Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1972)

"Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" is mostly faithful to the classic children's book, even to the title (notice it is not "Alice in Wonderland"). A who's who of British talent, it is a wonderful film, if taken according to the prescription.First of all, find a copy of the British release, which is widescreen. In full screen mode, which was the American version I picked up, one totally loses the BAFTA-winning cinematography by Geoffrey Unsworth, and the movie is cheapened to a lot of meaningless close-ups. Also, be sure to watch it on home video and not commercial television, as the movie works better without commercials. Without commercials it's shorter, and that's a fine start.The good: Fiona Fullerton is a lovely and winsome Alice, and has remarkably good line readings for someone who is about sixteen, if not a tad younger. This might seem old for Alice, but she's charming and daddies can watch the show with their (probably bored) kids, enjoying the pretty girl without the guilt of pedophilia.Also good: Flora Robson was born to play the Queen of Hearts. Peter Bull, in drag, is hilarious as the Duchess and it's a shame he hasn't more to do. Robert Helpmann, the horrifying child-catcher in "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang", plays a snippish but ultimately likable Mad Hatter. His Hatter is not really mad, just very discourteous. Hatter's sidekick, the March Hare, is played with suitable flashes of insanity by Peter Sellers (who also got one of the best make-up jobs). You can believe Sellers' March Hare has flipped.Also on the good side: Alice meets actor Michael Hordern as the Mock Turtle and Peter Sellers' old comrade from BBC's "The Goon Show" as a wacky Gryphon. Using his "Jim Spriggs" voice from "The Goon Show" -- and if you don't know the Goons, check out BBC Radio 4-extra -- Milligan is treat from beginning to end, when you can make out what he's saying. While this Gryphon/Mock Turtle scene lacks the sublimity John Gielgud and Malcolm Muggeridge brought to Jonathan Miller's weird "Alice in Wonderland", it becomes one of the most joyous scenes in this movie. (Watch for Spike Milligan's momentary suggestion of recognition when Peter Sellers' March Hare rushes past him in the courtroom scene).Ralph Richardson is a knowing caterpillar (compare his forceful performance to the equally good but terribly frightened caterpillar of Michael Redgrave in Jonathan Miller's wacky retake). Richardson is the best caterpillar in any "Alice." The bad: The sets are pretty awful, but they all had to be done by hand in 1972. No computers. So that's forgivable. What is not forgivable are some of the costumes. The March Hare is good, and the Gryphon. Dudley Moore's Dormouse costume is incredibly unconvincing, while actors like Michael Crawford (the White Rabbit) got buried in ridiculous masks.The ugly: John Barry's music is always welcome in movie scores, so his background music is lovely. The songs, however, are terrible. Songs actually from the book ("The Lobster Quadrille" for instance) come off slightly better than those that have lyrics written for the movie, but John Barry lets the side down when it comes to putting music to Carroll's words. The best policy is, except for the Mock Turtle scene, fast forward through songs. They will bore children and parents alike.Also ugly: the cast. Note, not the acting. The acting is marvelous. Some of the best British actors of the twentieth century are piled into this movie like a clown car. But the movie is top-heavy with talent. Is that a bad thing? Yes.Why plug Michael Crawford in as the White Rabbit, or Dudley Moore as the Dormouse, if you're going to cover their faces? As for the characters who are not masked, Flora Robson is remarkable as the Queen, but Dennis Price has little to do as the King except hang around the Queen. Rodney Bewes' ("The Likely Lads") Knave of Hearts has dialogue consisting of little more than hiccups. Michael Jayston is superb with his few lines in the framing scenes; one almost wishes the movie had been about Dodgson than Alice. But was he necessary in such a tiny role?Most of the actors are in here because they are excellent actors (Richardson, Sellers, etc.) or because they are recognizable even under heavy make-up (Roy Kinnear as the Cheshire Cat). But if one is acquainted with Brit actors of this period, the movie becomes a game of spot-the-actor; and that detracts from the movie as a whole. This will probably become less of a problem the farther away we get from 1972, as so many of these fine performers will have died and been forgotten, especially by Americans. Also ugly: the further we get from 1972, the worse the special effects look to the unsympathetic viewer spoiled by rampant CGI.Overall, this is a solid "Alice" performed by actors who, mostly, do not mug but take their parts seriously. The greatest drawback for this and every "Alice" is that we have live actors performing roles that are really more suitable for animation. One day, maybe we'll get a completely CGI "Alice." What a sad day that will be.

