Alice in Wonderland


1h 30m 1933
Alice in Wonderland

Brief Synopsis

A trip through the looking glass and down a rabbit hole sends an English girl into a world of fantastic characters and strange potions.

Film Details

Genre
Adventure
Fantasy
Release Date
Dec 22, 1933
Premiere Information
not available
Production Company
Paramount Productions, Inc.
Distribution Company
Paramount Productions, Inc.
Country
United States
Screenplay Information
Based on the novel Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll (London, 1865) and his novel Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll (London, 1870).

Technical Specs

Duration
1h 30m
Sound
Mono (Western Electric Noiseless Recording)
Color
Black and White
Theatrical Aspect Ratio
1.37 : 1
Film Length
8 reels

Synopsis

In nineteenth century England, Alice becomes bored while reading a book in the company of her cat, and climbs on top of the fireplace to look into a mirror. Alice steps through the mirror and falls into an enchanted land where chess pieces come to life, among other amazements. While following a White Rabbit, she falls down a tunnel, and after changing sizes several times, and nearly drowning in a puddle of mouse tears, she enters a garden. There she encounters the Dodo Bird who recites History to dry her off. A hookah-smoking caterpillar demonstrates how to change sizes by eating bits of mushroom, and at the Duchess', where the cook and the Duchess are fighting, Alice takes the Duchess's baby into her arms, but the child soon changes into a pig and Alice drops it. Alice continues through the garden, asking directions of the Cheshire Cat who only confuses her and dissolves into air. She then joins a tea party with the March Hare, the Mad Hatter, and the Dormouse. Later, Alice is saved from execution ordered by the Queen of Hearts because it is the executioner's day off. While walking with the Duchess, who is instructing her on morals, Alice encounters the Gryphon and the Mock Turtle. Twin brothers Tweedledee and Tweedledum recite the tale, "The Carpenter and the Walrus," but when they start to battle over a broken rattle, a crow appears and scares them off. An egg that Alice purchases grows into Humpty Dumpty, who attempts to explain the poem "Jabberwocky" until he falls off the wall and shatters. The bumbling White Knight has already sent his men to put Humpty back together again, so he escorts Alice to the end of the forest, after which she falls down a hill and becomes a queen. At a party in her honor, all the dishes start to dance and fly into the air. The Red Queen begins to strangle Alice, however, and she awakens back in her chair at home, with Dinah, her cat, who was the Red Queen in her dream.

Film Details

Genre
Adventure
Fantasy
Release Date
Dec 22, 1933
Premiere Information
not available
Production Company
Paramount Productions, Inc.
Distribution Company
Paramount Productions, Inc.
Country
United States
Screenplay Information
Based on the novel Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll (London, 1865) and his novel Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll (London, 1870).

Technical Specs

Duration
1h 30m
Sound
Mono (Western Electric Noiseless Recording)
Color
Black and White
Theatrical Aspect Ratio
1.37 : 1
Film Length
8 reels

Articles

Alice in Wonderland (1933)


Over the years, Lewis Carroll's two children's books, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass, have served as the inspiration for numerous moviemakers who have attempted to capture Carroll's bizarre imagination on film. To be expected, the various interpretations vary drastically in tone from Walt Disney's audience-friendly animated version in 1951 to Jan Svankmajer's Alice (1988), a dark and disturbing version which is NOT recommended for children. Falling somewhere in between is the 1933 version of Alice in Wonderland which alternates between being a whimsical children's film and a nightmarish satire of English royalty with images which wouldn't seem out of place in a Salvador Dali painting. Paramount Studios spared no expense in its production and recruited its top stars for the major characters but for some strange reason, they buried their big name cast under pounds of heavy makeup and elaborate costumes. In some cases, only the actors' voices were used while their characters were impersonated by puppets or animated figures. At any rate, the final effect is disorienting and becomes a guessing game of who's who. Is that really Cary Grant as the Mock Turtle or Gary Cooper as the White Knight?

