I recently came across the movie "Return to Oz" (1985, directed by Walter Murch). As a sequel to "The Wizard of Oz," "Return to Oz" was a box office failure. Even though fans of the L. Frank Baum's novels praised the movie as being more faithful to the original books, the tone of the movie was deemed too dark for its intended audience - children. I do like dark fantasy movies, but what caught my attention, was that one of the villains, Princess Mombi, plays the mandolin.
Princess Mombi (played by actor Sophie Ward) appeared early on in the movie in the Mirror Room, sitting elegantly on a throne, playing a bowlback mandolin. Although it appears that the music is dubbed, Ward's smooth tremolo gesture makes me wonder if she actually took some lessons.
The music of the next scene, The Hall of Heads, also features the mandolin. You can listen here -
If you listened to the two tracks, and found the tone of the mandolin a bit off, you are correct. That is because David Shire, the composer of the score, recorded the mandolin part with a synthesizer. According to an interview by David Kraft:
"Mombi’s theme employs a mandolin, since she plays her own theme on one in the movie. I used a synthesizer for this to get a slightly unreal mandolin sound that I could better control."
Pairing the mandolin with a villain is interesting, especially a bowlback mandolin with synthesized sound.
I can't help but think of a topic from my graduate studies: music exoticism. According to Grove Music Online, exoticism is "The evocation of a place, people, or social milieu that is (or is perceived or imagined to be) profoundly different from accepted local norms in its attitudes, customs, and morals."
To amplify the eerie character of Princess Mombi, Shire used a synthesizer to make a relatively unfamiliar bowlback mandolin (at least in 1980's mainstream America) sound more foreign.
This led to another question: Princess Langwidere, the equivalent character to Princess Mombi from Baum's novel "Ozma of Oz," also played the mandolin.
Here is the passage from the novel.
"Princess Langwidere's sitting-room was paneled with great mirrors, which reached from the ceiling to the floor; also the ceiling was composed of mirrors, and the floor was of polished silver that reflected every object upon it. So when Langwidere sat in her easy chair and played soft melodies upon her mandolin, her form was mirrored hundreds of times, in walls and ceiling and floor, and whichever way the lady turned her head she could see and admire her own features."
As Ozma of Oz was published during the “Golden Age” of mandolin in 1907, was the mandolin a device to accentuate Princess Langwidere's bizarre or graceful character?
Works Cited
Kraft, D. (2023, December 23). David Shire on scoring return to oz. CINESCORES CENTER. https://cinescores.dudaone.com/david-shire-on-scoring-return-to-oz
Langwidere (novels) | oz wiki | fandom. (n.d.-a). https://oz.fandom.com/wiki/Langwidere_(Novels)
Locke, R. (2020, March 30). Exoticism. Grove Music Online. Retrieved 1 Apr. 2026, from https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-0000045644.
Maxine, D. (n.d.). Strumming the mandolin. Hungry Tiger Talk. https://hungrytigerpress.blogspot.com/2011/02/strumming-mandolin.html
Ozma of oz by L. Frank Baum: 6. the heads of Langwidere. (n.d.-b). https://www.onlineliterature.com/baum/ozma-of-oz/6/
Wikimedia Foundation. (2026, March 2). L. Frank Baum. Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L._Frank_Baum
About the author: As a guitarist, teacher, and an arranger, Ken Luk actively performs in different solo and chamber music settings. He is the cofounder of the Rochester Mandolin Orchestra in February 2019 and organizes monthly meetings for mandolinists and guitarists of the Greater Rochester Area and currently serves on the board of Classical Mandolin Society of America. Born and raised in Hong Kong, Ken studied with Dr. Nicholas Goluses and finished his Doctor of Musical Arts degree at the Eastman School of Music. As one of the cofounders of Rochester Classical Guitar, Ken organizes various events to promote classical guitar in the Greater Rochester Area. In additional to classical music, Ken has strong interests in and frequently performs music of Brazil, Indonesia, Jamaica, and Zimbabwe.