Alice in Wonderland (1949 film)
| Alice in Wonderland | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Directed by | Dallas Bower |
| Written by |
Book Author: Lewis Carroll Screenwriter: Edward Eliscu Albert E. Lewin Henry Myers |
| Based on |
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll |
| Starring |
Stephen Murray Carol Marsh Raymond Bussières |
| Cinematography |
Gerald Gibbs Claude Renoir |
| Edited by | Inman Hunter |
|
Release date
|
1949 |
|
Running time
|
83 min. |
| Country | France |
Alice in Wonderland (French: Alice au pays des merveilles) is a 1949 French film based on Lewis Carroll's fantasy novel Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. Directed by Dallas Bower, the film stars Carol Marsh as Alice, Stephen Murray as Lewis Carroll, and Raymond Bussières as The Tailor. Most of the Wonderland characters are portrayed by stop-motion animated puppets created by Lou Bunin.
All of the other live actors in the film are seen only in the live action scenes. However, they lend their voices to the Wonderland characters, and the staging of the scenes in England vs. the scenes in Wonderland is reminiscent of the Kansas scenes vs. the Oz scenes in The Wizard of Oz, in that several of the live-action characters seem to have counterparts (of sorts) in Wonderland. Among the other live actors are Pamela Brown as the Queen and as the voice of the Queen of Hearts. Stephen Murray is seen as Lewis Carroll and provides the voice of the Knave of Hearts, and Felix Aylmer, who played Polonius in Olivier's Hamlet, plays Dr. Liddell, father of Alice Liddell, the real-life inspiration for Alice; he also provides the voice of the Cheshire Cat.
Carol Marsh was 20 years old when she played the part of Alice - conceived by the novel's author as 7 years old.
The film was kept out of Britain as his representation of the Queen of Hearts was seen as too close and too unkind to Queen Victoria.
The film was not widely seen in the U.S. upon its completion, due to a legal dispute with the Disney Studios, which was making its own full-length animated version of Alice at the same time as the Bower version was being worked on. Disney sued to prevent release of the British version in the U.S., and the case was extensively covered in Time magazine. The company that released the British version accused Disney of trying to exploit their film by releasing its version at virtually the same time.
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