Alice in Wonderland (1949 film)

1949 French film

Alice in Wonderland

French theatrical release poster

Directed by| Dallas Bower
Written by| Edward Eliscu
Albert E. Lewin
Henry Myers
Based on| Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
by Lewis Carroll
Produced by| Lou Bunin
J. Arthur Rank (uncredited)
Starring| Stephen Murray
Carol Marsh
Raymond Bussières
Cinematography| Gerald Gibbs
Claude Renoir
Edited by| Inman Hunter
Music by| Sol Kaplan (London Symphony Orchestra)
Ernest Irving (Philharmonia Orchestra)

Production
companies

Lou Bunin Productions
Punch Films (II)
The Rank Organisation
Union Générale Cinématographique (UGC)

Distributed by| L'Alliance Générale de Distribution Cinématographique

Release date

* 13 May 1949 (1949-05-13) (France)

Running time

| 83 minutes
Country| France
Language| English

Alice in Wonderland (French: Alice au pays des merveilles) is a 1949 French film based on Lewis Carroll's 1865 fantasy novel Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. Directed by Dallas Bower, the film stars Carol Marsh as Alice, Stephen Murray as Lewis Carroll, and Raymond Bussières as The Tailor. Most of the Wonderland characters are portrayed by stop-motion animated puppets[1] created by Lou Bunin.[2][3]

All of the other live actors in the film are seen only in the live action scenes. However, they lend their voices to the Wonderland characters, and the staging of the scenes in England vs. the scenes in Wonderland is reminiscent of the Kansas scenes vs. the Oz scenes in the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz in that several of the live-action characters seem to have counterparts (of sorts) in Wonderland. Among the other live actors are Pamela Brown as the Queen and as the voice of the Queen of Hearts. Stephen Murray is seen as Lewis Carroll and provides the voice of the Knave of Hearts, and Felix Aylmer, who played Polonius in Olivier's Hamlet, plays Dr. Liddell, father of Alice Liddell, the real-life inspiration for Alice; he also provides the voice of the Cheshire Cat.[4]

Carol Marsh was 20 years old when she played the part of Alice[5] \- conceived by the novel's author as 7 years old.

## Plot

[edit]

In Victorian England, Charles Dodgson is a scholar and teacher at Christ Church, Oxford who enjoys photography, theatre, and spending time with the young daughters of Dr. Liddell, the Dean. The stuffy Vice Chancellor thinks little of Dodgson and is appalled at the subject of his latest poem (written under the pen name Lewis Carroll), suggesting that Oxford's famous bell Great Tom be removed as its ringing is a nuisance to many. He fears Dodgson will read it to the Queen, who is soon to be visiting Oxford. On the suggestion of the Vice Chancellor, Alice Liddell and her sisters are not allowed to be present when the Queen arrives as he believes they will make things disorderly. Dodgson feels bad for the disappointed Alice and slips one of the Queen's tarts to her while no one is looking. When he meets the Queen, Dodgson cannot find the courage to tell her his true opinion of Great Tom.

Dodgson takes the Dean's daughters on a boat ride. He begins to tell a story about a little girl named Alice who sees a White Rabbit in a waistcoat looking at a pocket watch. Curious, Alice follows him down a large rabbit hole. Landing in a room with many doors, Alice discovers a key she uses to open a tiny door through which she spies the Rabbit. In her attempt to get inside the door, Alice uses magical objects that mysteriously appear in the room to change her size. She grows enormously tall and cries at her predicament, then shrinks until she is small enough to enter the door but finds herself floating in a sea of her own tears. Alice meets a mouse, to whom she relates her feelings of delight at the fantastic world she has found herself in.

Upon washing ashore, Alice sees animals having a Caucus Race and debating on the best way to get dry. Blaming Alice for the flood, the animals begin to chase her. Alice encounters the Rabbit again, who mistakes her for his maidservant and tells her to fetch a fan and gloves from his house. Alice takes a bottle from a table in the Rabbit's house and drinks from it. She grows so much that she becomes stuck. The Rabbit orders his gardener, Bill the Lizard, to climb down the chimney to take care of the problem. When that doesn't work, he throws a pebble and it turns into a cake that makes Alice shrink. She escapes the house, which then collapses. The horrified Rabbit and his gardeners join the Caucus Race animals in pursuit of Alice. The card army of the King and Queen of Hearts inform the animals that the Queen's tarts have been stolen. The Rabbit frames Alice for the theft and everyone agrees that she is responsible. Wandering in the woods, Alice encounters a giant puppy with a bell around its neck and a Caterpillar. She then sees fish footmen carrying an invitation from the Queen to the Duchess to play croquet.

