Alice in Wonderland (1933)

In Victorian England a bored young girl dreams that she has entered a fantasy world called Wonderland populated by even more fantastic characters.

Director:

Norman Z. McLeod

Writers:

Joseph L. Mankiewicz (screenplay), William Cameron Menzies (screenplay),

Stars:

Richard Arlen, Roscoe Ates, William Austin

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Richard Arlen	...	Cheshire Cat
Roscoe Ates	...	Fish
William Austin	...	Gryphon
Gary Cooper	...	White Knight
Leon Errol	...	Uncle Gilbert
Louise Fazenda	...	White Queen
W.C. Fields	...	Humpty-Dumpty
Alec B. Francis	...	King of Hearts
Richard 'Skeets' Gallagher	...	Rabbit (as Skeets Gallagher)
Cary Grant	...	Mock Turtle
Lillian Harmer	...	Cook
Raymond Hatton	...	Mouse
Charlotte Henry	...	Alice
Sterling Holloway	...	Frog
Edward Everett Horton	...	Mad Hatter

Storyline

On a boring winter afternoon, Alice dreams, that she's visiting the land behind the mirror. This turns out to be a surrealistic nightmare, with all sorts of strange things happening to her, like changing her size or playing croquet with flamingos.

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Plot Keywords:

dream | croquet | mirror | flamingo | reference to william shakespeare | 

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Taglines:

The Entertainment Miracle Of All Times!

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Genres:

Adventure | Family | Fantasy

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Certificate:

Passed

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

22 December 1933 (USA)

Also Known As:

Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland

Filming Locations:

Paramount Studios - 5555 Melrose Avenue, Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Paramount Pictures

Technical Specs

Runtime:

76 min

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Noiseless Recording)

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Although much of the technical crew of the film is left completely uncredited (standard practice at the time), the opening credits sequence is one of the longest up to that time, lasting almost a full three-and-a-half minutes. Its length is due to the fact that practically every character was played by a major star or character actor of the time, and all are listed, one by one.

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Goofs

William Shakespeare's birth and death dates are given as 1585-1616. That would make him 31 when he died. Actually, although he did die in 1616 at the age of 52, he was born in 1564.

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Quotes

Alice: I've often seen a cat without a grin - but a grin without a cat!

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Crazy Credits

The opening cast credits are in order of appearance, with stills of credited actors shown twice: first in full costume and mask with the character name identified, and followed by a studio photo of each with their actor name identified. The end credits are in alphabetical order and presented normally with a character name and actor name on each line.

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Connections

Version of Abby in Wonderland (2008)

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Soundtracks

"Rock-a-Bye Baby"
(1886) (uncredited)
Music and Lyrics by Effie I. Canning
Played as background music when Alice falls asleep

User Reviews

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".