"Great Performances" Alice in Wonderland (1983)

User Rating:

7.3/10   

Director:

Kirk Browning

Writer:

Lewis Carroll (novel)

TV Series:

"Great Performances" (1972)

Original Air Date:

3 October 1983

Genre:

Comedy | Music | Musical | Romance

Plot:

Plot Keywords:

Duchess | Cards | Playing Card | Hare | Lifting Person In Air

Cast

Eve Arden	...	Queen of Hearts
Kaye Ballard	...	Duchess
Kate Burton	...	Alice
Richard Burton	...	White Knight
James Coco	...	King of Hearts
Tony Cummings	...	Knave of Hearts
André De Shields	...	Tweedledum
Colleen Dewhurst	...	Red Queen
Andre Gregory	...	Mad Hatter
Geoffrey Holder	...	Cheshire Cat
Zeljko Ivanek	...	March Hare
Nathan Lane	...	Mouse
Donald O'Connor	...	Mock Turtle
Austin Pendleton	...	White Rabbit
Maureen Stapleton	...	White Queen

Runtime:

90 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Sound Mix:

Mono

Company:

WNET Channel 13 New York

Trivia:

Kate Burton's TV debut.

Movie Connections:

Version of Fairy Tales on Ice: Alice Through the Looking Glass (1996) (V)

Hauntingly disturbing

As a child, I was fortunate enough to have taped this version of Alice from a PBS showing. The real beauty of this particular version stems from the fact that it was filmed in a straight run-through. This allowed for all sorts of sordid images that remain with me, even today. A few examples: Tweedledee and Tweedledum dripping with sweat while dancing around; the seven-year-old Alice smoking backstage between scenes; the prop used as the baby that would not stop crying being thrown around. There are also some instances of shear brilliance, as in the performance of the white rabbit or the mock turtle's rendition of "Beautiful Soup." All in all, this telling of a classic seems to have endured better than the others, surely moreso than the Disney version.