The Knave of Hearts sneaks through the woods carrying the Queen's tarts which he stole. When the Rabbit discovers him, he begs him not to tell the Queen what he did. The Rabbit acts as if he saw nothing as he takes one of the tarts for himself. Alice gains entrance into the house of the Duchess and gives her the Queen's invitation. The Duchess's cook is using too much pepper in her soup, causing everyone to sneeze, making the house explode. The Duchess's baby flies through the air and is caught by Alice. It begins grunting and she discovers it has turned into a pig. She leaves it to wander away. The Cheshire Cat appears and directs Alice to the Hatter, March Hare, and the Dormouse, who are having a tea party. The Hatter leaps onto the table and recites a song he sang at a concert given by the Queen, which the latter disliked, proclaiming he was murdering the time. Alice sees the animals coming and takes off, ending up in the room of doors once again. Entering one, she is at the bottom of the sea where she watches a Lobster Quadrille.

The Rabbit sees three of the Queen's gardeners painting white roses red to cover up their mistake of planting the wrong coloured rose tree. The gardeners plead with the Rabbit not to tell the Queen, saying that he was once in their position. The Rabbit smugly responds that, unlike them, he was clever enough to rise through the ranks and gain favour with the Queen. The King and Queen of Hearts arrive at the croquet court with their entourage. The Rabbit tells the Queen what the gardeners did and they are sent away to be beheaded. The Queen asks Alice to play croquet and then offers her a tart, but finds they are gone. The Rabbit accuses Alice of the crime and the Queen is ready to have her head chopped off, but the King says she needs a trial. In the meantime, the Queen orders Alice to be taken to prison by the Gryphon, who introduces her to the Mock Turtle. Alice is then summoned to her trial, in which absurd and nonsensical evidence is presented. Finally, Alice herself reads out the charge, which states that the Knave of Hearts stole the tarts. He acknowledges the truth of that, but says she is the Knave while he is Alice. The courtroom erupts in chaos as the Queen orders Alice's execution. When Alice shouts angrily that they are nothing but a pack of cards, the whole deck flies up and attacks her.

Awakening in the boat, Alice Liddell finds that Charles Dodgson is finishing his story. She insists that everything that happened was real, and then looks over to find the White Rabbit standing on the bank, apparently confirming this. Alice happily follows Dodgson and her sisters home.

## Cast

[edit]

* Stephen Murray as Lewis Carroll/The Knave of Hearts (voice)
* Ernest Milton as The Vice Chancellor/The White Rabbit (voice)
* Pamela Brown as Queen Victoria/The Queen of Hearts (voice)
* Felix Aylmer as Dr. Liddel/The Cheshire Cat (voice)
* David Reed as The Prince Consort/The King of Hearts (voice) (as David Read)
* Carol Marsh as Alice
* Joyce Grenfell as Ugly Duchess/Dormouse
* Jack Train as Puppet Character (voice)
* Peter Bull as Puppet Character (voice)
* Ivan Staff as Puppet Character (voice)
* Claude Hulbert as Puppet Character (voice)
* Raymond Bussières as The Tailor/The Mad Hatter (voice)

## Release

[edit]

Abbreviated black-and-white version of Alice in Wonderland released by Castle Films in 1953

The film was not released in Britain until 1985, allegedly because Carroll's representation of the Queen of Hearts was seen as too close and too unkind to Queen Victoria,[6] although it was shown on BBC television on 2 April 1961.[7]

The film was not widely seen in the U.S. upon its completion, due to a legal dispute with the Disney Studios, which was making its own full-length animated version of Alice[8] at the same time as the Bower version was being worked on.[9] Disney sued to prevent release of the British version in the U.S., and the case was extensively covered in Time magazine.[10] The company that released the British version accused Disney of trying to exploit their film by releasing its version at virtually the same time.[10]

