazine ''St. Nicholas'' fro ...

''.

Production

''The Magic Cloak of Oz'' had

distribution Distribution may refer to: Mathematics *Distribution (mathematics), generalized functions used to formulate solutions of partial differential equations * Probability distribution, the probability of a particular value or value range of a vari ...

problems, owing to the box office failure of ''

The Patchwork Girl of Oz ''The Patchwork Girl of Oz'' by L. Frank Baum is a children's novel, the seventh in the Oz series. Characters include the Woozy, Ojo "the Unlucky", Unc Nunkie, Dr. Pipt, Scraps (the patchwork girl), and others. The book was first published on ...

''. Advertisements claimed that the film would be released September 28, 1914, by

Paramount Pictures Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film and television production company, production and Distribution (marketing), distribution company and the main namesake division of Paramount Global (formerly ViacomCBS). It is the fifth-oldes ...

, but this apparently never occurred, though it was apparently released in its entirety in 1917. It was eventually reduced from a five-reel film to two two-reel films known as ''The Magic Cloak'' and ''The Witch Queen''. The current prints are assembled from these two films, and so the film is incomplete. All of its titles are missing, and ''The Magic Cloak'' title card, which is not in

The Oz Film Manufacturing Company The Oz Film Manufacturing Company was an independent film studio from 1914 to 1915. It was founded by L. Frank Baum (president), Louis F. Gottschalk (vice president), Harry Marston Haldeman (secretary), and Clarence R. Rundel (treasurer) as an ...

style, is used without any additional credits. Its only

allusion Allusion is a figure of speech, in which an object or circumstance from unrelated context is referred to covertly or indirectly. It is left to the audience to make the direct connection. Where the connection is directly and explicitly stated (as ...

to Oz is a title card's claim that the fairies of Burzee are "fairies of Oz".

Cast

Intertitle In films, an intertitle, also known as a title card, is a piece of filmed, printed text edited into the midst of (i.e., ''inter-'') the photographed action at various points. Intertitles used to convey character dialogue are referred to as "dialo ...

s confirm that the cast included

Violet MacMillan Violet MacMillan (March 4, 1887 – December 29, 1953), was an American actress in Broadway theatre productions, vaudeville, and silent films. Early career MacMillan gained fame as the "Cinderella Girl"''New York Times'' Obituary. Dec. 30, 19 ...

as Timothy, or Bud, who becomes king of Noland due to a legal loophole;

Mildred Harris Mildred Harris (April 18, 1901 – July 20, 1944) was an American stage, film, and vaudeville actress during the early part of the 20th century. Harris began her career in the film industry as a child actress when she was 10 years old. She was a ...

as his sister, Margaret, or Fluff; Fred Woodward as Nicodemus, the

mule The mule is a domestic equine hybrid between a donkey and a horse. It is the offspring of a male donkey (a jack) and a female horse (a mare). The horse and the donkey are different species, with different numbers of chromosomes; of the two pos ...

, and possibly some other animals as well, and Vivian Reed as Quavo, the minstrel.

Juanita Hansen Juanita Hansen (born Juanita Cecilia Hanson; March 3, 1895 – September 26, 1961) was an American actress who performed in silent films. She became one of the Sennett Bathing Beauties and appeared in a variety of serials through the late 191 ...

appeared in the film, early in her career.

16 mm 16 mm film is a historically popular and economical gauge of film. 16 mm refers to the width of the film (about inch); other common film gauges include 8 and 35 mm. It is generally used for non-theatrical (e.g., industrial, edu ...

prints of this film are distributed by

Em Gee EM, Em or em may refer to: Arts and entertainment Music * EM, the E major musical scale * Em, the E minor musical scale * Electronic music, music that employs electronic musical instruments and electronic music technology in its production * En ...

and have been released on

home video Home video is prerecorded media sold or rented for home viewing. The term originates from the VHS and Betamax era, when the predominant medium was videotapes, but has carried over to optical disc formats such as DVD, Blu-ray and streaming me ...

in various formats with different, and sometimes no, musical accompaniments. None include that which Gottschalk wrote for the film. Its highest profile release is on the third disc of the 2005 3-disc edition of '' The Wizard of Oz''. One of the surviving prints of the film (housed at the Library of Congress) consists of 3 reels, which translates to 38 minutes runtime, at 18

frames per second A frame is often a structural system that supports other components of a physical construction and/or steel frame that limits the construction's extent. Frame and FRAME may also refer to: Physical objects In building construction *Framing (con ...

). In 2009, a longer version of the film was released on

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kin ...

and

Blu-ray The Blu-ray Disc (BD), often known simply as Blu-ray, is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released on June 20, 2006 worldwide. It is designed to supersede the DVD format, and capable of sto ...

(though not in high definition) as part of the Ultimate Collector's Editions of '' The Wizard of Oz''. The presentation runs about seventeen minutes longer than the 2005 version (if it were played at 18 frames, but is played at 24 frames per second and runs at 42 minutes) and does not contain a musical score. Additional scenes were included, and subplots were expanded upon, including Nickodemus getting help from 4 witches (from ''

His Majesty, the Scarecrow of Oz ''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 ...

'' ), the Roly-Rogues clapping hands on a hill and a sailor making a necktie of a piece of the Magic Cloak he bought. This version was only held in private collections and shown at private conventions prior to the home video release.

Blooper

One intertitle refers to Jikki as "silly old Zixi". Later Zixi is introduced with the same name. The name Jikki is used in the book for the first character, but never in the intertitles as a result of this mistake.

Notes and references

* *

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Magic Cloak Of Oz, The 1914 films American black-and-white films Silent American fantasy films American silent short films Films directed by J. Farrell MacDonald Films based on American novels Films based on fantasy novels Films based on The Wizard of Oz Works by L. Frank Baum Paramount Pictures films Articles containing video clips 1910s fantasy films Surviving American silent films 1910s American films Silent American children's films