"WTF VALUE"

BY RAYMOND BENSON

Only serious film history aficionados and perhaps viewers of Turner Classic Movies will be aware that there was once a live-action version of Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland adapted by Hollywood in the early pre-code years. It was released in 1933 by Paramount and directed by Norman Z. McLeod, the guy who had helmed the Marx Brothers’ comedies Monkey Business (1931) and Horse Feathers (1932). McLeod would go on to make such titles as It’s a Gift (1934), Topper (1937), The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (1947), and The Paleface (1948).

The production of Alice in 1933 boasts a screenplay by none other than heavyweights Joseph L. Mankiewicz (you know, the fellow who wrote and directed All About Eve) and William Cameron Menzies, the man behind Things to Come and a production designer whose hands were all over Hollywood and British productions over the next two decades. The script also borrows heavily from the popular and then-current stage production written by Eva La Gallienne and Florida Friebus, although they do not receive screen credit.

The main thing the movie has going for it is the spectacular roundup of Hollywood stars who play all the fantasy characters in brief vignettes. Gary Cooper, W. C. Fields, Cary Grant, Edward Everett Horton, Edna May Oliver, Richard Arlen, Jack Oakie, Sterling Holloway, Roscoe Karns, Baby LeRoy, Charlie Ruggles, Ford Sterling, and Ned Sparks are just a few of the “VIPs” who appear in the picture, all stalwart or rising stars in Tinsel Town at the time. Alice is played with conviction by Charlotte Henry, who enjoyed a decent career as an ingenue and young woman throughout the 1930s, but she retired from acting in the early 40s.

The film is not particularly good—in fact, it was a major bomb for Paramount at the time—but take heart! The “WTF? VALUE” of this movie is tremendously high. In fact, if a viewer is in that altered state (not that Cinema Retro is condoning such a thing!), the experience of viewing this short (76 minutes) feature, with its extremely surreal costumes and makeup, Betty Boop-style sets come to life, and just plain weirdness, would be elevated.

Suffice it to say that Alice in Wonderland is worth the price of admission for its succession of bizarre cameos, especially Fields as Humpty Dumpty, Oakie and Karns as Tweedle Dum and Tweedle Dee, and Horton as the Mad Hatter. It’s a shame, though, that we only hear some of these actors’ voices because they are heavily made up or wearing full head costumes (such as Cary Grant as the Mock Turtle). One highlight is the “The Walrus and the Carpenter” animated sequence created by the innovative Harman-Ising Studio.

Kino Lorber’s new high definition transfer looks good enough, and it comes with an audio commentary by film historian Lee Gambin. There are also theatrical trailers for this and other Kino Lorber releases.

If you’re a fan of pre-code Hollywood, Salvador Dalí-like surrealism, and of Lewis Carroll’s classic dream tale, you owe it to yourself to see this jaw-dropping curiosity.

(A personal note: This reviewer has a history with the La Gallienne/Friebus stage play. I was a theatre major in college (way back in the mid-1970s), and my first job after graduating was serving as an Apprentice Director (and composer/musician) for the Alley Theatre in Houston, Texas for the 1978-79 season before moving to New York City. The Alley did a production of Alice in Wonderland, and I was in charge of composing the songs—set to Carroll’s lyrics, the same words used in the 1933 film—and incidental pieces. The actors sang the songs, and I accompanied them on keyboards and a variety of other instruments. There were several more songs in the stage play than were utilized in the film. The production was a major hit for the Alley, and we performed it over 150 times in the one season. Watching the Kino Lorber release brought back a flood of memories, especially since I recognized the lyrics—but I heard them in my head with my tunes, which I dare say were much better than the melodies in the movie (composed by Dimitri Tiomkin, no less!). That aside, it is indeed remarkable how closely the film adaptation really is to the stage play.)

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