Alice in Wonderland (1915 and 1951)

Both classic versions of Alice in Wonderland from 1915 and 1951

Alice in Wonderland (1915)

This version of Alice in Wonderland is a 1915 silent film adaptation of Lewis Carroll's classic novel, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, directed and written by W.W. Young and starring Viola Savoy as Alice.

Alice in Wonderland (Disney Animated Classic - 1951)

Alice in Wonderland is an American animated film produced by Walt Disney and based primarily on Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland with a few additional elements from Through the Looking-Glass. Thirteenth in the Walt Disney Animated Classics series, the film was released in New York City and London on July 26, 1951 by RKO Radio Pictures. The film features the voices of Kathryn Beaumont as Alice (also voice of Wendy Darling in the later Disney feature film, Peter Pan) and Ed Wynn as the Mad Hatter. Made under the supervision of Walt Disney himself, this film and its animation are often regarded as some of the finest work in Disney studio history, despite the lackluster, even hostile, reviews it originally received, especially in the United Kingdom.

Plot; On the bank of a tranquil river, Alice grows bored listening to her older sister read aloud from a history book about William I of England. Alice's sister scolds her, gently but firmly, for her lack of attention. At that moment, Alice dreams of living in a world of nonsense ("A World of My Own", as she explains and sings to her little kitten Dinah). Alice sees a White Rabbit wearing a waistcoat and carrying a large pocket watch. She and Dinah follow him into a rabbit hole, where Alice suddenly falls down into a deep well, leaving Dinah behind. At the bottom, she follows the Rabbit into a large chamber-like hall, but he escapes through a tiny door. The Doorknob suggests Alice drink from a bottle marked "Drink me." The contents shrink her to a tiny fraction of her original size. The door is locked, and the key appears on the table, which she can not reach. The Doorknob directs her to a cookie marked "Eat me." The cookie makes her grow so large that her head hits the ceiling. She begins to cry; her massive tears flood the room. The Doorknob points out that the "Drink me" bottle still has some fluid left inside, so she finishes the last drop. She becomes so small that she drops inside the bottle. Both she and the bottle drift through the doorknob's keyhole mouth and out to a sea made from Alice's tears.

On shore, a Dodo bird leads a group of animals in a futile caucus-race to get dry. Alice meets Tweedledum and Tweedledee, two fat twin brothers who recite "The Walrus and the Carpenter", in a sequence that first appeared in Through the Looking-Glass. After sneaking away to the White Rabbit's house, Alice is at first mistaken by him for his maidservant; and then grows to such a large size that she gets stuck inside the house. The Dodo tries to help by first sending Bill the Lizard Chimney Sweep down the chimney, and then setting the house on fire; but Alice eats a carrot from the garden and shrinks down to three inches.

Alice chases after the Rabbit again, and in another example of a vignette borrowed from Through the Looking-Glass, she finds herself in a garden of talking flowers and strange insects. The flowers at first befriend Alice, but then mistake her for a weed and angrily drive her out of the flowerbed before she can "take root." She engages a hookah-smoking caterpillar who turns into a butterfly, though not before giving her cryptic advice about the mushroom she is sitting on. Alice breaks off two pieces and nibbles them alternately (first growing very large and unintentionally aggravating a Nesting Mother Bird, who accuses Alice of being a "serpent", then shrinking very small). Finally Alice manages to restore herself to her normal size and stores the pieces in her apron pockets.

Alice receives mysterious directions from the Cheshire Cat, an eerily grinning feline that can disappear and reappear at will, which lead her to the garden of the March Hare, who is celebrating his "unbirthday" with the Mad Hatter and the Dormouse. Alice, growing tired of their rudeness and wackiness, decides to go home, abandoning her pursuit of the White Rabbit. She is lost and despondent among the strange creatures (See Below) of the Tulgey Wood, until the Cheshire Cat reappears and shows her a short-cut out of the forest and into the garden of the Queen (and King) of Hearts.

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In the hedge maze garden, Alice meets some playing cards painting white roses red. The White Rabbit heralds the arrival of the bellicose Queen of Hearts, the diminutive King, and a card army. She invites Alice to a strange game of croquet using flamingos as mallets, hedgehogs as balls, and card soldiers as wickets. The Cheshire Cat plays a prank on the Queen, who blames Alice and orders her execution. The King suggests that Alice be put on trial instead. At the trial, Alice's nonsensical acquaintances (the Mad Hatter, the March Hare, and the Dormouse) are of no help to her. The Cheshire Cat appears and causes enough distraction to allow Alice to eat the remaining portions of mushroom, causing her to grow to gigantic proportions. At this size, Alice scolds the terrified Queen for her rash behavior, but then starts shrinking back to her normal size all too soon. At the Queen's command of "Off with her head!" all the crazy inhabitants of Wonderland give chase.
 

