Lovesusti The Worst Film Ever

Mjeteconer Just perfect...

Listonixio Fresh and Exciting

CrawlerChunky In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

WakenPayne I personally haven't read the books but I have heard they are cleaver social satire and a quintessential children's book as an extremely illogical story. However I do think that while there are good things in this movie there are a lot of problems with it as well. Being that I think everyone knows the plot of "Alice follows Rabbit, tumbles down the rabbit hole and enters a bizarre world" I don't think that's necessary. I will quickly say the good things. Well, I really liked the performance of the girl that played Alice, I think the make-up while you would have to be told the actors are playing them is fantastic as is the set design and the movie is appropriately weird. Okay what's bad? Well The dialogue, I know it's almost lifted from the book (or seemingly) and I know the intention is to be illogical but... I think reading this dialogue would be much better than listening to it and after a while it does get very very annoying. Adding to this I think one of the reasons why this movie can fail is that most of it is just that dialogue and barely anything visually interesting after a while, I know I said the make-up and sets are fantastic and they are but there is really just them talking to Alice after a while. I'd say it is better than it's reputation but then again I still don't think it's that good.

PamelaShort This Alice in Wonderland film virtually takes you on a nostalgic journey amongst some of Hollywood's biggest stars of the the early 1930s. Alice falls down the rabbit hole and meets Cary Grant as Mock Turtle, Edna May Oliver as Red Queen, May Robson as the Queen of Hearts, Gary Cooper as White Knight, W.C. Fields as Humpty Dumpty, Edward Everett Horton as the Hatter, and many more notable stars of the day. Charlotte Henry is most delightful playing Alice and does a good job with this fast paced story that moves very quickly through " Wonderland. " The film gives an interesting take on the classic story and is fun to watch trying to spot the actors and actresses through some pretty garish make-up and their very elaborate costumes. Paramount's production of Alice will either satisfy or disappoint, but it is well worth a look if you are interested in films from the early 1930s.

