---
created_at: '2016-03-09T05:37:34.000Z'
title: The First Film Version of Alice in Wonderland (1903)
url: http://dangerousminds.net/comments/watch_the_very_first_film_version_of_alice_in_wonderland_from_1903
author: flannery
points: 44
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comment_text: 
num_comments: 2
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parent_id: 
created_at_i: 1457501854
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- story
- author_flannery
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objectID: '11251144'

---
![1alic1903wonder.jpg](/content/uploads/images/made/content/uploads/images/01alic1903wonder_465_360_int.jpg)  
   
Cecil Hepworth is one of the unsung heroes of early cinema. The son of a
magic-lantern showman and novelist, Hepworth was one of the first
producers/directors to realize the potential of making full-length
“feature films” (his version of David Copperfield in 1913 ran for 67
minutes) and the selling power of star actors (and animals—most notably
his pet dog in Rescued by Rover in 1905).

Hepworth began by making short one-minute films. Influenced by the
Lumière Brothers and the early master of cinema Georges Méliès,
Hepworth tried his own hand at advancing their ideas. With [How It Feels
to be Run Over](https://youtu.be/m6F1VAPzvkU) he took the Lumiere’s
[Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat](https://youtu.be/1dgLEDdFddk) (1895)
and applied it to a motor car—where the vehicle heads straight for the
camera apparently mowing down both cameraman and audience. The same
year, he made [Explosion of a Motor Car](https://youtu.be/MNllVz6mKZ4)
in which a car with four passengers explodes. The road (in comic
fashion) is then littered with their body parts. This was shocking and
surreal viewing for early cinema goers. It was also, as Michael Brooke
of [BFI Screenonline](http://www.screenonline.org.uk/film/id/444699/)
points out, “one of the first films to play with the laws of physics for
comic effect.” Hepworth pinched Méliès technique of editing in
camera—stopping the film between sequences to create one complete and
seemingly real
event.

![](/content/uploads/images/made/content/uploads/images/alice1sdfsdfsdfsdf00000000_465_328_int.jpg)  
   
In 1903, Hepworth decided to go large and make (as faithfully as
possible) an adaptation of Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in
Wonderland. Originally running twelve minutes in length, Hepworth’s
Alice in Wonderland was the longest film yet produced in Britain.
Hepworth co-directed the film with Percy Stow. He wanted to keep the
style of the film in keeping with Sir John Tenniel’s original
illustrations. Costumes were designed and elaborate sets were built at
Hepworth’s film studio—including a rather impressive rabbit burrow.
Family members, friends and their children were used in the cast.

Unfortunately, the full version of Hepworth’s mini classic has been
lost. The print that exists is damaged but is still a beautiful, trippy
and incredible piece of work—which as far this little ole blogger’s
concerned, still stands high above that Tim Burton
atrocity.

![](/content/uploads/images/made/content/uploads/images/aliceWFP2-CLAR01_465_359_int.jpg)  
   
The BFI created a remastered version of this film in 2010, which can be
seen [here](https://youtu.be/zeIXfdogJbA). I’m sticking with a scratchy,
silent B\&W version—for which you can supply your own soundtrack.