Coming back to the Doorknob, Alice is told by him that he is still locked, but that she is already on the other side. Looking through the keyhole, Alice sees herself asleep in the park. As the mob draws nearer, she calls, "Alice, wake up!" to her sleeping self until she gradually awakens from the dream to the sound of her sister's voice. The two of them return home for teatime; while Alice muses on her adventures in Wonderland and realizes that perhaps logic and reason exist for a purpose, her sister realizes (affectionately) that Alice is still young, but will grow-up in time.

 

Starring

• Kathryn Beaumont
• Ed Wynn
• Richard Haydn
• Sterling Holloway
• Jerry Colonna
• Verna Felton
• J. Pat O'Malley
• Bill Thompson
• Heather Angel
• Joseph Kearns
• Larry Grey
• Queenie Leonard
• Dink Trout
• Doris Lloyd
• James MacDonald
• The Mellomen
• Don Barclay

1971 saw an erotic version of Alice in Wonderland hit the screens - watch here!

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The Great Race (1965)

Jack Lemmon • Tony Curtis • The Great Race (1965)

The Great Race is a slapstick comedy movie directed by Blake Edwards, written by Blake Edwards and Arthur A. Ross, with music by Henry Mancini and cinematography by Russell Harlan. Starring Jack Lemmon, Tony Curtis, Natalie Wood, Peter Falk, Keenan Wynn, Arthur O'Connell and Vivian Vance.
The Great Leslie (Tony Curtis), whose full name is Leslie Gallant III, is a wealthy daredevil and showman who is famed for such things as setting speed records and performing escape feats worthy of Harry Houdini. Deliciously devilish Professor Fate (Jack Lemmon) is Leslie's nemesis, whose own daredevil shows usually end in failure or at least embarrassment. Leslie has the respect and admiration of businessmen and the media, while Fate sulks behind the walls of his dark mansion and is not taken seriously in general; hence, he bears an eternal grudge against his white-suited rival. On several occasions, Fate attempts to sabotage Leslie's stunts, but each attempt backfires and he ends up a victim of his own scheme instead.
The film is in the classic race genre of those wonderful Christmas classics such as round the World in Eighty Days, Those Magnificent Men in their Flying Machines, It's a Mad mad Mad Mad World and the like.

 

Watch Movie - The Great Race

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Fiddler on the Roof

Fiddler on the Roof (1971 Musical)

The story of Tevye, a poor milkman whose love, pride and faith help him face the oppression of turn-of-the century czarist Russia.



Tevye's horse is lame, and he must pull the milk cart himself. He asks God, who it would hurt "If I Were a Rich Man?" The men of the village confront Tevye, as he is late delivering their milk and cheese. Avram (Alfie Scopp), the bookseller, has news from the outside world about pogroms and expulsions. A student from Kiev, Perchik (Paul Michael Glaser), newly arrived in town, hears their conversation and scolds them for doing nothing more than talk. The men dismiss Perchik as a radical, but Tevye takes a liking to him and invites him home for the Sabbath meal, offering him room and board in exchange for tutoring his two youngest daughters. Golde tells Tevye to meet Lazar Wolf after the Sabbath but does not tell him why, knowing that Tevye does not like Lazar. Tzeitel is afraid that Yente will find her a husband before Motel asks Tevye for her hand. But Motel resists: he is shy and afraid of Tevye's temper, and tradition says that a matchmaker arranges marriages. Motel is also very poor and is saving up to buy a sewing machine before he approaches Tevye, to show that he can support a wife. The family gathers around for the "Sabbath Prayer."

After the Sabbath, Tevye visits Lazar Wolf. Teyve assumes that Lazar wants to buy his milk cow. After the misunderstanding is cleared up, Tevye agrees to let Lazar marry Tzeitel. With a rich butcher, he knows that his daughter will never go hungry. The two go to Mordcha's inn to seal their agreement with a drink. Many of the villagers are there, including a group of non-Jews. All join in the celebration of Lazar's good fortune; even the Russian youths at the inn join in the celebration and show off their dancing skills ("To Life"). Outside the inn, Tevye bumps into the Russian Constable (Louis Zorich), who has jurisdiction over the Jews in the town. The Constable warns him that there is going to be a "demonstration" in the coming weeks (a euphemism for a minor pogrom). The Constable has sympathy for the Jewish community but is powerless to prevent the violence.

