To begin with, this is another title I'd always read about but, frankly, had little hope of ever catching; though its reputation stands more on imposing credentials rather than actual artistic merit, I have to say that I was generally impressed with the results (special mention goes to the beautiful sets). That said, even at a mere 76 minutes (actually reduced from the 90-minute original), the film slightly overstays its welcome following Gary Cooper's belated appearance as the quixotic White Knight. At this stage, I ought to catalogue the other versions I've watched of the Lewis Carroll perennial: 1903 Silent short, 1951 animated Disney feature, 1966 all-star British TV-movie, 1972 musical (with another fine cast) and, soon after the film under review, Jan Svankmajer's celebrated 1988 surreal reworking (review coming up).
Charlotte Henry is O.K. in the title role incidentally, she'd follow this adaptation of a children's classic with the heroine role in another popular fantasy, the Laurel & Hardy version of BABES IN TOYLAND (1934). Here, too, the array of weird characters Alice meets in her dreamworld are played by a roster of Paramount stars from the early Talkie era, a few of whom are forgotten today most are, in any case, largely obscured by masks. The most notable, of course, are Cary Grant (who even gets to sing and bawl a lot!) positively weird as the heartbroken Mock Turtle (really a cow in a tortoise shell!), W.C. Fields grandiose and pompous as ever, thus making for a great Humpty-Dumpty, and Gary Cooper his trademark handsome features and heroic persona are hidden behind an ageing, balding make-up and an amusingly gawky countenance. Other stars include: Richard Arlen as The Cheshire Cat(!), Sterling Holloway interestingly, he played The Frog here while providing the voice for The Cheshire Cat itself in the subsequent Disney adaptation, Edward Everett Horton an ideal Mad Hatter, Roscoe Karns and Jack Oakie as Tweedledee and Tweedledum, May Robson as The Queen Of Hearts, Charlie Ruggles as The March Hare, and Alison Skipworth as The Duchess. It's worth noting that, along with director McLeod and co-scriptwriter Joseph L. Mankiewicz, the film has some nine cast and crew members in common with the famous (and equally rare) compendium IF I HAD A MILLION (1932) and which I actually watched a day previously!
Curiously enough, this version of Carroll's children's classic also proved distinguished production designer and occasional director William Cameron Menzies' sole screen writing credit; actually, it combines elements from both "Alice In Wonderland" and "Through The Looking-Glass": for instance, the appearance of the White Rabbit (which introduces the fantasy element in most versions of the tale is moved forward into the narrative here, preferring to use a mirror as passageway into the dreamworld this change may well have been influenced by Jean Cocteau's THE BLOOD OF A POET [1930]); similarly, the climactic trial is replaced by a wacky banquet scene. By the way, the cartoon story-within-a-story which appears during the Tweedledee and Tweedledum scenes were reportedly made by the Fleischer studio; equally nice are the effects by which Alice is made to shrink (and then grow back) in size in order to get through a very small door even if the follow-up scene, set inside one of the houses in Wonderland, involving such a device is missing from this particular version. The DivX copy I acquired regrettably suffered from lip-synch problems, so that I had to rewind the film every so often to get it back on track (despite the sheer amount of rare stuff I'm getting via this format, the frustration that goes with it is so great that I'm seriously contemplating giving it up for good especially since I've still got heaps of these titles to check out).
Charlotte Henry is O.K. in the title role incidentally, she'd follow this adaptation of a children's classic with the heroine role in another popular fantasy, the Laurel & Hardy version of BABES IN TOYLAND (1934). Here, too, the array of weird characters Alice meets in her dreamworld are played by a roster of Paramount stars from the early Talkie era, a few of whom are forgotten today most are, in any case, largely obscured by masks. The most notable, of course, are Cary Grant (who even gets to sing and bawl a lot!) positively weird as the heartbroken Mock Turtle (really a cow in a tortoise shell!), W.C. Fields grandiose and pompous as ever, thus making for a great Humpty-Dumpty, and Gary Cooper his trademark handsome features and heroic persona are hidden behind an ageing, balding make-up and an amusingly gawky countenance. Other stars include: Richard Arlen as The Cheshire Cat(!), Sterling Holloway interestingly, he played The Frog here while providing the voice for The Cheshire Cat itself in the subsequent Disney adaptation, Edward Everett Horton an ideal Mad Hatter, Roscoe Karns and Jack Oakie as Tweedledee and Tweedledum, May Robson as The Queen Of Hearts, Charlie Ruggles as The March Hare, and Alison Skipworth as The Duchess. It's worth noting that, along with director McLeod and co-scriptwriter Joseph L. Mankiewicz, the film has some nine cast and crew members in common with the famous (and equally rare) compendium IF I HAD A MILLION (1932) and which I actually watched a day previously!
Curiously enough, this version of Carroll's children's classic also proved distinguished production designer and occasional director William Cameron Menzies' sole screen writing credit; actually, it combines elements from both "Alice In Wonderland" and "Through The Looking-Glass": for instance, the appearance of the White Rabbit (which introduces the fantasy element in most versions of the tale is moved forward into the narrative here, preferring to use a mirror as passageway into the dreamworld this change may well have been influenced by Jean Cocteau's THE BLOOD OF A POET [1930]); similarly, the climactic trial is replaced by a wacky banquet scene. By the way, the cartoon story-within-a-story which appears during the Tweedledee and Tweedledum scenes were reportedly made by the Fleischer studio; equally nice are the effects by which Alice is made to shrink (and then grow back) in size in order to get through a very small door even if the follow-up scene, set inside one of the houses in Wonderland, involving such a device is missing from this particular version. The DivX copy I acquired regrettably suffered from lip-synch problems, so that I had to rewind the film every so often to get it back on track (despite the sheer amount of rare stuff I'm getting via this format, the frustration that goes with it is so great that I'm seriously contemplating giving it up for good especially since I've still got heaps of these titles to check out).