Alice in Wonderland
Blu ray
Kino Lorber
1933 / 1.33:1/ 76 min.
Starring Charlotte Henry, W.C. Fields, Gary Cooper
Cinematography by Bert Glennon, Henry Sharp
Directed by Norman Z. McLeod
Written by Harvey Kurtzman with art by Jack Davis, Mad‘s 1954 parody of Alice in Wonderland stands as a succinct critique of Paramount Pictures’s 1933 adaptation. The film stars crowd pleasing performers like Cary Grant and W.C. Fields yet manages to be one of the most uniquely disturbing studio pictures ever made.
Directed by Norman Z. McLeod and written by Joseph L. Mankiewicz and William Cameron Menzies, the movie began production in 1932, the centennial of Lewis Carroll’s birth. Carroll’s classic was ripe for Paramount – the studio on Melrose was ground zero for absurdist humor in the early ’30s. McLeod had just wrapped the Marx Brothers’ sublime Horse Feathers while the Mankiewicz-scripted Million Dollar Legs was released the same year – both...
Blu ray
Kino Lorber
1933 / 1.33:1/ 76 min.
Starring Charlotte Henry, W.C. Fields, Gary Cooper
Cinematography by Bert Glennon, Henry Sharp
Directed by Norman Z. McLeod
Written by Harvey Kurtzman with art by Jack Davis, Mad‘s 1954 parody of Alice in Wonderland stands as a succinct critique of Paramount Pictures’s 1933 adaptation. The film stars crowd pleasing performers like Cary Grant and W.C. Fields yet manages to be one of the most uniquely disturbing studio pictures ever made.
Directed by Norman Z. McLeod and written by Joseph L. Mankiewicz and William Cameron Menzies, the movie began production in 1932, the centennial of Lewis Carroll’s birth. Carroll’s classic was ripe for Paramount – the studio on Melrose was ground zero for absurdist humor in the early ’30s. McLeod had just wrapped the Marx Brothers’ sublime Horse Feathers while the Mankiewicz-scripted Million Dollar Legs was released the same year – both...
- 6/6/2020
- by Charlie Largent
- Trailers from Hell
As Disney quietly disappears huge swathes of film history into its vaults, I'm going to spend 2020 celebrating Twentieth Century Fox and the Fox Film Corporation's films, what one might call their output if only someone were putting it out.And now they've quietly disappeared William Fox's name from the company: guilty by association with Rupert Murdoch, even though he never associated with him.When you look through the IMDb entries for the early releases of the Fox Film Corporation (recommended: it's dispiriting and boggling at once: how many Buck Jones and Tom Mix westerns did the world need—and how many survive?) it's striking how many potentially interesting ones are unheard-of and impossible for the ordinary cinephile to see. My mouth waters in particular at the many, many Roy William Neill silents: Neill was a terrific, expressive filmmaker, a journeyman maybe, but a very talented one, best known today...
- 1/22/2020
- MUBI
Considering everything that's been happening on the planet in the last several months, you'd have thought we're already in November or December – of 2117. But no. It's only June. 2017. And in some parts of the world, that's the month of brides, fathers, graduates, gays, and climate change denial. Beginning this evening, Thursday, June 1, Turner Classic Movies will be focusing on one of these June groups: Lgbt people, specifically those in the American film industry. Following the presentation of about 10 movies featuring Frank Morgan, who would have turned 127 years old today, TCM will set its cinematic sights on the likes of William Haines, James Whale, George Cukor, Mitchell Leisen, Dorothy Arzner, Patsy Kelly, and Ramon Novarro. In addition to, whether or not intentionally, Claudette Colbert, Colin Clive, Katharine Hepburn, Douglass Montgomery (a.k.a. Kent Douglass), Marjorie Main, and Billie Burke, among others. But this is ridiculous! Why should TCM present a...
- 6/2/2017
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Comedy actress Alice Howell on the cover of film historian Anthony Slide's latest book: Pioneering funky-haired performer 'could have been Chaplin' – or at the very least another Louise Fazenda. Rediscovering comedy actress Alice Howell: Female performer in movie field dominated by men Early comedy actress Alice Howell is an obscure entity even for silent film aficionados. With luck, only a handful of them will be able to name one of her more than 100 movies, mostly shorts – among them Sin on the Sabbath, A Busted Honeymoon, How Stars Are Made – released between 1914 and 1920. Yet Alice Howell holds (what should be) an important – or at the very least an interesting – place in film history. After all, she was one of the American cinema's relatively few pioneering “funny actresses,” along with the likes of the better-known Flora Finch, Louise Fazenda, and, a top star in her day, Mabel Normand.[1] Also of note,...
- 4/20/2017
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Uggie: 'The Artist' dog star. Uggie, 'The Artist' scene-stealing dog star, has died The biggest non-human movie star of the 21st century, Uggie, whose scene-stealing cuteness helped to earn Michel Hazanavicius' The Artist the 2011 Best Picture Academy Award, has died. According to his official Facebook page, Uggie had been suffering from prostate cancer; he was euthanized last Friday, Aug. 7, '15. Born in 2002, Uggie was 13 years old. An announcement posted on Tuesday night, Aug. 11, on the Fb page Consider Uggie read: We regret to inform to all our friends, family and Uggie's fans that our beloved boy has passed away. We were not planning on posting anything until we healed a little more but unfortunately somebody leaked it to TMZ and they will be announcing it. In short, Uggie had a cancerous tumor in the prostate and is now in a better place not feeling pain.
