Alice in Wonderland (1915)

Director:

W.W. Young

Writers:

Lewis Carroll (novel) and
W.W. Young (writer)

Release Date:

19 January 1915 (USA)

Genre:

Fantasy

Plot Keywords:

Tea Party | Alice In Wonderland | Queen | Cat | Cards

Cast

  (Credited cast)

Viola Savoy

...

Alice

Runtime:

52 min

Country:

USA

Color:

Black and White

Sound Mix:

Silent

Company:

American Film Manufacturing Company

Movie Connections:

Version of Neco z Alenky (1988)

Surreal.

Viola Savoy plays Alice in this early silent adaptation of incidents from both Alice in Wonderland and Alice Through the Looking Glass. She's good enough, but it's the creatures she encounters that capture the viewer's attention. This being 1915, long before the concept of CGI etc, all the creatures are actors in costumes that barely rise above pantomime quality but which were probably quite impressive for their day. The film shows most of the familiar scenes from the books although, possibly because of the technical difficulties involved, it fights shy of showing us Alice shrinking and growing. The Mad Hatter's tea party is also missing, which is something of a surprise.

Watching this film, it struck me how easily the story of Alice could be told as a horror story with babies turning into pigs, mad monarchs threatening everyone with decapitation, etc. As it is, the combination of outlandish costumes filmed against real rural or coastal locations and the absence of dialogue gives this film a strangely surreal, dreamlike atmosphere at times that is quite pleasant to watch.