Underplayed Gems

Alice in Wonderland (1983)

Alice in Wonderland poster
Directed by
Kirk Browning
Genre
fantasy, adventure, comedy
Country
United States
Runtime
1h 29m
Rating
6.8 of 10 from 6 voters
Elsewhere
IMDb
The 3D catalogue: film cases on wooden shelves, with the cat sitting at the counter next to its greeting.

The catalogue in 3D

The film shelves have a room of their own that you can walk around in. The cat behind the counter is the AI Catbot, and they pick real films from the same catalogue when you tell them what you feel like watching. Nothing is for sale, here or in there. Go in from here and this film is already out on the counter, with more like it waiting on the shelf next to it.

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How it feels

This is a 1983 television recording of a Broadway production. It follows Alice through Wonderland as she encounters talking animals and eccentric characters, with actors wearing black-and-white costumes based on the original book illustrations. The adaptation stays close to the classic story by Lewis Carroll.

theatricalwhimsicaldreamlikearchivalstagedblack-and-whitenostalgiclighthearted

What happens

A 1982 Broadway stage performance of Alice in Wonderland was telecast on PBS's Great Performances in 1983. Directed by Kirk Browning, it was produced by PBS affiliate WNET in New York. Black-and-white papier-mâché costumes aimed to re-create the book's original artwork by John Tenniel. The production was not recorded on film, but on videotape. It starred Kate Burton as Alice, and her father, Richard Burton, as the White Knight. Other notable roles included Nathan Lane as the Mouse, Geoffrey Holder as the Cheshire Cat, Andre De Shields as Tweedledum, and Eve Arden as the Queen of Hearts. The production was a revival of actress-director Eva Le Gallienne and Florida Friebus's famous 1932 stage adaptation of Lewis Carroll's novel. It had been presented on Broadway in 1982 with Ms. Burton in the lead, but with an otherwise different cast featuring the Mirror Repertory Company. The videotaping was not made in a theatre with a live audience, but in a television studio, much as the 1960 version of Peter Pan had been years before. The Le Gallienne-Friebus adaptation had previously served as the unofficial basis for the all-star 1933 Paramount Pictures film version of the novel, which featured Charlotte Henry as Alice. The stage production was successfully revived on Broadway in 1947 with Bambi Linn in the title role, and an abridged 6-record 78-RPM album featuring the revival's cast was made by RCA Victor. The 1983 TV adaptation of the stage production was not the first. It had previously been telecast in 1955 by NBC, as part of the Hallmark Hall of Fame. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

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