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Alice in Wonderland (1903 film)

Alice in Wonderland
Still of film title with May Clark as Alice
Directed by Cecil Hepworth
Percy Stow
Produced by Cecil M. Hepworth
Herman Casler (exec. producer)
Elias Koopman (exec. producer)
Harry Marvin (exec. producer)
Written by Lewis Carroll (book)
Cecil M. Hepworth
Based on Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass
by Lewis Carroll
Starring May Clark
Cecil M. Hepworth
Mrs. Cecil Hepworth
Norman Whitten
Cinematography Cecil M. Hepworth
Distributed by American Mutoscope and Biograph Company
Edison Manufacturing Company
Kleine Optical Company
Release date
  • 17 October 1903 (1903-10-17)
Running time
approx. 8:19 minutes
Country United Kingdom
Language Silent

Alice in Wonderland is a 1903 British silent film directed by Cecil Hepworth and Percy Stow. Only one copy of the original film is known to exist. The British Film Institute (BFI) partially restored the movie and its original film tinting and released it in 2010. According to BFI, the original film ran about 12 minutes; the restoration runs 9 minutes and 35 seconds. At the beginning of the restoration, it states that this is the first movie adaptation of Lewis Carroll's children's book Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.

The film is memorable for its use of special effects, including Alice's shrinking in the Hall of Many Doors, and in her large size, stuck inside of White Rabbit's home, reaching for help through a window.

It is now available from several sources, and is included as a bonus feature on a 1996 BBC DVD. It is also included on Vintage Cinema - experiments in early film 1900s DVD.

Alice follows a large white rabbit down a "Rabbit-hole". She finds a tiny door. When she finds a bottle labeled "Drink me", she does, and shrinks, but not enough to pass through the door. She then eats something labeled "Eat me" and grows larger. She finds a fan when enables her to shrink enough to get into the "Garden" and try to get a "Dog" to play with her. She enters the "White Rabbit's tiny House," but suddenly resumes her normal size. In order to get out, she has to use the "magic fan."

She enters a kitchen, in which there is a cook and a woman holding a baby. She persuades the woman to give her the child and takes the infant outside after the cook starts throwing things around. The baby then turns into a pig and squirms out of her grip. "The Duchess's Cheshire Cat" appears and disappears a couple of times to Alice and directs her to the Mad Hatter's "Mad Tea-Party." After a while, she leaves.

The Queen invites Alice to join the "ROYAL PROCESSION": a parade of marching playing cards and others headed by the White Rabbit. When Alice "unintentionally offends the Queen", the latter summons the "Executioner". Alice "boxes the ears", then flees when all the playing cards come for her. Then she wakes up and realizes it was all a dream.

The cast also includes a large number of child actors as playing cards.


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