Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1972)

Director:

William Sterling

Writers:

Lewis Carroll (novel) and
William Sterling (written by)

Release Date:

22 April 1973 (UK)

Genre:

Adventure | Family | Fantasy | Musical

Tagline:

Made in Wonderland, the most magical musical of all!

Plot Keywords:

Cat | Hare | Alternate Dimension | Duck | Dodo

Awards:

Won 2 BAFTA Film Awards.

Cast

Fiona Fullerton	...	Alice
Michael Jayston	...	Lewis Carroll (Charles Dodgson)
Hywel Bennett	...	Duckworth
Michael Crawford	...	White Rabbit
Davy Kaye	...	Mouse
William Ellis	...	Dodo
Freddie Earlle	...	Guinea Pig Pat
Julian Chagrin	...	Bill the Lizard
Mike Elles	...	Guinea Pig Two
Ralph Richardson	...	The Caterpillar
Fred Cox	...	Tweedledum (as Freddie Cox)
Frank Cox	...	Tweedledee
Peter O'Farrell	...	Fish Footman
Ian Trigger	...	Frog Footman (as Peter Trigger)
Peter Bull	...	Duchess

Also Known As:

Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (Australia)

Runtime:

101 min | USA:95 min

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Australia:PG | UK:U | USA:G | Singapore:PG

Filming Locations:

Shepperton Studios, Shepperton, Surrey, England, UK

Company:

Joseph Shaftel Productions

Trivia:

Hywel Bennett has no dialogue in the movie.

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: Alice lands in the leaves after falling down the hole, she then gets up and runs down a "stone" to follow the white rabbit. The stone is clearly made of foam, as it squishes under Alice's feet.

Quotes:

[first lines]
Alice: Please, Mr. Dodgson. Just once more.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in College (2008)

Soundtrack:

You've To Know When To Stop

not quite magical enough

This adaptation of Lewis Carroll's weird and wonderful book tries hard to do justice to its source, but doesn't quite get there. The music by John Barry is saccharine and unmemorable for the most part; although things do pick up when the Mock Turtle and Gryphon (Michael Hordern and Spike Milligan, inspired casting!) lead Alice in a mad dance.

Young Fiona Fullerton looks the part and sings well - she'd go on to front a number of musicals - but the other characters just stop on the wrong side of odd and scary, making them not frightening in the least. The White Rabbit (Michael Crawford) dashes around, the Mad Hatter, March Hare, and Dormouse have their odd tea party (Robert Helpmann, Peter Sellers, and Dudley Moore in another highlight of the film), the Duchess's baby turns into a pig (the Duchess is played by Peter Bull, who turned in a number of grotesque female roles in cinema), and the Queen of Hearts orders everyone's heads off (a waste of Flora Robson's talents).

The film needed a bit of imagination to take off (for another interpretation of the creatures, see the 1980s film 'Dreamchild', with horrific creations from Jim Henson's workshop); as it is, it passes the time but has little fizz.