Sometimes a movie's triumphs work against it. The triumph in this remake of "Alice in Wonderland" is its magical opening sequence, where we see Victorian haughtiness and manners, the wonders of the imagination, and perhaps even the suggestion of Dodgson's repressed sexual interest in the young Alice Liddel all manifest themselves in less than ten minutes. The expectation created in these wonderfully crafted scenes, aided by John Barry's music score, is that we shall see something truly magical once Alice arrives in Wonderland. Then after arriving in Wonderland, we soon realize that every scene is going to be pretty much like the last one: a bunch of actors dressed up in costumes and singing forgettable songs. The bright colours, the sense of wonder and magic, and witty dialogue -- which existed in the memorable, albeit flawed, Disney version -- have been completely drained from this picture. This film does little for the imagination and fails even more miserably as entertainment.

This is the fourth film version I’ve watched of Lewis Carroll’s classic – the 1903 Silent, the 1951 Walt Disney animated version, and the 1966 British TV adaptation; there are at least three more adaptations I’m interested in – Paramount’s 1933 all-star feature, the 1949 Franco-British version mixing live-action with puppet figures, and Jan Svankmajer’s 1988 film. This musicalized version was made in a time when setting literary classics (everything from Miguel Cervantes to George Bernard Shaw, Charles Dickens to James Hilton) to music was quite fashionable. Still, despite the engagement of a tremendous cast – Michael Jayston, Hywel Bennett, Michael Crawford, Ralph Richardson, Peter Bull, Roy Kinnear, Robert Helpmann, Peter Sellers, Dudley Moore, Dennis Price, Flora Robson, Spike Milligan, Michael Hordern – they are mostly ineffective and even unrecognizable under all the heavy make-up! Alice herself – Fiona Fullerton – isn’t very sympathetic either.The highlight is perhaps the tea party sequence with Helpmann (as The Mad Hatter), Sellers (as The March Hare) and Moore (as The Dormouse) – after which the slow-moving film starts slipping into boredom. The music by John Barry and lyrics by Don Black are decent at best, but distinctly unmemorable. Writer-director William Sterling’s adaptation – whose only film in that capacity this was – is disappointingly uninspired, then, turning Carroll’s surrealistic original into a dullish kiddie film! Apart from the opportunity of star-spotting, the film’s main virtues, therefore, are Geoffrey Unsworth’s cinematography and Anthony Mendelsohn’s colorful costume designs – qualities which were also recognized by the BAFTA. Admittedly, I rewatched this via a budget DVD release of a public domain, panned-and-scanned and extremely hazy print – which certainly didn’t aid my appreciation of it in any way!

This delightfully off-beat, imaginative and hugely entertaining musical fantasy adaptation of Lewis Carroll's often told classic tale displays a sense of pure joy and unbridled creativity that's both quite infectious and tremendously enjoyable in comparable measure. First off, there are many marvelously manic moments of divinely demented and inspired off-the-wall lunacy. The sequence with Robert Helpmann as the hysterically bonkers Mad Hatter, a perfectly cast Peter Sellers as the equally insane March Hare and Dudley Moore as the sleepy Doormouse in particular hits a note of total comic pandemonium that's a riot to watch. The sequence with Spike Milligan as the Gryphon and Michael Hordern as the marvelously melancholy Mock Turtle likewise takes off with a wacky vigor that's just a hoot to see. And the deliciously delirious courtroom climax builds to a sidesplitting crescendo of beautifully bent, batty and berserk bedlam as well.The remarkable cast of first-rate British thespians couldn't be better: Fred and Frank Cox are flat-out hilarious as Tweedledum and Tweedledee, the ever droll'n'dotty Sir Ralph Richardson makes for a splendid Caterpillar, Peter Bull in drag is a fabulously grotesque Duchess, Flora Robson an extremely fearsome Queen of Hearts, Dennis Price a suitably ineffectual King of Hearts, and Michael Crawford is simply outstanding as the White Rabbit. Geoffrey Unsworth's sumptuous cinematography, shot in dewy soft focus, effectively depicts a dreamy atmosphere that's genuinely otherworldly and entrancing. John Barry's spirited score and the surrealistic sets and costumes further enhance the flaky merriment. Best of all is the extraordinary Fiona Fullerton as Alice; she's so cute, sweet and utterly endearing, with a nice singing voice and a winningly sincere presence, plus she's an undeniably adorable and engaging brunette beauty, that she effortlessly keeps the viewer enchanted and enthralled with Alice's colorful and eventful experiences in Wonderland.