Particularly given the sate this is quite remarkable.
I only came across it by chance, and being a get fan of Alice I had to see it.
The costumes have been described as bizarre or even grotesque, but they are in many cases astonishingly good version of Tenniel's illustrations for the book. Indeed this is amazing faithful to the book - far more so that most films made more recently - with most of text being lifted straight from the book itself. If it appears nightmarish that is because the story is as much a nightmare as a dream.
Odd parts are left out - or lost - we do not see Alice grow or shrink in size, which is a pity. But on the positive side there is the wonderful Father William sequence - although oddly it only tells one half of the poem, and does not include Father William's replies.
The lead - Viola Savoy - as apparently a child actress on stage who made this and one other film right at the end of her career. She was obviously very gifted and - even better - looks very like the original Alice Liddell (it is only really Disney that made her blond, though Tenniel had suggested it). The only problem is that at 15 Viola is really too old for the role - certainly she too tall, towering over some of the other actors who should have been taller than the child that Alice was.
Other reviewers have mentioned that elements of "Looking Glass" - the second Alice book - appear, but really that is confined to the Walrus and the Carpenter wandering into the Mock Turtle's Lobster Quadrille. Beyond that I did not spot any "Looking Glass" elements - which is wonderful!
The Mock Turtle is brilliant by the way - Tenniel brought to life.
For a silent film of a book based on wordplay it does very, very well. You probably have to know the book to make any sense of it at all, but that is Alice.
And this really is Alice.
I only came across it by chance, and being a get fan of Alice I had to see it.
The costumes have been described as bizarre or even grotesque, but they are in many cases astonishingly good version of Tenniel's illustrations for the book. Indeed this is amazing faithful to the book - far more so that most films made more recently - with most of text being lifted straight from the book itself. If it appears nightmarish that is because the story is as much a nightmare as a dream.
Odd parts are left out - or lost - we do not see Alice grow or shrink in size, which is a pity. But on the positive side there is the wonderful Father William sequence - although oddly it only tells one half of the poem, and does not include Father William's replies.
The lead - Viola Savoy - as apparently a child actress on stage who made this and one other film right at the end of her career. She was obviously very gifted and - even better - looks very like the original Alice Liddell (it is only really Disney that made her blond, though Tenniel had suggested it). The only problem is that at 15 Viola is really too old for the role - certainly she too tall, towering over some of the other actors who should have been taller than the child that Alice was.
Other reviewers have mentioned that elements of "Looking Glass" - the second Alice book - appear, but really that is confined to the Walrus and the Carpenter wandering into the Mock Turtle's Lobster Quadrille. Beyond that I did not spot any "Looking Glass" elements - which is wonderful!
The Mock Turtle is brilliant by the way - Tenniel brought to life.
For a silent film of a book based on wordplay it does very, very well. You probably have to know the book to make any sense of it at all, but that is Alice.
And this really is Alice.