Linbeymusol Wonderful character development!

VividSimon Simply Perfect

Hayden Kane There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

Portia Hilton Blistering performances.

Hitchcoc You've got Gary Cooper, Cary Grant, W. C. Fields, and on and on. Granted, they are hidden in costumes, but sometimes it's nice that someone at least try a film like this. This is the classic story of the trip into Wonderland by a bored little girl. I really liked her character. The Lewis Carrol Alice wasn't a beauty. She had real character in her face. The costumers put together a literal obstacle course of figure for Alice to conquer. I was enthralled as she made her way from one adventure to the next, one verbal joust after another. We know that much of the book and the movies are nonsensical, at least in a conventional way. So words become so important. I've not seen this film since I was in middle school in the early sixties and it's availability is always in question. But I was able to do a little construction on You Tube to regain the flavor of it.

Auntie_Inflammatory This is my favorite film version of the story that made me a tea-drinker in childhood.Charlotte Henry is the perfect Alice. She really looks the part and is believable as a much younger girl. William Cameron Menzies' art direction is superb. The sets are wonderful. The special effects are amazing for 1933 and still hold up. The music is engaging. This was the second film scored by Dimitri Tiomkin who would go on to win many Oscars, Golden Globes, and Grammys. More than a few people seem to think that the decision to costume most of the actors in masks that obscure their identities was a bad one. I disagree. Menzies wanted the characters to look the way they do in the original versions of Lewis Carroll's books and they really do. In particular, the frog and fish footmen, mock turtle and gryphon look EXACTLY like Sir John Tenniel's illustrations. I can't recall ever seeing another (non-animated) movie based on a children's book where the characters looked so much like the way they do in the book. I think many modern-day viewers are just annoyed at not getting to see a recognizable, young Cary Grant or W.C. Fields. Purists may not like that screenwriter Joseph L. Mankiewicz combined Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass (didn't Disney do that too?), simplified some of the dialogue, changed the order of some scenes, and omitted others. There's no caucus-race, visit to the rabbit's house, recitation of Father William, story from the Dormouse, Lobster Quadrille or trial. The dodo recites the "dry" history speech that's spoken by the mouse in the book. The Walrus and the Carpenter is very cleverly rendered as a cartoon by Harman-Ising (not Fleischer) studios. Despite the changes, the film does remain faithful to the spirit of the books. If you like the books and can deal with the altered chronology you should like the movie too.Another reviewer here made an interesting point that modern audiences, who grew up watching only the Disney version of "AIW", might not like this because they expect "AIW" to be cute and colorful. I'm pretty sure I saw the re-release of the Disney version as a child but I also loved the books and always thought of Tenniel's depiction of Alice as the true Alice. The fact is, Lewis Carroll didn't do cute. About half the characters Alice encounters are at least somewhat antagonistic towards her. The last scene of the film set in Wonderland is a complete departure from the books. It goes pretty dark for a kid's film. When this aired on TCM recently, as part of a spotlight on Menzies, film historian James Curtis pointed out the similarity between this scene and another from the 1945 horror film "Dead of Night." I've heard this movie described as a flop which is very unfair. It was only released for one week around Christmas 1933. We'll never know if it would've found a wider audience if given more of a chance.

johnstonjames When i was a kid and would watch this i always thought it was weird and disturbing. when i was really little i remember being sort of afraid of it. now i think it's a hoot.I've always liked black and white films and feel they achieve stark images with lots of contrast. it's even weirder when the film is a fantasy and features a variety of effects and gimmicks, then it really brings out the dream-like qualities of the black and white.I've never thought this film was as fun or delightful as 'The Wizard of Oz' movie, but i've changed my opinion of it and have found a new respect for the film. it isn't as sweet as 'Oz', but it's a lot weirder and freaky. even though i have always really liked Charlotte Henry(little Bo Peep from 'Wooden Soldiers') her performance doesn't have the touching depth of Judy Garland's Dorothy.the only thing here that i found i was still afraid of was W.C. Field's Humpty Dumpty. i just can't get used to it. it's just plain horrifying.the decades of time have softened the shadows and edges of this movie and taken away a lot of it's nightmarish effect. instead of nightmarish, it now seems quaint and kooky.

eschetic-2 In the depths of the Great Depression, Paramount mounted this spectacular fantasy with a galaxy of top flight stars and just missed creating a classic. Like the stage ALICE IN WONDERLAND Eva LeGallienne had mounted the year before at her Civic Repertory Theatre in New York - only just closed when the film opened - which appears to have inspired this production, the sets and costumes are drawn heavily from the classic and by then in public domain illustrations from the original book by John Tenniel.The result is a dazzling world - starting with Alice's Victorian drawing room where she is waiting out a snow storm with her cat, Dinah and her aunt before beginning her explorations Through the Looking Glass (the film combines both of Lewis Carroll's most famous books) and continuing through most of the most famous incidents from the books in live action fantasy form. Only "The Walrus and The Carpenter," delightfully rendered by Max Fleischer's cartoon studio (one would love to have seen the cut footage of the similarly popular "You Are Old Father William" poem!) was deemed too hard to portray with live actors - the baby oysters lured from their bed for culinary conversation - "Shoes and ships and sealing wax" and all that. You've probably seen this cartoon edited from the film and issued separately! This was a separate Hollywood production, despite similarities with the Broadway play with music, and didn't use the any of that show's Richard Addinsell song score (recorded by RCA during the stage show's 1947 revival) but turned Dimitri Tiomkin loose on it, and it's nice to see that film's premiere composer could also turn out a nice enough song or two too. This was a first class production all the way - and like MGM's WIZARD OF OZ six years later, didn't make money in it's initial release - or initial RE-release in 1935. Lacking ...OZ's Technicolor and popular song score, this ALICE IN WONDERLAND didn't even carve out its classic niche when television came in, and is now almost lost - supplanted in the popular mind by the fine 1951 Disney animated version of the story, but is well worth seeking out for lovers of Lewis Carroll, classic fantasy or classic film.Technicolor or not, songs or not, the film still has elements which dazzle and only a few serious drawbacks for the "short attention span" set. Charlotte Henry is a fine, natural Alice (in an all too brief career of only 31 films, before retiring during WWII, she also did the Laurel & Hardy BABES IN TOYALAND in 1934 and the best of all the Chans, CHARLIE CHAN AT THE OPERA in 1936 as Boris Karloff's daughter!) and she is ably supported by a cast of great actors - not all of whom have the luxury of costumes revealing their faces like Ned Sparks' Caterpillar, Edward Everett Horton's Mad Hatter or Edna May Oliver's Red Queen, but the voices of rising stars like Cary Grant (a wonderful singing Mock Turtle) and old pro W.C. Fields (Humpty Dumpty) won't really require seeing the faces in their "Tenniel come-to-life" costumes.The problem, if any, comes in the mad whirl of crazy fantasy that takes Alice deeper and deeper into Wonderland (and its sequel) and after a while can lose the audience's interest as they try clinging to a thru-story line. Stick around though, for Gary Cooper's appearance around an hour into the film as The White Knight (only the name is type casting)! It is one of the greatest treats in a motion picture packed with them - and arguably one of the crowning gems of Cooper's career. Quite wonderful.Modern audiences may cringe a bit in the opening scene seeing Alice, in a highly starched - and highly FLAMMABLE - dress and apron climbing on the grate in front of a burning fireplace to look in the mirror over the hearth, but someone at the studio did notice (and probably hoped the audience wouldn't). When Alice returns, the fire is out. After 75 years though, the fire is far from out on this fascinating extravaganza. If you get a chance to see it, grab it.