Alice Solves the Puzzle
| Alice Solves the Puzzle | |
|---|---|
| Alice Comedies series | |
| Directed by | Walt Disney |
| Produced by | Walt Disney |
| Studio | Disney |
| Release date(s) | February 15, 1925 |
| Color process | Black and white |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Preceded by | Alice Gets Stung |
| Followed by | Alice's Egg Plant |
Alice Solves the Puzzle is a 1925 animated short film by Walt Disney in the Alice Comedies series, and the first to feature Pete. It is notable for being one of the first animated films to be officially censored.
A girl named Alice is stuck while solving a difficult crossword puzzle when her cat Julius tells her they should go to the beach. They swim in the ocean for a while then dry off and Alice continues her puzzle. Just as she begins, Pete (a collector of rare crossword puzzles who discovers that it is the one he is missing) demands she give him her puzzle. Alice refuses and smacks him in the face. She then runs into a lighthouse and locks the door. Pete breaks down the door and chases Alice around the lighthouse. Alice screams for help and Julius hears her. He climbs to the top and a fight breaks out. Julius wins the fight by knocking Pete off the lighthouse. Alice then discovers the last phrase in her puzzle, "The End."
When Russell Merritt examined a German print of Alice Solves the Puzzle, he was surprised to find an additional scene missing from American prints. In most prints of Pete’s first scene, he is shown speeding in a boat being pulled by a pelican. He passes a police-dog, who blows a whistle and chases him. Pete simply turns and laughs. However, Merrit discovered in the German version Pete is stopped by a customs inspector who examines the boat, then lets him pass. Pete then opens the pelican’s mouth and pulls out a bottle of bootleg whiskey. This scene was cut because the Pennsylvania Censorship Board asked Disney to cut the scene during its first release. Disney then directed Winkler Studios, his distributor, to cut the scene from any further US releases.
The only remnant of the scene in the United States is two frames in which Pete’s whiskey bottle is still visible.
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