The next morning, a hungover Tevye delivers the news to his family that he has agreed that Tzeitel will marry Lazar Wolf. Golde is overjoyed, but Tzeitel is horrified and pleads with Tevye to reconsider. Motel arrives and gathers the courage to tell Tevye that he and Tzeitel gave each other a pledge to marry. Tevye is outraged at this breach of tradition, but Motel argues that even a poor tailor is entitled to some happiness. Tevye is impressed when the once-timid young tailor stands up for himself and, moved by his daughter's earnestness, gives his assent ("Tevye's Monologue"); but he worries about how to break the news to Golde. An overjoyed Motel celebrates with Tzeitel ("Miracle of Miracles").

That night in bed with Golde, Tevye has an inspiration: he tells Golde that he has had a nightmare ("Tevye's Dream"). She offers to interpret his dream, and Tevye "describes" it. Golde's grandmother Tzeitel (for whom their daughter is named) returned from the grave to bless the marriage of her namesake, but to Motel, not to Lazar Wolf. Lazar's formidable wife, Fruma Sarah, also rises from her grave to warn, in graphic terms, of severe retribution if Tzeitel marries Lazar. Tevye's superstitious wife is terrified, and she quickly agrees that Tzeitel must marry Motel, much to Tevye's secret relief.

On the road outside of town, Tevye's middle daughter, the bookish Chava, is teased and intimidated by some Russian youths, but one of them, Fyedka (Ray Lovelock), protects her, dismissing the others. He offers Chava the loan of a book, and a secret relationship begins.

The wedding day of Tzeitel and Motel arrives, and all the Jews join the ceremony ("Sunrise, Sunset") and the celebration ("The Wedding Dance"). Lazar gives a fine gift, but an argument arises with Tevye over the broken agreement. Perchik ends the tiff by breaking another tradition: he crosses the barrier between the men and women to dance with Tevye's daughter Hodel. The celebration ends abruptly when a group of Russians rides into the village to perform the "demonstration." They disrupt the party, damaging the wedding gifts and wounding Perchik, who attempts to fight back, and wreaking more destruction in the village. Ever practical, Tevye advises everyone to clean up the mess.

Months later, Perchik tells Hodel he must return to Kiev to work for the revolution. He proposes marriage, admitting that he loves her, and says that he will send for her. She agrees ("Now I Have Everything"). They tell Tevye that they are engaged, and he is appalled that they are flouting tradition by making their own match, especially as Perchik is leaving. When he forbids the marriage, Perchik and Hodel inform him that they do not seek his permission, only his blessing. After some soul searching, Tevye finally relents; the world is changing, and he must change with it ("Tevye's Rebuttal").

Tevye explains these events to an astonished Golde. "Love," he says, "it's the new style." Tevye asks Golde, "Do You Love Me?" She admits that after 25 years of living and struggling together and raising five daughters, she does. Other events are moving apace. Yente tells Tzeitel that she saw Chava with Fyedka. News spreads quickly in Anatevka ("The Rumor"). Perchik has been arrested and exiled to Siberia, and Hodel is determined to join him there. At the railway station, she explains to her father that her home is with her beloved wherever he may be, yet she will always love her family ("Far from the Home I Love").

Weeks pass, and Chava finally gathers the courage to ask Tevye to allow her marriage to Fyedka. Again Tevye reaches deep into his soul, but marriage outside the Jewish faith is a line that he cannot cross. He forbids Chava ever to speak to Fyedka again. When Golde brings the news that Chava has eloped with Fyedka, Tevye wonders where he went wrong ("Chava Sequence"). Chava returns and tries to reason with him, but he refuses to speak to her and tells the rest of the family to consider her dead. Meanwhile, rumors are spreading of the Russians forcing Jewish villagers to leave their villages. While the villagers are gathered, the Constable arrives to tell everyone that they have three days to pack up and leave the town. In shock, they reminisce about the miserable town, and how hard it will be to leave what has for so long been their home ("Anatevka").

As the Jews leave Anatevka, Chava and Fyedka stop to tell her family that they too are leaving. Her mother and sisters are afraid to talk to her with Tevye present. Although Tevye does not speak directly to Chava, he mutters, "God be with you." As Tevye and his family leave the village for America, the fiddler begins to play. Tevye beckons with a nod, and the fiddler follows them out of the village.