Originally, the role of Alice was intended for Ida Lupino but ended up going to Charlotte Henry. The rest of the casting was more unconventional with such familiar faces as Richard Arlen as the Cheshire Cat, Louise Fazenda as the White Queen, Skeets Gallagher as the White Rabbit, Edward Everett Horton as the Mad Hatter, Sterling Holloway as the Frog, and W. C. Fields as Humpty Dumpty. Fields, despite his bizarre egg-shaped appearance, is easily recognizable by his distinctive voice and is one of the film's highlights. Straddling a wall with his spindly legs quivering, he makes a particularly grouchy Humpty Dumpty and gets to assail Alice with a long, complaining tirade before his big crackup. Although his role is brief, it gave the Paramount publicity agents a chance to generate interest in his appearance in the film with this press release:
"W.C. Fields, Paramount's funny screen comedian, dashed out of his Toluca Lake home one morning at a tremendous speed.
'Help, help!' ejaculated Mr. Fields loudly, 'there's a crazy man in there!'
'Crazy?' query the neighbours.
'He's trying to measure me for an egg!' roared Mr. Fields indignantly.'

Indeed, the costumes by Wally Westmore and Newt Jones are remarkable as are the special effects by Gordon Jennings and Farciot Edouart. Yet Alice in Wonderland received no Academy Award nominations in any category which is surprising considering its prestigious behind-the-camera talent. Joseph L. Mankiewicz (All About Eve, 1950) worked on the screenplay with contributions from William Cameron Menzies, who is best known as the set designer for Kane and as a minor director of B pictures like Invaders From Mars. The director was Norman Z. McLeod, who normally specialized in romantic comedies, and the music composer was the esteemed Dimitri Tiomkin who later won an Oscar for his score for High Noon (1952).

Despite the lavish production, however, Alice in Wonderland remains a big-budget studio anomaly that grows 'curiosier and curiosier' as the years go by. It should prove a fascinating research subject for any film scholar who wants to do a film by film comparison of all the Lewis Carroll movie adaptations.

Producer: Louis D. Lighton, Benjamin Glazer (uncredited)
Director: Norman Z. McLeod
Screenplay: Joseph L. Mankiewicz, William Cameron Menzies
Art Direction: William Cameron Menzies
Cinematography: Bert Glennon, Henry Sharp
Costume Design: Newt Jones, Wally Westmore
Film Editing: Edward Hoagland, Ellsworth Hoagland
Original Music: Dimitri Tiomkin, Heinz Roemheld (uncredited)
Cast: Charlotte Henry (Alice), W.C. Fields (Humpty Dumpty), Richard Arlen (Cheshire Cat), Roscoe Ates (Fish), William Austin (Gryphon), Richard 'Skeets' Gallagher (The White Rabbit), Louise Fazenda (The White Queen), Sterling Holloway (The Frog).
BW-90m.

by Jeff Stafford

Alice In Wonderland (1933)

Alice in Wonderland (1933)

