Alice in Wonderland

Plot

This star-laden version of Lewis Carroll's novel combines elements of both the title novel and Carroll's sequel, Through the Looking Glass. In England of the 19th century, young Alice finds that the mirror over the library fireplace opens into a strange world. She has odd adventures and changes size several times both before and after she follows a time-obsessed White Rabbit (Skeets Gallagher). Soaked after nearly drowning in a pool of tears, Alice is helped to dry off by a Dodo (Polly Moran), and encounters a caterpillar (Ned Sparks), whose mushroom also changes Alice's size. In a noisy home where the Cook (Lillian Harmer) and the Duchess (Alison Skipworth) are always fighting, Alice takes care of the Duchess' baby, but it turns into a pig and runs away. Asking directions of the Cheshire Cat (Richard Arlen) is no help, and a tea party with the Mad Hatter (Edward Everett Horton), the March Hare (Charlie Ruggles) and the Dormouse (Jackie Searl) is confusing and annoying.

Alice meets the Queen of Hearts (May Robson), and encounters the Duchess again; while strolling with her, Alice meets the Gryphon (William Austin) and the Mock Turtle (Cary Grant). The twins Tweedledum (Jack Oakie) and Tweedledee (Roscoe Karns) recite a poem about a Walrus and a Carpenter (seen as an animated cartoon), but when they decide to go to battle, they're chased off by a crow. Humpty Dumpty (W.C. Fields) relates the poem "Jabberwocky" to Alice, then falls off a wall and breaks. The mournful White Knight (Gary Cooper), unable to put Humpty Dumpty together again, escorts Alice for a while, but she tumbles down a hill and finds she's become a queen. At a party in Alice's honor, the Red Queen (Edna Mae Oliver) becomes furious at Alice, who then wakes up to find herself in the library, with her kitten Dinah in her lap. ~ Bill Warren, Rovi

Review

Lewis Carroll's "Alice" stories have never made a totally satisfactory transition to the cinema, perhaps because a great deal of their strength lies in wordplay and mathematical underpinnings that are simply more at home on the page than on the screen. This version of Alice in Wonderland is fairly faithful to the letter of Carroll's work, but it neither captures the original's spirit nor comes up with a unique spirit of its own. The screenplay is also decidedly choppy, which is one of the dangers in filming a story as episodic as this, and it feels as if there were too many hands working on it. That said, the physical production itself is a marvel, especially for its time, with lavish sets, effects', and costumes (and a delightful animated sequence by Hugh Harman and Rudolf Ising). The all-star cast is somewhat wasted, as the elaborate costumes make most of the actors unrecognizable, and the parts do not necessarily call for star performers, but it still is fun to pick out the big (and not so big) names. Charlotte Henry is a very fine Alice, capturing both her precocity and her petulance and helping to anchor the film. Of the stars, best are W.C. Fields, who seems quite at home with the absurdity of his dialogue, and Gary Cooper, cast against dashing type as a senile knight. Even though Alice is uneven, there are a number of segments -- the drowning in tears, the surrealistic climax, etc. -- that work quite well. ~ Craig Butler, Rovi

Cast

• Charlotte Henry - Alice
• Richard Arlen - Cheshire Cat
• Roscoe Ates - Fish
• William Austin - Gryphon
• Billy Barty - White Pawn and the Baby

Billy Bevan - Two of Spades; Colin Campbell - Garden Frog; Harvey Clark - Fr. William; Gary Cooper - White Knight; Jack Duffy - Leg of Mutton; Leon Errol - Uncle Gilbert; Louise Fazenda - White Queen; W.C. Fields - Humpty Dumpty; Alec B. Francis - King of Hearts; Cary Grant - Mock Turtle; Raymond Hatton - Mouse; Lucien Littlefield - Father William's Son; Mae Marsh - Sheep; Polly Moran - Dodo Bird; Jack Oakie - Tweedledum; Edna May Oliver - Red Queen; May Robson - Queen of Hearts; Charlie Ruggles - March Hare; Jackie Searl - Dormouse; Alison Skipworth - Duchess; Ned Sparks - The Caterpillar; Ford Sterling - The White King; Julie Bishop - Alice's Sister; Harry Ekezian - First Executioner; Richard "Skeets" Gallagher - White Rabbit; Meyer Grace - Third Executioner; Ethel Griffies - Governess; Lillian Harmer - Cook; Sterling Holloway - Frog; Edward Everett Horton - Mad Hatter; Roscoe Karns - Tweedledee; Colin Kenny - The Clock; Baby Le Roy - Joker; Charles McNaughton - Five of Spades; Patsy O'Byrne - The Aunt; Will Stanton - Seven of Spades; Joe Torilla - Second Executioner; Leslie King; George Ovey - Plum Pudding

Credit

William Cameron Menzies - Art Director, Robert Odell - Art Director, Newt Jones - Costume Designer, Wally Westmore - Costume Designer, Norman Z. McLeod - Director, Edward Hoagland - Editor, Ellsworth Hoagland - Editor, Dimitri Tiomkin - Composer (Music Score), Bert Glennon - Cinematographer, Henry Sharp - Cinematographer, Louis D. Lighton - Producer, Robert Odell - Set Designer, Farciot Edouart - Special Effects, Gordon Jennings - Special Effects, Joseph L. Mankiewicz - Screenwriter, William Cameron Menzies - Screenwriter, Lewis Carroll - Book Author

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