I’m sure I must’ve heard of this one previously in my ongoing Alice in Wonderland collecting but for some reason I had missed it where I found it today, perhaps mistaking it for the BBC adaptation that came just a year later. This is almost literally a trial run at the “past” section of Dreamchild … it’s written, like that film, by Dennis Potter, with whole scenes playing almost exactly as they turned out in the later production. It covers the relationship between Lewis Carroll and Alice Liddell in much the same way, with a few additional points which I recognised I think from Katie Roiphe’s more recent book “Still She Haunts Me” (which I guess means these must be the few points about the story which are more agreed upon).

Being as Dreamchild is so superior in almost every way, this earlier version is really only of interest for interest’s sake. The Alice here is far too old, which I realise has been a common but often more acceptable problem in adaptations of the book (Fiona Fullerton is one of my favourite Alices) but when dealing with the “true” story becomes a little ridiculous. That’s not to say Deborah Watling (a Doctor Who companion! I must seek out her episodes…) isn’t a pleasure to watch, however. Likewise the actor playing Carroll, George Baker, is nothing compared to Ian Holm in the later version. I made a point in my Dreamchild review of talking about Holm’s strange approach to the character, and my reaction to his interpretation there is only enhanced by seeing Baker’s here which really does go too far in painting Carroll as practically a madman, most notably in a scene where he is arranging the engraving of a music-box as a present for Alice.

If you’re as interested in the whole story of Lewis and Alice as I am, however, it is certainly an interesting find, and certainly belongs at least as an extra if Dreamchild ever makes it to DVD & Blu-ray where it deserves to find a new audience. The version I found was highly degraded and it would be nice to see a more professional and official release. (Addendum: apparently this is already available on DVD as part of a recent DVD re-issue of the aforementioned 1966 BBC adaptation of the book… I don’t know what the quality is like, but I’ve put it on my Amazon queue…)

Tags: Alice, cuties, true story

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 27th, 2010 at 8:10 pm and is filed under 3 hearts, Movie Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.