Over the years, Lewis Carroll's two children's books, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass, have served as the inspiration for numerous moviemakers who have attempted to capture Carroll's bizarre imagination on film. To be expected, the various interpretations vary drastically in tone from Walt Disney's audience-friendly animated version in 1951 to Jan Svankmajer's Alice (1988), a dark and disturbing version which is NOT recommended for children. Falling somewhere in between is the 1933 version of Alice in Wonderland which alternates between being a whimsical children's film and a nightmarish satire of English royalty with images which wouldn't seem out of place in a Salvador Dali painting. Paramount Studios spared no expense in its production and recruited its top stars for the major characters but for some strange reason, they buried their big name cast under pounds of heavy makeup and elaborate costumes. In some cases, only the actors' voices were used while their characters were impersonated by puppets or animated figures. At any rate, the final effect is disorienting and becomes a guessing game of who's who. Is that really Cary Grant as the Mock Turtle or Gary Cooper as the White Knight? Originally, the role of Alice was intended for Ida Lupino but ended up going to Charlotte Henry. The rest of the casting was more unconventional with such familiar faces as Richard Arlen as the Cheshire Cat, Louise Fazenda as the White Queen, Skeets Gallagher as the White Rabbit, Edward Everett Horton as the Mad Hatter, Sterling Holloway as the Frog, and W. C. Fields as Humpty Dumpty. Fields, despite his bizarre egg-shaped appearance, is easily recognizable by his distinctive voice and is one of the film's highlights. Straddling a wall with his spindly legs quivering, he makes a particularly grouchy Humpty Dumpty and gets to assail Alice with a long, complaining tirade before his big crackup. Although his role is brief, it gave the Paramount publicity agents a chance to generate interest in his appearance in the film with this press release: "W.C. Fields, Paramount's funny screen comedian, dashed out of his Toluca Lake home one morning at a tremendous speed. 'Help, help!' ejaculated Mr. Fields loudly, 'there's a crazy man in there!' 'Crazy?' query the neighbours. 'He's trying to measure me for an egg!' roared Mr. Fields indignantly.' Indeed, the costumes by Wally Westmore and Newt Jones are remarkable as are the special effects by Gordon Jennings and Farciot Edouart. Yet Alice in Wonderland received no Academy Award nominations in any category which is surprising considering its prestigious behind-the-camera talent. Joseph L. Mankiewicz (All About Eve, 1950) worked on the screenplay with contributions from William Cameron Menzies, who is best known as the set designer for Kane and as a minor director of B pictures like Invaders From Mars. The director was Norman Z. McLeod, who normally specialized in romantic comedies, and the music composer was the esteemed Dimitri Tiomkin who later won an Oscar for his score for High Noon (1952). Despite the lavish production, however, Alice in Wonderland remains a big-budget studio anomaly that grows 'curiosier and curiosier' as the years go by. It should prove a fascinating research subject for any film scholar who wants to do a film by film comparison of all the Lewis Carroll movie adaptations. Producer: Louis D. Lighton, Benjamin Glazer (uncredited) Director: Norman Z. McLeod Screenplay: Joseph L. Mankiewicz, William Cameron Menzies Art Direction: William Cameron Menzies Cinematography: Bert Glennon, Henry Sharp Costume Design: Newt Jones, Wally Westmore Film Editing: Edward Hoagland, Ellsworth Hoagland Original Music: Dimitri Tiomkin, Heinz Roemheld (uncredited) Cast: Charlotte Henry (Alice), W.C. Fields (Humpty Dumpty), Richard Arlen (Cheshire Cat), Roscoe Ates (Fish), William Austin (Gryphon), Richard 'Skeets' Gallagher (The White Rabbit), Louise Fazenda (The White Queen), Sterling Holloway (The Frog). BW-90m. by Jeff Stafford

Gary Cooper, Cary Grant, W.C. Fields & Others in Alice in Wonderland (1933) on DVD


Filmmakers have been adapting Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland almost since the invention of cinema itself. The popular new version by director Tim Burton has initiated a review of the more salient attempts, such as the acclaimed 1966 Jonathan Miller BBC version. Walt Disney's 1951 release is not considered one of his better animated features, but all versions struggle with the challenge of effectively translating the story's mischievous verbal games into visual terms.

Almost forgotten in the list of notable Alice in Wonderland adaptations is a relatively lavish Paramount production from 1933. Director Norman Z.McLeod was later known for Topper movies and comedies with Danny Kaye and Bob Hope; here he manages an episodic pageant featuring more than twenty Paramount stars and contract players. The cast rundown is covered in a three-minute title sequence that turns storybook pages to introduce each major character. In the movie that follows most of the stars wear rigid masks that render them anonymous. Unless one can pick out the stars by sound, the prologue isn't much help. The distinctive voices of top-billed Cary Grant, Gary Cooper and W.C. Fields' stand out plainly enough, while Edward Everett Horton and Edna May Oliver are among the few stars that don't wear masks. But film fans with sharp memories will be the only ones to identify talents like Charles Ruggles, Ned Sparks, Jack Oakie and Roscoe Ates (a 'stuttering' comic with a big role in Tod Browning's Freaks). Paramount's Alice in Wonderland might make a good quiz game for film buffs.

The script by co-screenwriter Joseph L. Mankiewicz shows respect for the original by staying close to Lewis Carroll's text where possible. Most versions of Alice convey the absurdist spirit of the Mad Tea Party, which lends itself to the form of a blackout skit. Alice (pretty Charlotte Henry) finds ordinary conversation impossible when the Mad Hatter (Edward Everett Horton) willfully misconstrues all that she says and disrupts the proceedings by walking on the table. The pattern is set for poor Alice: none of her questions merits a straight answer, and usually not even a civil one. On a couple of occasions Alice's inquiries are interrupted by recitations, as when we hear the story of The Walrus and the Carpenter, illustrated by an animated cartoon. Alice also meets Carroll's full gallery of domineering women: the White Queen (Louise Fazenda), the Red Queen (Edna May Oliver) and the Queen of Hearts (May Robson).

