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Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1972 film)

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Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
Theatrical release poster
Directed byWilliam Sterling
Written byWilliam Sterling
Don Black (lyrics)
Lewis Carroll (novel)
Based onAlice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass
by Lewis Carroll
Produced byDerek Horne
StarringFiona Fullerton
CinematographyGeoffrey Unsworth
Edited byPeter Weatherley
Music byJohn Barry
Production
company
Josef Shaftel Productions
Distributed byFox-Rank Distributors
Release dates
  • 20 November 1972 (20 November 1972)
(United States)
  • 4 December 1972 (4 December 1972)
(United Kingdom)
Running time
101 minutes
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish
Budget£700,000[1] or $1.5 million[2]
Box office$9.1 million[3]

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland is a 1972 British musical film directed by Australian filmmaker William Sterling, based on Lewis Carroll's 1865 novel of the same name and its 1871 sequel, Through the Looking-Glass. It had a distinguished ensemble cast and a musical score composed by John Barry with lyrics written by Don Black. In addition, make-up artist Stuart Freeborn created film visuals based on the original drawings by John Tenniel from the first edition of the novel.[4]

At the 26th British Academy Film Awards, the film won both of its nominated categories, including Best Cinematography and Best Costume Design.

Plot

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Alice is a little girl living in England. One day, she sees a white rabbit, follows it and ends up getting swept away in a rabbit hole to Wonderland, a place unlike anything she has seen before. There, Alice finds a door and realizes it is too small for her. She finds a bottle that says “Drink Me”, drinks it and starts to get smaller. However, Alice realizes she will not be able to go through the door without the key. Alice then finds a cookie that reads “Eat Me”. While eating it, Alice grows in size again, starts singing about how big she is and cries. Her tears flood the room, and she becomes small again. Alice starts to find talking animals, like the Cheshire Cat and the White Rabbit. Alice ends up at the rabbit's house and drinks a bottle to change sizes again. Alice ends up being too big for the White Rabbit, so she changes back to her regular size. She joins a tea party, with a man named the Mad Hatter, eventually gets fed up with Wonderland's inhabitants and returns home.

Cast

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Production

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Casting

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It was originally intended to cast an actress who was close to the age of Alice in the original book. They began their search looking for girls who were between seven and ten years old. This concept was later scrapped when they realized that most girls of that age "lose their teeth, lisp a great deal, and have short attention spans."[5]

When the decision was made to audition older actresses, the director, William Sterling, orchestrated a nationwide search across Great Britain for an unknown young actress to play the title role of Alice. Over 2,000[6] girls between the ages of thirteen to seventeen auditioned for this highly sought after role. This search had been considered to be one of the biggest in the UK since Franco Zeffirelli's search for the roles of Romeo and Juliet six years earlier.

Some actresses who auditioned for the role of Alice included Lynne Frederick, Rosalyn Landor, Karen Dotrice, Deborah Makepeace, and Chloe Franks. Landor,[7] who had just turned thirteen at the time, impressed everyone at her audition and was asked back a few times, but the producers and director ultimately decided that she was too young. Frederick[8] was nearly eighteen at the time of her audition, and after doing a few screen tests was deemed too sophisticated and mature for the part. Landor and Frederick were later cast in the Lionel Jeffries film The Amazing Mr. Blunden (1972), which came out the same year as Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1972).

Fifteen year old Fiona Fullerton was ultimately cast as Alice. For the role of Alice, Fullerton had her long hip length brown hair dyed chestnut blonde. Fullerton would later star on stage in London's West End in the musicals Camelot and Nymph Errant, singing on both productions' cast recordings.[9][10]

Robert Helpmann had worked with Sterling several times in Australia.[11]

Deleted scenes

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Two songs appear on the film's soundtrack but are not in the final cut of the film: "I've Never Been This Far Before" performed by Alice when she enters the garden outside the Queen of Heart's palace, and "The Moral Song" sung by the Duchess to Alice during the Croquet Game.[12] A dialogue scene was filmed between Alice and the Cheshire Cat, with the latter perched in a tree. Although some stills survive, the footage itself was cut from the final print and may no longer exist.[13]

