1933. STARRING CHARLOTTE
HENRY, CARY GRANT, GARY COOPER, AND W.C FIELDS! Also
starring Richard Arlen, Leon Errol, Mae Marsh, Edna Mae Oliver, Edward
Everett Horton and many more!
On a boring winter afternoon, Alice
dreams, that she's visiting the land behind the mirror. This turns out
to be a surrealistic nightmare, with all sorts of strange things happening
to her, like changing her size or playing croquet with flamingos.
This version of Alice in Wonderland
is fairly faithful to the letter of Carroll's work. The physical production
itself is a marvel, especially for its time, with lavish sets, effects',
and costumes (and a delightful animated sequence by Hugh Harman and
Rudolf Ising).
Charlotte Henry is a very fine Alice,
capturing both her precocity and her petulance and helping to anchor
the film. Of the stars, best are W.C. Fields, who seems quite at home
with the absurdity of his dialogue, and Gary Cooper, cast against dashing
type as a senile knight. |