The co-writer and art director is the brilliant production designer William Cameron Menzies, who masterminded the look of Gone with the Wind, For Whom the Bell Tolls and the silent The Thief of Bagdad. Menzies devises ingenious special effects for Alice's entrance into the "other world" beyond the looking glass, here a mirror placed over an ornate Victorian fireplace. The scenes showing Alice growing larger and shrinking smaller by drinking elixirs and eating cakes are particularly effective. As in the original story, she becomes so small that she swims in her own tears. Rear projection and multiple sets built at different scales show Alice frustrated by a doorway that has suddenly become much too small to admit her. When Alice shoots upward in height Menzies uses an optical trick that makes the girl appear to stretch, like one's reflection in a funhouse mirror. It was actually in another book that Alice entered the magic world through a looking glass. Menzies and Mankiewicz have their Alice fall down a rabbit hole as well.

The bulk of Alice's encounters with magical creatures are filmed on conventional stage sets that look like artificial theatrical work. Some sets, like a forest where Alice meets the White Knight, are augmented by matte paintings. The numerous character costumes also imitate the look of original illustrations, especially some of the more grotesque ones. Alice comes upon an insane household with an angry Cook (Lillian Harmer) and a Duchess (Alison Skipworth) who won't stop spanking her baby (Billy Barty). Both women wear distorted masks with oversized features that make them look like figures in a nightmare. Jack Oakie and Roscoe Karns portray Tweedledum and Tweedledee in more grotesque masks. Other characters are more conventionally represented by partial puppets -- the Caterpillar (Ned Sparks); the Cheshire Cat (Richard Arlen) and W.C. Fields' Humpty Dumpty. Cary Grant's melancholy Mock Turtle has a head that, staying true to a vintage drawing, looks almost exactly like a cow. Comedienne Polly Moran is stuck trying to make an impression while in full costume as a Dodo Bird.

Paramount's Alice is better than most, with Charlotte Henry making a spirited storybook heroine. Tim Burton altered the tale to allow Alice to be a young woman, whereas Paramount simply cast a nineteen-year-old in the role of a small child. The script shifts the opening from a picnic under the trees to a stuffy sitting room, where Alice is quickly established as a bored girl with a big imagination. She isn't a bit frightened by her ability to pass through the mirror. As per the story, the unflappable Alice is merely inconvenienced by nightmarish transformations, as when a bawling baby turns into a pig. She does lose her temper once or twice, but reacts to weird occurrences, hostile creatures and royal threats of death as if she knows everything around her is an illusion. Invited to a game of croquet, Alice does her best to play using a real flamingo as a mallet.

Mankiewicz and Menzies augment the book's all-a-dream ending by plunging Alice into an accelerating montage of madness. What little logic that exists in Wonderland is dissolved into fast cuts of agitated characters. When last seen before the transition Alice is being throttled at a banquet table. Menzies would revisit this cutting pattern twenty years later for his science fiction film Invaders from Mars. The juvenile hero of that film experiences a similar "twisted reality" nightmare adventure, that likewise ends with a fragmented, kaleidoscopic dream montage.

Universal's DVD of Alice in Wonderland is a fine-quality B&W transfer of film elements in excellent condition, with very clear audio. Film music aficionados will enjoy hearing Dimitri Tiomkin's lively score, only his second full credit after contributing stock music and ballet bits for a number of movies. The disc contains no extras.

To order Alice in Wonderland, click here. To explore more adaptations of Lewis Carroll's novel, click here.

by Glenn Erickson

Gary Cooper, Cary Grant, W.C. Fields & Others in Alice in Wonderland (1933) on DVD

