Apparently, this is the first talkie transmutation of Lewis Carroll's "Alice in Wonderland" to screen. Most others seem to rate this version relatively low, but it does surprisingly well in one important aspect of adaptation: retaining and cinematically translating the nonsense. Of only two years later, Paramount's 1933 iteration is good example of how stilted Alice movies can be. Sure, this low-budget 1931 film is a creaky early synchronized-sound film, has poor production values (the Mock Turtle part looks especially lousy), isn't particularly faithful to the source (e.g. a love affair between the White Rabbit and the Duchess), and the acting is atrocious, but it moves at a brisk pace and without the hindrance of ever appearing to take itself seriously. Indeed, for the first time in film history, the spectator heard some of Carroll's nonsensical wordplay to go along with the picture's visual imagination.
Setting the pace and tone from the start is a jazzy tune by Irving Berlin during the credits and opening shots, which is recycled from "Puttin' on the Ritz" (1930). Relatively rare for an early talkie, another early scene features a score as Alice's image is stretched and shrunk while staggering beside giant mushrooms--the film's only reference to the character's growing taller and smaller from the book. The picture jumps right into Wonderland, too, without the preamble of it being framed as a dream--although, of course, it still ends that way--or of her following the White Rabbit. Alice even seems to be breaking the fourth wall without a direct address to the audience with the first words spoken in the picture. The primitive special effects have a charm to them, as well; these include spinning images, use of distorting lenses, blurred images, superimpositions, iris masking, stop-substitutions and dissolves. Also somewhat unusual for a film from 1931, the camera movement has zing to it, including beginning shots with quick adjustments to focus on a character. There are many of these during the Mad Hatter's tea party, with some seemingly employed to disguise the editing, as though the camera is flowing between characters in a continuous tracking shot of their conversation. The only thing I think needlessly slows down the proceedings are the fade outs between episodes. Regardless, thanks to its pace of shot succession and scene dissection, the average shot length here of 9.75 seconds (my count) is good for a 1931 talkie.
Moreover, while the acting is generally poor, including actors looking off in strange directions (the Duchess and Alice not looking at each other while talking in one scene stands out), the Cheshire Cat stumbling through his lines, and some awful singing, everyone appropriately plays it light. Alice adaptations after the Disney cartoon tend to focus on the frightening aspects of the story, and some are decidedly more for adults than children, so it's refreshing to see this brisk early talkie have fun with the nonsense. Ruth Gilbert does a good Alice, too, in the respect that she plays the wide-eyed, slack-jawed and excitable dumb blonde part well. That Alice seems to be having fun makes all the difference.