The Museum of Modern Art restored the film on a 35mm print in a rare 2009 screening.[11]

The film was release on VHS in1989 by Interglobal Home Video in North America. Re-released in 1992, Monterey Home Video.[12] In 2016, American Pop Classic released the film on DVD.[13]

## Reception

[edit]

Leonard Maltin gave the film 2 stars calling it a "static adaptation" and stating that "most of the wit and charm are missing".[14]

## References

[edit]

1. ^ Cleveland Museum of Art
2. ^ "Alice in Wonderland: Cast". Allmovie. Archived from the original on 30 June 2012. Retrieved 29 September 2009.
3. ^ Erickson, Hal. "Alice in Wonderland:Overview". Retrieved 29 September 2009.
4. ^ Felix Aylmer - IMDb
5. ^ 'Alice in Wonderland': 16 Actresses Who Played The Iconic Character|Hollywood Reporter
6. ^ Time Out London
7. ^ "Schedule - BBC Programme Index".
8. ^ The Disney "Alice" That Never Was...Except on Records|Cartoon Research
9. ^ Senses of Cinema
10. ^ a b "Cinema: Battle of Wonderland". Time. 16 July 1951. Archived from the original on 28 March 2010. Retrieved 29 September 2009.
11. ^ Bunin's Alice|Cartoon Brew
12. ^ Amazon.com (VHS)
13. ^ Amazon.com (DVD)
14. ^ TCM.com

## Further reading

[edit]

* Roffat, Sébastien (2020). "Retour sur la coproduction franco-anglo-américaine d'Alice au pays des merveilles de Lou Bunin (1949)". 1895: Revue d'histoire du cinéma (in French). 91 (2): 96–131\. doi:10.4000/1895.8020. ISSN 0769-0959. S2CID 236867573.96-131&rft.date=2020&rft_id=https://api.semanticscholar.org/CorpusID:236867573#id-name=S2CID&rft.issn=0769-0959&rft_id=info:doi/10.4000/1895.8020&rft.aulast=Roffat&rft.aufirst=Sébastien&rft_id=https://www.cairn.info/revue-1895-2020-2-page-96.htm&rfr_id=info:sid/en.wikipedia.org:Alice+in+Wonderland+(1949+film)" class="Z3988">

## External links

[edit]

* Alice in Wonderland at IMDb
* Full movie on YouTube
* French press clippings

* v
* t
* e

Lewis Carroll's Alice

* Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
* Through the Looking-Glass

Universe

| Characters|

| Alice's Adventures
in Wonderland|

* Alice
* portrayals
* Bill the Lizard
* Caterpillar
* Cheshire Cat
* Dodo
* Dormouse
* Duchess
* Gryphon
* Hatter
* Tarrant Hightopp
* King of Hearts
* Knave of Hearts
* March Hare
* Mock Turtle
* Mouse
* Pat
* Puppy
* Queen of Hearts
* White Rabbit
* Minor characters

|

Through the
Looking-Glass|

* Bandersnatch
* Humpty Dumpty
* Jubjub bird
* Red King
* Red Queen
* The Sheep
* The Lion and the Unicorn
* Tweedledum and Tweedledee
* White King
* White Knight
* White Queen
* Minor characters

Locations
and events|

* Wonderland
* Looking-Glass world
* Unbirthday

Poems|

* "All in the golden afternoon..."
* "How Doth the Little Crocodile"
* "The Mouse's Tale"
* "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Bat"
* "You Are Old, Father William"
* "'Tis the Voice of the Lobster"
* "Jabberwocky"
* Vorpal sword
* "The Walrus and the Carpenter"
* "Haddocks' Eyes"
* "The Mock Turtle's Song"
* The Hunting of the Snark

Related|

* Alice Liddell
* Alice syndrome
* Alice's Shop
* Illustrators
* John Tenniel
* Theophilus Carter
* The Annotated Alice
* Mischmasch
* Translations
* Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
* Through the Looking-Glass