Filmmakers have been adapting Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland almost since the invention of cinema itself. The popular new version by director Tim Burton has initiated a review of the more salient attempts, such as the acclaimed 1966 Jonathan Miller BBC version. Walt Disney's 1951 release is not considered one of his better animated features, but all versions struggle with the challenge of effectively translating the story's mischievous verbal games into visual terms. Almost forgotten in the list of notable Alice in Wonderland adaptations is a relatively lavish Paramount production from 1933. Director Norman Z.McLeod was later known for Topper movies and comedies with Danny Kaye and Bob Hope; here he manages an episodic pageant featuring more than twenty Paramount stars and contract players. The cast rundown is covered in a three-minute title sequence that turns storybook pages to introduce each major character. In the movie that follows most of the stars wear rigid masks that render them anonymous. Unless one can pick out the stars by sound, the prologue isn't much help. The distinctive voices of top-billed Cary Grant, Gary Cooper and W.C. Fields' stand out plainly enough, while Edward Everett Horton and Edna May Oliver are among the few stars that don't wear masks. But film fans with sharp memories will be the only ones to identify talents like Charles Ruggles, Ned Sparks, Jack Oakie and Roscoe Ates (a 'stuttering' comic with a big role in Tod Browning's Freaks). Paramount's Alice in Wonderland might make a good quiz game for film buffs. The script by co-screenwriter Joseph L. Mankiewicz shows respect for the original by staying close to Lewis Carroll's text where possible. Most versions of Alice convey the absurdist spirit of the Mad Tea Party, which lends itself to the form of a blackout skit. Alice (pretty Charlotte Henry) finds ordinary conversation impossible when the Mad Hatter (Edward Everett Horton) willfully misconstrues all that she says and disrupts the proceedings by walking on the table. The pattern is set for poor Alice: none of her questions merits a straight answer, and usually not even a civil one. On a couple of occasions Alice's inquiries are interrupted by recitations, as when we hear the story of The Walrus and the Carpenter, illustrated by an animated cartoon. Alice also meets Carroll's full gallery of domineering women: the White Queen (Louise Fazenda), the Red Queen (Edna May Oliver) and the Queen of Hearts (May Robson). The co-writer and art director is the brilliant production designer William Cameron Menzies, who masterminded the look of Gone with the Wind, For Whom the Bell Tolls and the silent The Thief of Bagdad. Menzies devises ingenious special effects for Alice's entrance into the "other world" beyond the looking glass, here a mirror placed over an ornate Victorian fireplace. The scenes showing Alice growing larger and shrinking smaller by drinking elixirs and eating cakes are particularly effective. As in the original story, she becomes so small that she swims in her own tears. Rear projection and multiple sets built at different scales show Alice frustrated by a doorway that has suddenly become much too small to admit her. When Alice shoots upward in height Menzies uses an optical trick that makes the girl appear to stretch, like one's reflection in a funhouse mirror. It was actually in another book that Alice entered the magic world through a looking glass. Menzies and Mankiewicz have their Alice fall down a rabbit hole as well. The bulk of Alice's encounters with magical creatures are filmed on conventional stage sets that look like artificial theatrical work. Some sets, like a forest where Alice meets the White Knight, are augmented by matte paintings. The numerous character costumes also imitate the look of original illustrations, especially some of the more grotesque ones. Alice comes upon an insane household with an angry Cook (Lillian Harmer) and a Duchess (Alison Skipworth) who won't stop spanking her baby (Billy Barty). Both women wear distorted masks with oversized features that make them look like figures in a nightmare. Jack Oakie and Roscoe Karns portray Tweedledum and Tweedledee in more grotesque masks. Other characters are more conventionally represented by partial puppets -- the Caterpillar (Ned Sparks); the Cheshire Cat (Richard Arlen) and W.C. Fields' Humpty Dumpty. Cary Grant's melancholy Mock Turtle has a head that, staying true to a vintage drawing, looks almost exactly like a cow. Comedienne Polly Moran is stuck trying to make an impression while in full costume as a Dodo Bird. Paramount's Alice is better than most, with Charlotte Henry making a spirited storybook heroine. Tim Burton altered the tale to allow Alice to be a young woman, whereas Paramount simply cast a nineteen-year-old in the role of a small child. The script shifts the opening from a picnic under the trees to a stuffy sitting room, where Alice is quickly established as a bored girl with a big imagination. She isn't a bit frightened by her ability to pass through the mirror. As per the story, the unflappable Alice is merely inconvenienced by nightmarish transformations, as when a bawling baby turns into a pig. She does lose her temper once or twice, but reacts to weird occurrences, hostile creatures and royal threats of death as if she knows everything around her is an illusion. Invited to a game of croquet, Alice does her best to play using a real flamingo as a mallet. Mankiewicz and Menzies augment the book's all-a-dream ending by plunging Alice into an accelerating montage of madness. What little logic that exists in Wonderland is dissolved into fast cuts of agitated characters. When last seen before the transition Alice is being throttled at a banquet table. Menzies would revisit this cutting pattern twenty years later for his science fiction film Invaders from Mars. The juvenile hero of that film experiences a similar "twisted reality" nightmare adventure, that likewise ends with a fragmented, kaleidoscopic dream montage. Universal's DVD of Alice in Wonderland is a fine-quality B&W transfer of film elements in excellent condition, with very clear audio. Film music aficionados will enjoy hearing Dimitri Tiomkin's lively score, only his second full credit after contributing stock music and ballet bits for a number of movies. The disc contains no extras. To order Alice in Wonderland, click here. To explore more adaptations of Lewis Carroll's novel, click here. by Glenn Erickson

