With an all star cast including Cary Grant, Gary Cooper, W.C. Fields, and Edward Everett Horton as the Mad Hatter, this pre-Code adaptation of Lewis Carroll’s Alice books is still among the most bizarre and delightful versions of the story, far more twisted, terrifying, and hilarious than the 1951 Disney film. The sets and special effects by production designer William Cameron Menzies hold up incredibly well today, and Alice Lidell, the inspiration for Carroll’s original books, couldn’t have been more pleased with the production: “I am now convinced that only through the medium of the talking picture art could this delicious fantasy be faithfully interpreted… Alice represents a revolution in cinema history!”

35mm print from Universal