- 8/12/2015
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Following their invaluable collection Female Comedy Teams, Filmmuseum Munchen rescues another forgotten comedian from the ashes of history with two discs of Max Davidson Comedies, celebrating an ethnic comedian who churned out a slew of domestic two-reelers at Hal Roach studios during the late silent era.
He's a small man with a grizzled beard and a shock of salt-and-pepper hair. Circumstances frequently reduce him to a nightshirt, but he prefers an overcoat with a derby. Circumstances also conspire to throw his household into turmoil, to which Max will react by puckering his lips in a soundless "Oy!" while placing one hand to his cheek as if nursing an impacted molar. This expression, Max's "oy face," will appear with numbing regularity in every film. Occasionally, for variety, he puts both hands to both cheeks, achieving a Kubrickian symmetry.
Somewhat more funny than Max, whose range really is as limited as the above suggests,...
He's a small man with a grizzled beard and a shock of salt-and-pepper hair. Circumstances frequently reduce him to a nightshirt, but he prefers an overcoat with a derby. Circumstances also conspire to throw his household into turmoil, to which Max will react by puckering his lips in a soundless "Oy!" while placing one hand to his cheek as if nursing an impacted molar. This expression, Max's "oy face," will appear with numbing regularity in every film. Occasionally, for variety, he puts both hands to both cheeks, achieving a Kubrickian symmetry.
Somewhat more funny than Max, whose range really is as limited as the above suggests,...
- 7/7/2011
- MUBI
Today for the International Women's History Centennial, a few "firsts" in movies. Add some in the comments if you want! I was 2/3rds done with this when I spotted Cinematical's "women in cinematic history but I wanted to make this a little more "first"y and loopier and obviously a bit more awardsy in nature since we play it like that.
A Mary Pickford biography | Florence Lawrence "The Biograph Girl"
Silents
First movie star: That's "The Biograph Girl" Florence Lawrence Or...
First "Oprah" i.e. first woman in entertainment to basic control the universe: Mary Pickford was, like Florence Lawrence, famous by sight before actor names went in credits. Pickford was also known as "America's Sweetheart" a title that the media has virtually never tired of passing on down to newish popular actresses ever since. Mary was one of the founders of AMPAS and a studio founder too. She also commanded astronomical wealth.
A Mary Pickford biography | Florence Lawrence "The Biograph Girl"
Silents
First movie star: That's "The Biograph Girl" Florence Lawrence Or...
First "Oprah" i.e. first woman in entertainment to basic control the universe: Mary Pickford was, like Florence Lawrence, famous by sight before actor names went in credits. Pickford was also known as "America's Sweetheart" a title that the media has virtually never tired of passing on down to newish popular actresses ever since. Mary was one of the founders of AMPAS and a studio founder too. She also commanded astronomical wealth.
- 3/9/2011
- by NATHANIEL R
- FilmExperience
Noah’s Ark (1928) Direction: Michael Curtiz Screenplay: Anthony Coldeway; from Darryl F. Zanuck’s original story Cast: George O’Brien, Dolores Costello, Guinn ‘Big Boy’ Williams, Noah Beery, Louise Fazenda, Malcolm Waite, Paul McAllister Of all the films from that magical moment when silent movies merged into sound, nothing is as effective as Michael Curtiz’s Noah’s Ark: it has a [...]...
- 9/24/2009
- by Danny Fortune
- Alt Film Guide
Benjamin Button isn't the only fictional character that was aging in reverse last year. We first heard that Anne Hathaway was cast as The White Queen in Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland in October. It exhibited the usual flurry of excitement (big star joins other stars in high profile project) but few mentioned that the elusive character just lopped off a few decades of living.
The White Queen is nearly aways portrayed as an old woman. Maureen Stapleton was 58 when she played her,Penelope Wilton 52, Carol Channing "jam tomorrow, jam yesterday" 64, Eva Le Gallienne was 56. Nanette Fabray and Louise Fazenda were the youngest I could find, at 46 and 38 respectively, when they donned the crown in 1966 and 1933. Anne Hathaway will only be 27 when the movie arrives.
Anne's incongruous youth for this role first occurred to me this week when Anne wore bridal white to the Oscars and was obviously the...
The White Queen is nearly aways portrayed as an old woman. Maureen Stapleton was 58 when she played her,Penelope Wilton 52, Carol Channing "jam tomorrow, jam yesterday" 64, Eva Le Gallienne was 56. Nanette Fabray and Louise Fazenda were the youngest I could find, at 46 and 38 respectively, when they donned the crown in 1966 and 1933. Anne Hathaway will only be 27 when the movie arrives.
Anne's incongruous youth for this role first occurred to me this week when Anne wore bridal white to the Oscars and was obviously the...
- 3/2/2009
- by NATHANIEL R
- FilmExperience
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