Quotes

Trivia

Over 7,000 applicants were screened for the role of Alice on a five-month period before Charlotte Henry was chosen.

Ida Lupino was considered for the role of Alice.

Mary Pickford and Walt Disney planned a combination live action and animated feature, but Paramount beat them in securing the rights to the story on 9 May 1933.

Many theatrical productions were produced nationwide starting in 1931, anticipating the celebration of Lewis Carroll's 100th birthday in 1932, which helped the box office enormously.

The failure of the film at the box office was attributed to the fact that although a top-rank cast was used, many of them were virtually unrecognizable under their heavy makeup and costuming.

Notes

In the opening cast credits, Charlotte Henry appears last, however, the opening title card reads: "Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland with Charlotte Henry as 'Alice.'" End credits were missing from the viewed print. The release dialogue script in the Paramount story files at the AMPAS Library reveals that the end credits were listed in alphabetical order, as appears above. According to Paramount files, over 7,000 applicants were screened for the role of "Alice" before Charlotte Henry was chosen after a five month search. A news item in Motion Picture Daily notes that Charles Laughton and Mary Boland were originally cast in the film, and a Hollywood Reporter news item noted that Charles Butterworth was tested for a role. A Hollywood Reporter news item reported that William Cameron Menzies was loaned by Fox to co-direct the "trick sequences" of this film; however, the extent of his contribution to the film other than as screenwriter has not been determined. Various 1933 news items in Motion Picture Daily and correspondence between Mary Pickford and Walt Disney reveal they had planned a combination live action and animated production, possibly in color, of Alice in Wonderland, but were unable to obtain the rights to the story as the rights had been purchased in England by Paramount on May 9, 1933. Copyright records note that research was conducted at the Henry E. Huntington Library in San Marino, CA, which maintains first editions of Lewis Carroll's works. The film was released one year after the 100th anniversary of Carroll's birth, which brought public attention to Carroll's most famous work. In June 1931, Eva LeGallienne produced a play at her Civic Repertory Theatre based on Carroll's novel, and again presented an adaptation of the novel by herself and Florida Friebus as a play on December 12, 1932, starring Josephine Hutchinson as "Alice." According to modern sources, Columbia was then interested in producing a film of Alice in Wonderland starring LeGallienne; however, Columbia abandoned the idea after Paramount bought the film rights. According to a 1934 Daily Variety news item, Samuel Drantowich filed suit against Paramount to prevent the exhibition of this film "on the grounds that it was made into a film in 1914" (see AFI Catalog of Feature Films, 1911-20; F1.0053). Drantowich's connection to the 1914 film and the outcome of the lawsuit has not been determined. Modern sources, including a filmography of W. C. Fields and a biography of Joseph L. Mankiewicz, indicate that Ida Lupino was considered for the role of Alice. Modern sources also credit LeRoy Prinz with Pageantry. Although one modern source speculates that the animated sequence of "The Carpenter and the Walrus" was created by the Fleischer brothers, other sources credit the team of Hugh Harman and Rudy Ising with the animation. In December, 1935, Kinematrade, Inc. released a 58 min. British film of the same title. Other films based on Lewis Carroll's novel are the 1951 Disney animated feature, directed by Clyde Geronimi, and Hamilton and Wilfred Jackson; and the 1972 British film Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, directed by William Sterling and starring Fiona Fullerton. In 1990 Woody Allen directed Alice, starring Mia Farrow, which loosely embodies the spirit of Carroll's novel. Dreamchild, a 1985 British film directed by Gavin Millar and starring Coral Browne and Ian Holm, explored the relationship between Lewis Carroll and the girl on whom his novel was based.