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Chitty Chitty Bang Bang

Chitty Chitty Bang Bang - 1968 Children's Musical

Chitty Chitty Bang Bang is a 1968 feature film with a script by Roald Dahl and Ken Hughes, and songs by the Sherman Brothers, based on Ian Fleming's book Chitty Chitty Bang Bang: The Magical Car. It starred Dick Van Dyke as Caractacus Potts and Sally Ann Howes as Truly Scrumptious. The film was directed by Ken Hughes and produced by Albert R. Broccoli, best known as co-producer of the James Bond series of films, also based on Fleming's novels. Irwin Kostal supervised and conducted the music, and the musical numbers were staged by Marc Breaux and Dee Dee Wood.

   



Storyline;

The time is the 1910s. Jeremy and Jemima Potts are playing in a wrecked car in Mr. Coggins' junkyard. The wreck, Coggins explains to a potential customer, was a winning Grand Prix race car until it crashed. The customer is only interested in it for salvage, but Coggins accepts his offer, much to the children's dismay.

On the way home, the children meet the beautiful Truly, who demands to know why they are not in school. They take her home to their windmill, where she is introduced to their eccentric father, Caractacus Potts—who is about to make an attempt to fly—and the equally eccentric Grandpa Potts, who, resplendent in soldiers' uniform, explains that he is going to India for "a cup of tea with the Maharaja", before disappearing into the outhouse at the end of the garden. Truly shows interest in Caractacus' odd inventions, but he is affronted by her attempts to tell him that his children should be in school. Angrily, she leaves.

The children tell Caractacus about the car, and he promises to try and get it, although he can't afford to outbid the scrap man. Edison, the family dog, discovers that the supposedly useless "sweets with holes in", made by Caractacus, can whistle. Caractacus goes to a local sweet factory the next day, and attempts to show his new candy to Lord Scrumptious, who turns out to be Truly's father. He initially refuses to look at the sweets, but eventually gives in, and finds he likes them. However, the whistling attracts every dog in the village, and they ruin the factory's confectionery, and Lord Scrumptious throws Caractacus out.

Caractacus takes his automatic hair-cutting machine to the fair in an effort to raise money. Carried away with his schpiel, Caractacus' first customer ends up half-bald, and chases him all around the fair. In order to escape, Caractacus disguises himself as one of the dancers in a musical revue. The other dancers are so impressed that they share the money which the audience gives them for the performances, earning enough to buy the old car.

He restores the car, which he nicknames Chitty Chitty Bang Bang for the noises its engine makes, and he and the children, accompanied by Truly, go for a picnic on the beach. Over a very happy day, Jeremy and Jemima reveal that they have come to love Truly, while she's become fond of them as well. The children ask their father to tell them a story, and he tells them about nasty Baron Bomburst, the tyrant ruler of Vulgaria, who wants to steal Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and keep it all for himself. From his ship, the Baron fires on the car, marooned by high tide on a stretch of beach, but Chitty suddenly deploys huge flotation devices and they escape inland. The Baron sends two comical spies ashore to capture the car for him. Caractacus drops Truly off at her home, and when he has left, Truly sings that she has fallen in love with him.

The next day, the spies attempt to capture the car while the group are out for a spin, but end up nabbing Lord Scrumptious and his chauffeur by mistake. The spies dress up in their clothes and travel to the Potts residence, where they mistake Grandpa for the inventor. When he retires to his hut, they attach a grappling hook lowered from a zeppelin to take the hut to Vulgaria. Caractacus and the others see them flying above, and give chase. They drive over a cliff, but Chitty sprouts wings and begins to fly across the sea.

Caractacus, Truly, and the children tail them to the Vulgarian palace, only to be shot at with cannons by order of Baroness Bomburst, who abhors children. They escape, and hide the car under a bridge. The Baron calls out his soldiers to capture the car while Baroness Bomburst sends the monstrous Childcatcher to catch the children. The Potts family and Truly arrive in a small village, where the despondent villagers shun them.

The Baron's soldiers arrive, and everyone closes themselves up in their homes, leaving Caractacus, Truly, and the children alone in the streets. A kind toymaker (Benny Hill) hides them in the basement of his shop, warning that if the children are found they will be imprisoned, as children have been outlawed in Vulgaria by order of the Baroness. The evil Childcatcher "smells" the children at the toy shop, but a search by the soldiers finds no one, and they leave when it is announced that the flying car has been found. Caractacus declares he will rescue Grandpa and get Chitty back. The toymaker reluctantly agrees to help and takes him to a grotto far beneath the castle where the townspeople have been hiding their children. Caractacus is moved by their plight but sees how they might be able to help. Meanwhile Grandpa is held in a dungeon workshop, threatened with death unless he builds the Baron another flying car. Back at the toy shop, the Potts children have grown hungry, so Truly goes into the village to look for food, entreating them to stay hidden. The Childcatcher takes this opportunity to pose as a lollipop salesman, luring the children out with the offer of free sweets. Seizing them, the children are locked away in a tower by order of the Baroness.

