As Lewis Carroll's hundredth birthday drew near, adaptations of Alice in Wonderland started to pop up places. Before the big budget 1933 Paramount Pictures production, an independent outfit Metropolitan Studios managed to produce the first full-length sound version of the story. Directed by Bud Pollard and starring Ruth Gilbert as Alice, this 1931 version used sound to its advantage, being able to incorporate much more of the Lewis Carroll dialogue than the previous three silent versions. However, a limited budget and release caused this film to slip by most critics and audience members.
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
Chapter I: Down the Rabbit Hole - ALTERED
Alice starts the movie at the bottom of the hole and she says some of her dialogue from when she is falling/when she is in the Hall of Doors. However, she starts of in a forest with giant mushrooms.
Chapter II: The Pool of Tears - MOSTLY REMOVED/ALTERED
The White Rabbit runs by and drops his fan and gloves, which Alice picks up.
Chapter III: The Caucus-Race and a Long Tale - REMOVED
Chapter IV: The Rabbit Sends in a Little Bill - MOSTLY REMOVED/ALTERED
The Rabbit complains about the Duchess and searches for his gloves and fan. Alice "secretly" toss him the fan then...stands and walks around for a bit while the film stretches (to imply that she's growing larger, perhaps). It's very bizarre and unclear.
Chapter V: Advice from a Caterpillar - MOSTLY REMOVED
This scene occurs after the Mad Tea Party (possibly since the beginning was so rushed, so Alice's concerns about not being herself would not seem out of place.) Alice converses with the Caterpillar and recites a few verses from "You Are Old, Father William." The Caterpillar leaves and Alice watches him leave, without any talk about the mushroom.
Chapter VI: Pig and Pepper - MOSTLY INTACT/ALTERED
Alice goes right into the Duchess's house with no Footmen around and sees the Duchess actively yelling at the Cook for her behavior. In the book, there is just general discord in the kitchen, but here, the Duchess seems to have more control over the situation. After kicking out the Cook, the Duchess takes on a pleasant demeanor with Alice as they have their usual conversation. However, the Baby turns into a Pig in the Duchess's presence and afterwards, when the Duchess makes her "axis/axes" pun, she actually grabs an ax to chop of Alice's head! Somehow, Alice escapes and talks with the Cheshire Cat, as in the book.
Chapter VII: A Mad Tea Party - INTACT
The whole tea party conversation is presented just as it is in the book, save for the Dormouse's story (although he does ponder over the words that begin with "M").
Chapter VIII: The Queen's Croquet-Ground - MOSTLY REMOVED/ALTERED
Alice enters the garden and meets the Queen, King, and Knave of Hearts. They all have a royal dance and the White Rabbit pairs off with Alice.
Chapter IX: The Mock Turtle's Story - MOSTLY INTACT/ALTERED
The White Rabbit spots the Duchess wandering free (unlike in the book, where she was summoned to deal with her Cheshire Cat) and Alice wonders if the Rabbit is in love with her. The Queen pardons the Duchess at Alice's request and the Duchess thanks Alice by taking her down to the seashore, where she meets the Gryphon and Mock Turtle, who have their usual conversation.
Chapter X: The Lobster-Quadrille - MOSTLY REMOVED/ALTERED
The Gryphon sings "The Lobster-Quadrille" and the Mock Turtle and Alice join him for the finale, then Alice (rather than the Mock Turtle) sings "Beautiful Soup." No poems or stories are recited.
Chapter XI: Who Stole the Tarts? - INTACT
There are some minor alterations and additions to this chapter. The Jury is explicitly made up of the March Hare, Dormouse, Gryphon, and Mock Turtle. While the first three attended the trial in the book, they were not the Jury (but it saves on casting). And the Dormouse is suppressed, rather than the two Guinea Pigs. But everything mostly remains as written in the book, with the additional bonus of the Hatter attempting to dance to keep Time, to show he has changed his ways.
Chapter XII: Alice's Evidence - MOSTLY INTACT/ALTERED
The rest of the trial plays out as in the book, with Alice having nothing whatever to say and the White Rabbit reading Alice's evidence in the form of a long confusing poem. But there is some added drama to the proceedings, as the Knave protests that he would only have stolen the tarts for love (for Alice) and the Duchess is accused of stealing them for the Knave. We find out that the White Rabbit is the culprit and he stole them for the Duchess. Alice's dream ends as usual and she heads home for tea.
Through the Looking-Glass - REFERENCE
The opening credits song mentions Alice traveling through the Looking-Glass, which never happens in the movie. See the last paragraph of my review.
Review:
I will give this film credit in a few areas. First, I'm willing to give it the benefit of the doubt in this first foray into sound. Many of the characters voices do not sound the way one would expect them to. The Caterpillar and Gryphon are far more high-pitched than I'm used to. And certain words are mispronounced for odd reasons (Grye-Phon vs. Gri-ffin), but we finally have voices and sound, so that's a plus! (Why there's so many long awkward pauses is beyond me, though.)
Second, this film decided to focus and actually adapt element of the book to make the story its own. It's clear that the Duchess and Mad Hatter were favorite characters of the creators, as they get more attention, care, and dialogue in the movie than in the books. They're also portrayed by the best actors in the film, by far.
As for the rest of the actors...well, they're all perfectly serviceable. They are just playing the characters as written without adding anything fun or new to the table. British accents go in and out quite suddenly, which gives everything a wonky feel. But the worst offender is Ruth Gilbert as Alice. This was the film that launched her career and she is certainly playing a character, but it's not the Alice we truly expect. Her interpretation of "child" is giggly and smily all the time. And, I'm not sure if this was a directorial choice, but Alice was always looking slightly past the camera whenever she delivered a line, rather than to the other characters. This may be due to "theater acting" which makes you cheat out to the audience, but it made Gilbert so disconnected to what was happening around her. We spend so much of the film with this Alice that it gets a bit annoying fast.
The strongest scenes are the Mad Tea Party and the trial, because these are mostly left with all of the original dialogue intact and the added love subplot between the Duchess/Rabbit/Knave/Alice was a welcome addition to the story. I wish that the film had actually gone further with it and embraced the changes it wanted to make.
I'm not saying every adaptation of Alice need a love subplot, but so far these early version just feel like we're taking a limited tour of the story. There's some cool stuff to look at, but the story isn't very engaging on its own as a film. It needs more of that Hollywood zazz. Unless the film can really pull off the original with good special effects and great actors, something will need to change in the story. And since this film had very few special effects and great actors, any sort of difference was welcome.
One final note was that the budget of this version unfortunately shows, especially in the two times it..."borrowed" previously made Alice material. The opening theme song by Irving Berlin was originally made for the musical dance sequence in 1930's Puttin' on the Ritz (and you can tell because the song mentions Through the Looking-Glass which was heavily featured in the dance number). And during the Lobster-Quadrille, images of the 1915 Lobster-Quadrille sequence (complete with Walruses) are superimposed over the Gryphon singing. So, this was quite the patchwork film.
2 out of 5 Axes
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