Alice in Wonderland (1933)

"Alice in Wonderland" is one of the more misguided projects I've ever seen. Apparently, Paramount studio was in trouble in the early 30s and those in charge were worried about bankruptcy. So, in a crazy bid to make a blockbuster, some idiot hit upon taking most of the stars at the studio and putting them into a glossy film where could couldn't even recognize them!!! That's like taking the greatest singers of their age and putting them into a silent movie!The story is a mishmash of "Alice in Wonderland" and "Through the Looking Glass" and consists of a VERY old Alice (19) going on adventures with super-creepy characters--too creepy! It's not at all enjoyable and was a chore to watch from start to finish. Horrible and difficult to enjoy.

When i was a kid and would watch this i always thought it was weird and disturbing. when i was really little i remember being sort of afraid of it. now i think it's a hoot.I've always liked black and white films and feel they achieve stark images with lots of contrast. it's even weirder when the film is a fantasy and features a variety of effects and gimmicks, then it really brings out the dream-like qualities of the black and white.I've never thought this film was as fun or delightful as 'The Wizard of Oz' movie, but i've changed my opinion of it and have found a new respect for the film. it isn't as sweet as 'Oz', but it's a lot weirder and freaky. even though i have always really liked Charlotte Henry(little Bo Peep from 'Wooden Soldiers') her performance doesn't have the touching depth of Judy Garland's Dorothy.the only thing here that i found i was still afraid of was W.C. Field's Humpty Dumpty. i just can't get used to it. it's just plain horrifying.the decades of time have softened the shadows and edges of this movie and taken away a lot of it's nightmarish effect. instead of nightmarish, it now seems quaint and kooky.

In the depths of the Great Depression, Paramount mounted this spectacular fantasy with a galaxy of top flight stars and just missed creating a classic. Like the stage ALICE IN WONDERLAND Eva LeGallienne had mounted the year before at her Civic Repertory Theatre in New York - only just closed when the film opened - which appears to have inspired this production, the sets and costumes are drawn heavily from the classic and by then in public domain illustrations from the original book by John Tenniel.The result is a dazzling world - starting with Alice's Victorian drawing room where she is waiting out a snow storm with her cat, Dinah and her aunt before beginning her explorations Through the Looking Glass (the film combines both of Lewis Carroll's most famous books) and continuing through most of the most famous incidents from the books in live action fantasy form. Only "The Walrus and The Carpenter," delightfully rendered by Max Fleischer's cartoon studio (one would love to have seen the cut footage of the similarly popular "You Are Old Father William" poem!) was deemed too hard to portray with live actors - the baby oysters lured from their bed for culinary conversation - "Shoes and ships and sealing wax" and all that. You've probably seen this cartoon edited from the film and issued separately! This was a separate Hollywood production, despite similarities with the Broadway play with music, and didn't use the any of that show's Richard Addinsell song score (recorded by RCA during the stage show's 1947 revival) but turned Dimitri Tiomkin loose on it, and it's nice to see that film's premiere composer could also turn out a nice enough song or two too. This was a first class production all the way - and like MGM's WIZARD OF OZ six years later, didn't make money in it's initial release - or initial RE-release in 1935. Lacking ...OZ's Technicolor and popular song score, this ALICE IN WONDERLAND didn't even carve out its classic niche when television came in, and is now almost lost - supplanted in the popular mind by the fine 1951 Disney animated version of the story, but is well worth seeking out for lovers of Lewis Carroll, classic fantasy or classic film.Technicolor or not, songs or not, the film still has elements which dazzle and only a few serious drawbacks for the "short attention span" set. Charlotte Henry is a fine, natural Alice (in an all too brief career of only 31 films, before retiring during WWII, she also did the Laurel & Hardy BABES IN TOYALAND in 1934 and the best of all the Chans, CHARLIE CHAN AT THE OPERA in 1936 as Boris Karloff's daughter!) and she is ably supported by a cast of great actors - not all of whom have the luxury of costumes revealing their faces like Ned Sparks' Caterpillar, Edward Everett Horton's Mad Hatter or Edna May Oliver's Red Queen, but the voices of rising stars like Cary Grant (a wonderful singing Mock Turtle) and old pro W.C. Fields (Humpty Dumpty) won't really require seeing the faces in their "Tenniel come-to-life" costumes.The problem, if any, comes in the mad whirl of crazy fantasy that takes Alice deeper and deeper into Wonderland (and its sequel) and after a while can lose the audience's interest as they try clinging to a thru-story line. Stick around though, for Gary Cooper's appearance around an hour into the film as The White Knight (only the name is type casting)! It is one of the greatest treats in a motion picture packed with them - and arguably one of the crowning gems of Cooper's career. Quite wonderful.Modern audiences may cringe a bit in the opening scene seeing Alice, in a highly starched - and highly FLAMMABLE - dress and apron climbing on the grate in front of a burning fireplace to look in the mirror over the hearth, but someone at the studio did notice (and probably hoped the audience wouldn't). When Alice returns, the fire is out. After 75 years though, the fire is far from out on this fascinating extravaganza. If you get a chance to see it, grab it.

Whilst it's undoubtedly true to say that few (if any) members of the cast were ever again to play such weirdly offbeat roles, the performances generally rate as both captivating and fascinating. Adults will be enthralled. The film may, however, be regarded as too grotesque for children.Mary Boland, Bing Crosby and Charles Laughton were originally scheduled for the cast, while Jack Oakie was slated to play both Tweeledum and Tweedledee. Charlotte Henry was chosen to play Alice from over seven thousand applicants.Although the official writing credit is divided between Menzies and Mankiewicz, what Menzies actually did was to illustrate the script which Mankiewicz combined from the two Carroll novels. When I interviewed Mankiewicz, he was justifiably proud of the fact that he used Carroll's original dialogue and followed the original characters and incidents without the slightest deviation, except for the omission of the Lion and the Unicorn, the Live Flowers and the episode on the train in Chapter Three of "Looking Glass". (We were speaking, of course, about the original 90 minutes version, not the ruthlessly truncated parody that formerly plagued television airings).A striking film in every respect, this version also anticipates Disney with its excellent cartoon sequence, "The Walrus and the Carpenter".