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HISTORY

The 19 December 1914 Moving Picture World announced that the Nonpareil Feature Film Corp. was completing a six-reel production of Alice in Wonderland, and was "endeavoring to release picture during Christmas week." A Nonpareil advertisement in the 16 January 1915 Variety also gave the release date as Christmas Day, 1914, but it is uncertain if that date was met. The ad also listed Martin J. Faust as the director and De Witt C. Wheeler as the "picturizer"of this "$25,000 production," although credits on a re-issue print of the film listed W. W. Young as both adaptor and director.
       Alice in Wonderland opened at a private exhibition on 19 January 1915 at the Strand Theatre in New York City, according to the 16 January 1915 Variety and 6 February 1915 Moving Picture World.
       This appears to have been the first of only two films, both in 1915, in which stage actress Viola Savoy appeared. She was sixteen when she played "Alice." A brief obituary of her mother, Lotta Savey [sic], in the 16 October 1915 Moving Picture World, noted that she appeared with her daughter in Alice in Wonderland, but her role was not given. She may have portrayed Alice's sister. The spelling of their real last name is undetermined.
       Other cast members were identified in an item in the April 1915 Motion Picture Magazine. Filming was done on a wooded private estate, reportedly on Long Island, New York.
       The 17 October 1914Moving Picture World noted a film version of Alice in Wonderland due for release ...

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The 19 December 1914 Moving Picture World announced that the Nonpareil Feature Film Corp. was completing a six-reel production of Alice in Wonderland, and was "endeavoring to release picture during Christmas week." A Nonpareil advertisement in the 16 January 1915 Variety also gave the release date as Christmas Day, 1914, but it is uncertain if that date was met. The ad also listed Martin J. Faust as the director and De Witt C. Wheeler as the "picturizer"of this "$25,000 production," although credits on a re-issue print of the film listed W. W. Young as both adaptor and director.
       Alice in Wonderland opened at a private exhibition on 19 January 1915 at the Strand Theatre in New York City, according to the 16 January 1915 Variety and 6 February 1915 Moving Picture World.
       This appears to have been the first of only two films, both in 1915, in which stage actress Viola Savoy appeared. She was sixteen when she played "Alice." A brief obituary of her mother, Lotta Savey [sic], in the 16 October 1915 Moving Picture World, noted that she appeared with her daughter in Alice in Wonderland, but her role was not given. She may have portrayed Alice's sister. The spelling of their real last name is undetermined.
       Other cast members were identified in an item in the April 1915 Motion Picture Magazine. Filming was done on a wooded private estate, reportedly on Long Island, New York.
       The 17 October 1914Moving Picture World noted a film version of Alice in Wonderland due for release on 15 November 1914, made by the Union Photoplay Co., which was owned by noted New York Evening World cartoonist Charles R. Macauley; however, it appears to have gone out of business shortly thereafter. It is unlikely that this Nonpareil film and the six-reel Union Photoplay Co. film are the same.
       This film was re-released in 1924 by the American Motion Picture Corp. Other films made from the same source include a 1903 British Alice in Wonderland distributed in the U.S. by the American Mutoscope Company; a 1910 film entitled Alice's Adventures in Wonderland made by Thomas A. Edison, Inc.; a 1933 Paramount production directed by Norman McLeod; a 1951 Walt Disney animated feature; and a 1972 British production entitled Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, directed by William Sterling.
       According to the Library of Congress American Silent Feature Film Survival Database, this film is extant and widely available. The version viewed by AFI Catalog was forty-two minutes long.

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GEOGRAPHIC LOCATIONS
SOURCE CITATIONS
SOURCE
DATE
PAGE
Motion Picture Magazine
Apr 1915
p. 161
Motion Picture News
27 Feb 1915
p. 57, 74
Motion Picture News
29 May 1915
p. 50
Motography
20 Feb 1915
p. 307
Moving Picture World
17 Oct 1914
p. 315
Moving Picture World
19 Dec 1914
p. 1764
Moving Picture World
6 Feb 1915
p. 841
Moving Picture World
12 May 1915
p. 36
Moving Picture World
16 Oct 1915
p. 424
NYDM
27 Jan 1915
p. 54
Variety
16 Jan 1915
p. 26, 30
Variety
23 Jan 1915
p. 25
CAST
PRODUCTION CREDITS
NAME
PARENT COMPANY
PRODUCTION COMPANY
DISTRIBUTION COMPANY
NAME
CREDITED AS
CREDIT
DIRECTORS
Martin J. Faust
Dir
WRITER
PHOTOGRAPHY
SOURCES
LITERARY
Based on the novel Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll (London, 1865) and his novel Through the Looking Glass (London, 1870).
DETAILS
Release Date:
19 January 1915
Production Date:

Physical Properties:
Silent
Black and White
Length(in reels):
5-6
Country:
United States
Language:
English
SYNOPSIS

After stealing some tarts baked by the cook, Alice lolls beside a brook with her sister, who reads aloud while Alice dozes. In a dream, a white rabbit leads Alice to Wonderland, where she has many strange adventures. In the company of a large mouse, for instance, Alice attends an animal convention, and later, she encounters a caterpillar who sits atop a mushroom smoking a hookah. Following their odd conversation, Alice meets the Duchess and her baby (who turns into a piglet), the Cheshire Cat, and Tweedledum and Tweedledee, and then plays croquet with the King and Queen of Hearts. They introduce her to the Gryphon, who, along with the Mock Turtle and a number of walruses and lobsters, perform the Lobster Quadrille. At the trial of the Knave of Hearts, Alice challenges the court, and cards fly all about her. Then she awakens beside the stream, a white rabbit ...

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After stealing some tarts baked by the cook, Alice lolls beside a brook with her sister, who reads aloud while Alice dozes. In a dream, a white rabbit leads Alice to Wonderland, where she has many strange adventures. In the company of a large mouse, for instance, Alice attends an animal convention, and later, she encounters a caterpillar who sits atop a mushroom smoking a hookah. Following their odd conversation, Alice meets the Duchess and her baby (who turns into a piglet), the Cheshire Cat, and Tweedledum and Tweedledee, and then plays croquet with the King and Queen of Hearts. They introduce her to the Gryphon, who, along with the Mock Turtle and a number of walruses and lobsters, perform the Lobster Quadrille. At the trial of the Knave of Hearts, Alice challenges the court, and cards fly all about her. Then she awakens beside the stream, a white rabbit nearby.

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GENRE
Genre:


Subject

Subject (Minor):
Legend
Viewed by AFI
Partially Viewed
Offscreen Credit
Name Occurs Before Title
AFI Life Achievement Award

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The American Film Institute is grateful to Sir Paul Getty KBE and the Sir Paul Getty KBE Estate for their dedication to the art of the moving image and their support for the AFI Catalog of Feature Films and without whose support AFI would not have been able to achieve this historical landmark in this epic scholarly endeavor.