The next day, at the Baron's birthday party, the Toymaker presents two animated, life-size toys: a music box maiden and a clown figure (Truly and Caractacus in disguise). During a dance number, Caractacus manages to snare the Baron. The town's children swarm the banquet hall and the Baron orders the cavalry to attack. During a battle Caractacus and Truly manage to find Jeremy and Jemima. The Baron and Baroness are trapped in a cage, and the Childcatcher is suspended in a net from the ceiling of the hall. Vulgaria freed, the heroes, reunited with Grandpa, fly back to England in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.

Back at the seaside, Jeremy and Jemima finish the story themselves: "And Daddy and Truly were married!" "And lived happily ever after!" When Truly asks, "Is that how the story ends?" Caractacus is evasive, and later tries to "apologize" for the children's ending by saying "It's ridiculus for the children to say that". Truly, feeling rebuffed, storms off. The Potts arrive home to find Lord Scrumptious waiting with wonderful news: he has decided to market the whistling sweets Caractacus invented to dogs. Now assured of riches, Caractacus is about to sign the contract, but dashes off in Chitty to tell Truly the news. He runs her off the road yet again, carries her from the car, and they decide to be married after all. As they drive off together in Chitty, the car takes to the air again, this time without wings.

Memorable songs include:

1. "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang"
2. "Truly Scrumptious"
3. "Hushabye Mountain"
4. "Me Ol' Bamboo"
5. "Toot Sweets"
6. "The Roses of Success"
7. "Lovely Lonely Man"
8. "You Two"
9. "Chu-Chi Face"
10. "Posh!"
11. "Doll on a Music Box"
12. "Doll on a Music Box/Truly Scrumptious"
13. "Come to the Funfair"

"Doll on a Music Box" is sung near the end of the musical by Truly and is a musical counterpoint, also being sung simultaneously with Caractacus' rendition of the song "Truly Scrumptious". Two songs apparently intended for the film but ultimately relegated only to instrumental background music are "Come to the Funfair" and the "Vulgarian National Anthem"; they were published with lyrics in the sheet music along with the other film songs when the movie was released. The stage version restores these two as vocal numbers. The Sherman Brothers also were hired to write several new songs for the stage production including "Think Vulgar!" which was replaced in 2003 with "Act English", "Kiddy-Widdy-Winkies", "Teamwork" and "The Bombie Samba"

Two songs stand out for the use of musical instruments in the orchestra: "Toot Sweets" – especially in the motion picture – employs a multitude of flutes; and the subject of "Me Ol' Bamboo" is aurally suggested by the xylophone (and accompanies Potts performing a Morris dance with a troupe).

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The Boy with Green Hair

Starring Dean Stockwell, Pat O'Brien, Robert Ryan, and Barbara Hale. a young war orphan who is subject to ridicule after he awakens one morning to find his hair mysteriously turned green.

Finding a curiously silent young runaway boy (Stockwell) whose head has been completely shaved, small-town police call in a psychologist (Ryan) and discover that he is a war orphan named Peter Frye. Moving in with an understanding retired actor named Gramps (O'Brien), Peter starts attending school and generally begins living the life of a normal boy until his class gets involved with trying to help war orphans in Europe and Asia.

Peter soon realizes that -- like the children on the posters, whose images haunt him --he, too, is a war orphan. The realization about his parents and the work helping the orphans makes Peter turn very serious, and he is further troubled when he overhears the adults around him talking about the world preparing for another war. Peter awakens the next day and his hair has turned green, prompting him to run away after being taunted by the townspeople and his peers. Suddenly, appearing before him in a lonely part of the woods are the orphaned children whose pictures he saw on the posters.

They tell him that he is a war orphan, but that with his green hair he can make a difference and must tell people that war is dangerous for children. He leaves determined to deliver his message to any and all. Upon his return, the townspeople chase Peter, and even Gramps tries to encourage him to consider shaving his hair so that it might grow back normally.

He agrees to get his head shaved, and the town barber does the job -- that night, however, Peter runs away. Later reunited with Gramps, Peter learns that there are adults out there who accept what he has to say and want him to go on saying it. He's sure that his hair will grow back in green again, and he will continue to carry his message.

The Movie score song Nature Boy written by Eden Ahbez and sung by an uncredited chorus was a primary theme of the score for the motion picture. Nat King Cole's version of Nature Boy shot to #1 on the Billboard charts, and remained there for eight weeks straight during the summer of 1948.
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