Alice In Wonderland (1933) [DVD]

I first encountered this version of ALICE IN WONDERLAND back in the early 1960s when I was home from school recovering from a bad cold. In those days your local TV station would show morning movies before the game shows started. I only saw it that one time until many years later but I never forgot some of the imagery. It may not be Lewis Carroll's ALICE (no movie ever is) but it does create a world of its own which is its strongest selling point. It actually plays better today than in 1933 for with few exceptions (W.C. Fields, Cary Grant, Gary Cooper), no one remembers the other stars (aside from Charlotte Henry best known as Bo-Peep in Laurel & Hardy's BABES IN TOYLAND) and so they can be viewed as characters not stars under heavy make-up. The adaptation by Joseph L. Mankiewicz retains most of Carroll's original dialogue and is more THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS than ALICE. It flows very nicely between the two books and at 77 minutes seems just right. As has been noted elsewhere the film was originally 90 minutes but the missing footage deals with the real world so it probably isn't missed too badly. The question is why was it cut.

For reasons that have never been fully explained or understood, the film has been out of circulation for years (even from TV showings) and was never officially released until now to cash in on the Tim Burton adaptation (just as Sherlock Holmes movies have reappeared in time for Robert Downey Jr's version). That's how the game is played. The cover has even been colorized to hide the fact from most people that the film is in black & white. The production design by the legendary William Cameron Menzies uses black and white to good advantage as does Bert Glennon's photography so fortunately no attempt was made to colorize the film for this release. In fact Universal, who now owns the rights to the film, has made no attempt to do much of anything with this release which is a real shame. I'm sure there are copyright issues involved but it would have been nice to have the Betty Boop cartoon BETTY IN BLUNDERLAND as an added bonus as well as production stills or commentary from someone who admires the film. Although not a perfect transfer, it is light years away from the bootleg and gray market copies available until now and for that I am thankful. Maybe someday it will get the royal treatment it deserves.

I love this movie. and yes i've read the books. if you love old black and white 30's movies you'll love this adaptation the best. there's just something about surrealism in B&W that is so haunting and memorable. Charlotte Henry is just wonderful and many of the scenes from the book like the tea party, Humpty Dumpty, and particularly the Tweedles are very faithful. don't hesitate to get a copy of this right away before it becomes hard to get again. a must own for any 'Alice' fan.
James Johnston
the real 'Alice' fan
(Dean just has the account)

Curiouser and curiouser doesn't even begin to describe Paramount's lavish 1933 version of Alice in Wonderland. Few films of the Golden age can boast quite so impressive a roll-call of talent both in front of and behind the cameras: while stars like Richard Arlen, Leon Errol, Edna May Oliver, Ned Sparks, Charlie Ruggles, Sterling Holloway, Jack Oakie, Baby LeRoy and May Robson may have faded, there's still Cary Grant as the Mock Turtle, Edward Everett Horton as the Mad Hatter, Gary Cooper as the White Knight and W.C. Fields as Humpty Dumpty and a screenplay by Joseph L. Mankiewicz and legendary production designer William Cameron Menzies, a score by Dimitri Tiomkin and direction by Norman Z. McLeod. How could it miss? Surprisingly easily...

To be fair, the film is nowhere near the disaster of its reputation: intended to save Paramount from toppling into bankruptcy by roping almost all their major contract players into one film regardless of whether they were right for the film or not, the reviews were mixed - with many, like Variety's, incredibly savage - and the box-office poor, with Paramount cutting the film by some 13 minutes shortly after previews (it's the shorter version that's made it to DVD). It didn't endear itself to fans of Lewis Carroll by combining both Wonderland and the Looking Glass and not being especially faithful to either, while star spotters will have their work cut out by the grotesque masks and heavy makeup they wear - so heavy that you wonder why they didn't just have the actors dub the dialogue over standins. Few make much impression, though Cooper shines through his Don Quixote makeup to give a surprisingly good turn as the elderly doddering knight who can't stay on his horse and who sounds oddly like a geriatric Groucho Marx. Charlotte Henry makes a good Alice, the effects are generally pretty impressive, the design sometimes rather good and there are even a couple of surreal background gags to add an extra layer of unsanity, but the tone doesn't seem quite right, with key scenes like the Mad Hatter's Tea Party falling horribly flat. The film manages to feel both drawn out in its opening stages and rushed once it reaches Wonderland even though few scenes show visible signs of being heavily trimmed. Nor does it really know how to end, a fault you could also lay at Carroll's original but which is magnified here with a surreal banquet that becomes increasingly nightmarish. And for all the whimsy, this is a production that at once stresses the grotesque over the absurd while constantly diluting it with reassuring asides.

There's enough that does work to make it worth a viewing, but there's also enough that doesn't to stop it from being the classic its heavyweight credits imply. Indeed, the roster of talent is the film's biggest problem, raising hopes the film cannot possibly satisfy, making it one of those films that seems so much better - though still not hitting the bullseye - on a second viewing. No extras on the DVD, though.