Soundtrack

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The Duchess Is Waiting
Lyrics by Don Black
Music by John Barry
Performed by Michael Crawford
Curiouser And Curiouser
Lyrics by Don Black
Music by John Barry
Performed by Fiona Fullerton
You've Got To Know When To Stop
Lyrics by Don Black
Music by John Barry
Performed by Davy Kaye
The Royal Processions
Music by John Barry
The Last Word Is Mine
Lyrics by Don Black
Music by John Barry
Performed by Michael Crawford and Fiona Fullerton
Digging For Apples
Lyrics by Don Black
Music by John Barry
Performed by Freddie Earlle
There Goes Bill
Lyrics by Don Black
Music by John Barry
Performed by Freddie Earlle and Mike Elles
How Doth The Little Crocodile
Lyrics by Don Black
Music by John Barry
Performed by Fiona Fullerton
Dum And Dee Dance (Nursery Rhyme)
Lyrics by Lewis Carroll and Don Black
Music by John Barry
Performed by Fiona Fullerton
From The Queen, An Invitation for the Duchess To Play Croquet
Lyrics by Don Black
Music by John Barry
Performed by Peter O'Farrell and Ian Trigger
The Duchess's Lullaby
Lyrics by Lewis Carroll and Don Black
Music by John Barry
Performed by Peter Bull and Patsy Rowlands
It's More Like A Pig Than A Baby
Lyrics by Don Black
Music by John Barry
Performed by Fiona Fullerton
I See What I Eat
Lyrics by Don Black
Music by John Barry
Performed by Fiona Fullerton
Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Bat
Lyrics by Don Black
Music by John Barry
Performed by Robert Helpmann, Dudley Moore
The Pun Song
Lyrics by Don Black
Music by John Barry
Performed by Robert Helpmann, Peter Sellers, Dudley Moore and Fiona Fullerton
Off With Their Heads
Lyrics by Don Black
Music by John Barry
Performed by Flora Robson
The Croquet Game
Music by John Barry
Off With Their Heads (Reprise)
Lyrics by Don Black
Music by John Barry
Performed by Flora Robson
I've Never Been This Far Before
Lyrics by Don Black
Music by John Barry
Performed by Fiona Fullerton
The Moral Song
Lyrics by Lewis Carroll and Don Black
Music by John Barry
Performed by Peter Bull
The Me I Never Knew
Lyrics by Don Black
Music by John Barry
Performed by Fiona Fullerton
The Lobster Quadrille (The Mock Turtle's Song)
Music by John Barry
Will You Walk A Little Faster, Said A Whiting to a Snail
Lyrics by Lewis Carroll and Don Black
Music by John Barry
Performed by Michael Hordern and Spike Milligan
They Told Me (Evidence Read at the Trial of the Knave of Hearts)
Lyrics by Lewis Carroll and Don Black
Music by John Barry
Performed by Michael Crawford

Reception

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Box office

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The film was one of the most popular movies of the year at the British box office in 1973.[14]

Accolades

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Award Category Nominee(s) Result Ref.
British Academy Film Awards Best Cinematography Geoffrey Unsworth (also for Cabaret) Won [15]
Best Costume Design Anthony Mendleson (also for Macbeth and Young Winston) Won

Home media

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The film has been released on VHS and DVD several times.

References

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  1. ^ Alexander Walker, National Heroes: British Cinema in the Seventies and Eighties, Harrap, 1985 p 126
  2. ^ "The summer visitors". The Bulletin. 6 January 1973. p. 24.
  3. ^ Donahue, Suzanne Mary (1987). American film distribution : the changing marketplace. UMI Research Press. p. 292. ISBN 9780835717762. Please note figures are for rentals in US and Canada
  4. ^ "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland(1972)". Yahoo movies. Retrieved 29 May 2012.
  5. ^ Scott, Vernon (26 December 1972). "What would Lewis Carroll think? Alice's musical wonderland". Detroit News.
  6. ^ Scott, Vernon (26 December 1972). "What would Lewis Carroll think? Alice's musical wonderland". Detroit News.
  7. ^ "The Amazing Mr Blunden: Interview: Rosalyn Landor". Sci-Fi Bulletin: Exploring the Universes of SF, Fantasy & Horror!. 11 March 2013.
  8. ^ Edwards, Jonathan (1 January 2020). "Lynne Frederick Remembered » We Are Cult". We Are Cult. Retrieved 4 January 2020.
  9. ^ "Jay Records - Camelot".
  10. ^ https://www.loc.gov/item/smor.19331006/ [dead link‍]
  11. ^ Vagg, Stephen (2023). "Forgotten Australian Television Plays – Half an Hour with Robert Helpmann". Filmink. Retrieved 2 August 2024.
  12. ^ "Alice's in Wonderland Original Motion Picture Soundtrack re-released by FSM Silver Age Classics, liner notes by Jon Burlingame
  13. ^ "Las aventuras de Alicia (1972)". IMDb.
  14. ^ Swern, Phil (1995). The Guinness book of box office hits. Guinness Publishing. p. 192. ISBN 9780851126708.
  15. ^ "BAFTA Awards (1973)". British Academy of Film and Television Arts. Retrieved 23 November 2013.
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