lugonian ALICE IN WONDERLAND (Paramount, 1933), directed by Norman McLeod, is an interesting screen adaptation to Lewis Carroll's immortal fairy tale mainly for its all-star casting headed by Charlotte Henry in the title role. Although regarded quite faithful to the book, ALICE IN WONDERLAND never achieved the reputation of an immortal motion picture classic as did the better known children's' stories transferred to film, namely Laurel and Hardy's BABES IN TOYLAND (Hal Roach/MGM, 1934) with Charlotte Henry as Bo-Peep; or THE WIZARD OF OZ (MGM, 1939) starring Judy Garland as Dorothy. ALICE IN WONDERLAND did contain more screen adaptations dating back to the silent era than either BABES IN TOYLAND and THE WIZARD OF OZ combined, with the best known "Alice" being the Walt Disney's 1951 animated version. Alice even was paid tribute in a production number scored by Irving Berlin in PUTTIN' ON THE RITZ (UA, 1930) featuring Joan Bennett. This Alice may be noteworthy to some extent but basically a missed opportunity of a great classic.ALICE IN WONDERLAND gets off on a splendid start with its three and a half minute introduction of hand turning the pages of a book, "Alice in Wonderland" and displaying the sketches of characters on one page followed by the faces of actors who play them on another. Opening shot is at an undisclosed location of a two story house being covered by falling snow as Alice (Charlotte Henry), a 12-year-old girl with long blonde hair and ruffled dress, is seen sitting at home along with her governess, Miss Simpson (Ethel Griffies), and pet cat. Bored with nothing to do, she imagines herself going through the mirror, better known as "The looking glass," where she starts her fun-filled fantasy in Wonderland encountering a handful of characters along the way: Uncle Gilbert (Leon Errol) and her Aunt (Patsy O'Byrne); a talking clock (Colin Kenny); The White Rabbit (Richard "Skeets" Gallagher); Mouse (Raymond Hatton); Caterpillar (Ned Sparks); Dodo Bird (Polly Moran); a stuttering Fish (Roscoe Ates); Frog (Sterling Holloway); a cook (Lillian Harmer): the Duchess (Alison Skipworth); the Cheshire Cat (Richard Arlen); the Mad Hatter (Edward Everett Horton); the March Hare (Charles Ruggles); The Dormouse (Jackie Searle); walking play-cards, The Joker (Baby LeRoy); The Queen of Hearts (May Robson who commands "Off with their heads"); the Five of Spades (Charles McNaughton) and The King of Hearts (Alec B. Francis); The Gryphon (William Austin); the crying Mock Turtle (Cary Grant); The Red Queen (Edna May Oliver); Tweedledum (Jack Oakie); Tweedlum (Roscoe Karns); The White King (Ford Sterling), The White Queen (Louise Fazenda); Sheep (Mae Marsh); Humpty Dumpty (W.C. Fields); the accident prone White Knight (Gary Cooper); Plum Pudding (George Ovey); among others before awakening from her dream.With such an impressive cast and imaginative production, how could ALICE IN WONDERLAND miss? The selection of Charlotte Henry was just right (better than Ida Lupino as originally intended at one point), as was W.C. Fields in his five minute segment as Humpty Dumpty. Possibly the weakness is somewhere in the script (by Joseph Mankiewicz) where some scenes hold interest while others do not. The special effects of Alice flying through the air, growing and shrinking in mirror-like effect, quite stunning for its time, while sets by William Cameron Menzies are still quite remarkable. One scene involving a crying baby (Billy Barty) being abused may come off as disturbing, followed by his change into a pig while still squirming in Alice's arms. ALICE IN WONDERLAND at 77 minutes is not an overlong production, though it has indications of being a much longer film since Jacqueline Wells, noted for her role as Alice's sister, is mentioned but not existent in the surviving print. Many top-name stars are virtually unrecognizable in their brief roles, though some of their voices, namely Fields, are unmistakable. While BABES IN TOYLAND and THE WIZARD OF OZ relied on song interludes, interestingly none by Miss Henry. Tunes selected include "Twinkle Twinkle Little Bat" (sung by Edward Everett Horton); "Beautiful Soup" (sung by Cary Grant) "The Warus and the Carpenter" (sung/recited during cartoon segment by Jack Oakie) and "Fill Up the Glasses" (sung by cast). Rarely televised in recent years, there are notable exceptions such as New York City's July 1983 presentation on WNET, Channel 13 (PBS), and June 4, 2001 showing on Turner Classic Movies as part of its star of the month tribute to W.C. Fields. An interesting bit of trivia by TCM host Bob Osborne noting that Mary Pickford was slated to play Alice supported by animated characters. What a worth while Wonderland this might have been! (***)

bkoganbing One of the most unusual projects ever undertaken by a studio was done by Paramount in 1933. Casting young Charlotte Henry in the title role of Lewis Carroll's beloved fantasy, Paramount then cast over 25 of their best known faces, apparently whoever was not working on another film at the moment, as the fantasy creatures she meets on her journey.Today, these same people would just be called on to lend their voices for animation. In fact in the middle, there is an animated version of The Walrus and the Carpenter, showcased for Henry by Jack Oakie and Roscoe Karns as Tweedledum and Tweedledee. Walt Disney later took that easier route in the Fifties with his animated version. But these stars are mostly unrecognizable beneath all that makeup.Yet the voices of such people as Ned Sparks, W.C. Fields, Gary Cooper, and Cary Grant are unmistakable. People like Edna May Oliver, May Robson, and Edward Everett Horton can be recognized. Quite frankly it was a stroke of genius to cast Horton as The Mad Hatter. It's a tossup between Horton and Ed Wynn in the Disney version as to who was the zanier. Horton is probably my favorite from the film, but running a close second is Cary Grant, hidden underneath all that Mock Turtle makeup. This was at the beginning of his career when he was not an icon as of yet. Probably even five years later Paramount might have had trouble casting him that way. His Mock Turtle song and Mock Turtle crying are something to see and hear.Paramount almost closed down during the early Thirties because of the Depression. Alice In Wonderland lost money badly at the box office and got tepid reviews. Seen today it's not as bad as all that and really kind of interesting in a way.