Adaptations

| Literature|

| Novels|

* Davy and the Goblin (1884)
* The Nursery "Alice" (1890)
* The Admiral's Caravan (1891)
* A New Alice in the Old Wonderland (1895)
* Gladys in Grammarland (1896)
* The Westminster Alice (1902)
* Clara in Blunderland (1902)
* Rollo in Emblemland (1902)
* Lost in Blunderland (1903)
* John Bull's Adventures in the Fiscal Wonderland (1904)
* Alice in Blunderland: An Iridescent Dream (1904)
* Alice's Adventures in Wonderland Retold in Words of One Syllable (1905)
* New Adventures of Alice (1917)
* Alice in Orchestralia (1925)
* Alice Through the Needle's Eye (1984)
* Automated Alice (1996)
* The Looking Glass Wars (2004)
* Seeing Redd (2007)
* ArchEnemy (2009)
* Alice in Verse: The Lost Rhymes of Wonderland (2010)
* Unbirthday: A Twisted Tale (2020)

|

Comics|

* Tweedledum and Tweedledee (1943)
* Lost Girls (1991)
* Miyuki-chan in Wonderland (1993)
* Pandora Hearts (2006)
* Cheshire Crossing (2006)
* Alice in Sunderland (2007)
* Alice in Murderland (2014)
* Wonderland (2015)

Stage|

* Alice in Wonderland (1886 musical)
* Alice in Wonderland (1979 opera)
* But Never Jam Today (1979 musical)
* The Hunting of the Snark (1991 musical)
* Through the Looking Glass (2008 opera)
* Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (2011 ballet)
* Wonderland (2011 musical)
* Peter and Alice (2013 play)
* Wonder.land (2015 musical)
* Alice's Adventures Under Ground (2016 opera)
* Alice by Heart (2019 musical)

Film|

* 1903
* 1910
* 1915
* Alice Comedies (1923–1927)
* 1931
* 1933
* Betty in Blunderland (1934)
* Thru the Mirror (1936)
* 1949
* 1951
* Donald in Mathmagic Land (1959)
* Alice of Wonderland in Paris (1966)
* Jabberwocky (1971)
* 1972
* 1976
* 1976 (Spanish)
* Alice or the Last Escapade (1977)
* Jabberwocky (1977)
* 1981
* 1982
* Malice in Wonderland (1982)
* Dreamchild (1985)
* The Care Bears Adventure in Wonderland (1987)
* 1988 (Czechoslovak)
* 1988 (Australian)
* Abby in Wonderland (2008)
* Malice in Wonderland (2009)
* 2010
* Alice in Murderland (2010)
* Malice in Wonderland: The Dolls Movie (2010)
* Alice Through the Looking Glass (2016)
* Come Away (2020)
* Alice and the Land that Wonders (2020)
* Alice, Through the Looking (2021)

Television|

* Alice in Wonderland (1962)
* Alice in Wonderland or What's a Nice Kid like You Doing in a Place like This? (1966)
* Alice in Wonderland (1966)
* Alice Through the Looking Glass (1966)
* 1983 (TV film)
* Fushigi no Kuni no Alice (1983)
* 1985 (TV film)
* Adventures in Wonderland (1992)
* Alice through the Looking Glass (1998)
* Alice in Wonderland (1999)
* Alice (2009)
* Once Upon a Time in Wonderland (2013)
* Alice's Wonderland Bakery (2022)
* Descendants: The Rise of Red (2024)

Artwork|

* Alice in Wonderland sculpture (1959)
* How Doth the Little Crocodile (1998 artworks)

Music|

* "White Rabbit" (1967 song)
* "Don't Come Around Here No More" (1985 music video)
* Alice in Wonderland (2010)
* Almost Alice (2010)
* "Alice"
* "Follow Me Down"
* "Tea Party"
* Alice Through the Looking Glass (2016)
* "Just Like Fire"
* "Alice" (2020 song)

Video games|

* Through the Looking Glass (1984)
* Alice in Wonderland (1985)
* Märchen Maze (1988)
* Wonderland (1990)
* Alice: An Interactive Museum (1991)
* Alice no Paint Adventure (1995)
* Alice in Wonderland (2000)
* American McGee's Alice (2000)
* Alice in the Country of Hearts (2007)
* Alice in Wonderland (2010)
* Alice: Madness Returns (2011)

Related|

* Dungeonland (1983 module)
* The Land Beyond the Magic Mirror (1983 module)
* Disney franchise

* Category

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