Alice in Wonderland (1933)

Director:

Norman Z. McLeod

Writers:

Lewis Carroll (novels)
Joseph L. Mankiewicz (screenplay) ...

Release Date:

22 December 1933 (USA)

Genre:

Family | Fantasy

Tagline:

The Entertainment Miracle Of All Times!

Plot:

On a boring winter afternoon, Alice dreams, that she's visiting the land behind the mirror. This turns out to be a surrealistic nightmare...

Plot Keywords:

Tea Party | Alternate Dimension | Cards | Baby | Caterpillar

Cast

Charlotte Henry	...	Alice
Leon Errol	...	Uncle Gilbert
Louise Fazenda	...	The White Queen
Ford Sterling	...	The White King
Richard 'Skeets' Gallagher	...	The White Rabbit (as Skeets Gallagher)
Raymond Hatton	...	The Mouse
Polly Moran	...	The Dodo Bird
Ned Sparks	...	The Caterpillar
Sterling Holloway	...	The Frog
Roscoe Ates	...	The Fish
Alison Skipworth	...	The Duchess
Lillian Harmer	...	The Cook
Richard Arlen	...	The Cheshire Cat
Edward Everett Horton	...	The Mad Hatter
Jackie Searl	...	Dormouse

Runtime:

76 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Noiseless Recording)

Certification:

USA:Approved (PCA #1367-R) (31 August 1935 for re-release)

Company:

Paramount Pictures

Trivia:

The film was one of several theatrical films based on literary classics which were released to US schools in the 1950s and '60s, for showing to children. The others included Heidi (1937) and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1939). They were all released to the schools in heavily cut versions that had a running time of no more than forty-five minutes.

Movie Connections:

Featured in W.C. Fields: Straight Up (1986) (TV)

Soundtrack:

Beautiful Soup

Full-length version is a feast for adults!

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".