Alice in Wonderland | |
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![]() May Clark as Alice (left) and Norman Whitten (right) as the Mad Hatter | |
Directed by | Cecil Hepworth Percy Stow |
Written by | Cecil M. Hepworth |
Based on | Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass by Lewis Carroll |
Produced by | Cecil M. Hepworth Herman Casler (exec. producer) Elias Koopman (exec. producer) Harry Marvin (exec. producer) |
Starring | May Clark Cecil M. Hepworth Mrs. Cecil Hepworth Norman Whitten |
Cinematography | Cecil M. Hepworth |
Production company | |
Distributed by | American Mutoscope and Biograph Company Edison Manufacturing Company Kleine Optical Company |
Release date |
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Running time | approx. 8:19 minutes |
Country | United Kingdom |
Alice in Wonderland is a 1903 British silent fantasy film directed by Cecil Hepworth and Percy Stow.[1] Only one copy of the original film is known to exist. The British Film Institute (BFI) partially restored the movie and its original film tinting and released it in 2010. According to BFI, the original film ran about 12 minutes; the restoration runs 9 minutes and 35 seconds.[1] At the beginning of the restoration, it states that this is the first movie adaptation of Lewis Carroll's 1865 children's book Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.[2] It was filmed mostly at Port Meadow in Oxford.
Called a "landmark fantasy" by the BFI,[3] the film is memorable for its use of special effects, including Alice's shrinking in the Hall of Many Doors, and in her large size, stuck inside the White Rabbit's home and reaching for help through a window.[3] It is now available from several sources, and is included as a bonus feature on a 1996 BBC DVD. It is also included in the Vintage Cinema: Experiments in early film 1900s DVD.