- Film "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" based on the novel "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" by Lewis Carroll.
- Alice and her big sister are sitting on the side of a hill overlooking the lake, the big sister busy with her book. Before long we see the little girls eyes grow heavy and she finally begins to see things, the first being the rabbit, Alices friend and guide in her travels. We see him take a watch out of his waistcoat pocket, look at it and then hurry on. Alice starts to her feet as it evidently flashes through her mind that she has never before seen a rabbit with either a waistcoat pocket or a watch to take out of it, and burning with curiosity she runs across the fields after it just in time to see it pop down a large rabbit hole under the hedge. In another minute Alice goes in after it, never once considering how in the world she can get out again. Then the scene shifts and we see her falling down the rabbit hole. Either it is very deep or she falls very slowly, for she has plenty of time to look about her as she falls down, down, down. She wonders how many miles she has fallen, and thinks she must be getting somewhere near the center of the earth. Then suddenly she falls into a mysterious hall with doors all around it. The doors are all locked and when Alice goes all the way down one side and up the other, trying every door, she realizes that she cannot get out of the hall. Suddenly then she comes upon the little three-legged glass table with nothing on it but a tiny key. She tries the key in all the doors of the hall, but alas! either there are no locks on the doors, or they are too small or too large. Then she notices a little door about fifteen inches high at the bottom of one of the big ones, tries the little golden key and to her great delight it fits the lock. She opens the door and looks out through its passage into the loveliest little garden ever. She longs to get out of the dark hall, to wander among those beds of bright flowers and those cool fountains, but she cannot even get her head through the doorway. Next we see her close the door and, returning to the table, lay the key on it. And then she discovers a mysterious bottle which hears the words Drink Me. When she has taken a drink from the bottle she finds herself growing smaller and smaller, shutting up like a telescope. When she is ten inches high she can go through the little door, but now the key is high above her head on the table. The effect of Alices change in size is very happily carried out and conveys the illusion perfectly. Next we see her eat the wonderful cake which makes her grow tall enough so that she can get the key again. But then she does not stop growing, but keeps on until she fills the entire hall and begins to cry with grief at her inability to stop. She cries a whole pool of tears and incontinently tumbles into it. We see her splashing about and then crawling out of the pool as dry as if water were not wet at all. Then the rabbit reappears, very tiny compared to Alice now, and passes her, disappearing down the end of the hall. He leaves a little fan behind him, which Alice picks up and which has the same effect as the wonderful liquid in the bottle. She begins to grow small again and finally is able to pass through the little door into the beautiful garden. Then follows the scene with the enormous puppy, who looks down at her with large, round eyes and seems to try to play with her. She is so tiny beside the puppy that he looks like an elephant. She takes up a stick to play with him and is almost sorry when he runs away and leaves her. She should have liked teaching him tricks very much, if she had only been the right size to do it. Then she wanders on until she comes upon a little house about four feet high. While she stands looking at it and wondering what to do next a footman in livery suddenly comes out of the woods. She judges him a footman only because he is in livery; otherwise, judging from his face, she would call him a fish. He raps loudly at the door, which is opened by another footman in livery, with a round face and large eyes like a frog, and both footmen bow ceremoniously. The fish footman begins by producing from under his arm a great letter, an invitation from the Queen to the Duchess, after delivering which both footmen bow low and the fish man disappears into the woods, while the other sits down on the ground near the door staring stupidly into the sky. At this moment the door of the house opens and a large plate comes skimming out straight at the footmans head. It just grazes his nose and breaks to pieces against one of the trees behind him. It is followed by several others which narrowly miss him, and Alice decides that she must go into the house and find out what its all about. The little door leads right into a large kitchen full of smoke from one end to the other. The Duchess sits on a three-legged stool nursing the baby. The cook is leaning over the fire stirring a large cauldron which seems to be full of soup, and there certainly seems to be too much pepper in the soup for they all sneeze as the cook flourishes the pepper pot. In fact, the only people in the room that dont sneeze are the cook and the large cat which is sitting on the heart grinning from ear to ear. It is Alices first meeting with the Cheshire cat. Then suddenly the cook sets to work throwing everything within her reach at the Duchess and the baby, fire-irons, dishes, saucepans and plates. The Duchess takes no notice of them even when they hit her, and the baby howls so much that it is impossible to say whether the blows hurt it or not. Then the Duchess gets up, throws the baby to Alice and disappears. Then we see Alice carry the baby out into the woods when she suddenly realizes that some change has come over it. She looks down; it is neither more nor less than a pig. She feels that it would be quite absurd for her to carry it any farther, so she sets the little creature down and is quite relieved to see it trot away quietly into the woods. It has hardly disappeared from the scene when the Cheshire cat dimly appears upon the limb of a tree and smiles down at Alice. While Alice is talking to it the cat disappears and reappears again, which is very disconcerting to her. In the next scene Alice has come to the house of the March Hare. There is a table set out under the tree, and the March Hare and the Hatter are having tea at it, a Dormouse siting between them fast asleep. The other two are using it as a cushion, resting their elbows on it and talking over its head. The table is a large one but the three are all crowded together in one corner. They indicate that there is no room for Alice, but she indignantly tells them that there is room and sits down in a large armchair at one end of the table. It certainly is a mad tea party, for they drop everything into the teapot, and soon we see the Hatter take out his watch and look at it uneasily, shaking it now and then and holding it to his ear. Then we see him put butter in the works and indicate no when Alice protests that it is the best butter obtainable. As this fails to make the watch to, he dips it into his cup of tea and finally ends by putting it in the teapot. This is too much for Alice and she beats a retreat. The last she sees of the three, the March Hare and the Hatter are putting the Dormouse into the teapot after the watch. Then comes the garden of roses and the croquet grounds of the King and Queen of Hearts, where we are introduced to their majesties and to the Knave with the family of Heart children. This scene is followed by a banquet at which the dastardly Knave steals the tarts and gets away with them, as told in the familiar rhyme. Although Alice is the only one to see him, she refuses to tell, even when summoned to the trial, which takes place in the next scene. The first witness is the Mad Hatter, who nervously bites a piece out of his tea cup when called upon to testify and takes off his shoes instead of his hat in respect to their majesties. The cook with her pepper box is another witness. She makes them sneeze but refuses to give any valuable evidence. Then comes Alice, the last witness, who angers their majesties by her refusal to convict the Knave, and who protests at the idea of sentencing him without going through the formality of finishing the trial. She braves the angry Queen, who can plainly be seen ordering Alices head cut off. Then, as in the book, Alice indicates that she doesnt care for them and that she knows that they are nothing but a pack of cards; at which sign the whole pack rises into the air, the people changing to real cards and coming flying down upon her and about her head. She tries to beat them off and in so doing wakes herself up to find herself again upon the hillside, with the big sister gently brushing away the dead leaves that have fluttered down on to her face. - The Moving Picture World, September 3, 1910
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