I’ll keep this one brief as it is more about how writers can effect those around them who inspire them than it is about the writer himself. Dreamchild was a small budget 80s film produced by Verity Lambert (see history of “Doctor Who”) telling a fictionalize account of an elderly Alice Liddell Hargreaves visiting the United States from England for the 100 year birthday of Lewis Carroll, the man who wrote Alice in Wonderland for her and her sisters.
First, so get 3 things out of the way.
First: Yes. I sought this movie out as a child and I have read parts of the book it is based on. I desperately wanted to see this because I knew the a lot of the known history of the Liddell family and Reverend Charles Dodgson (aka Lewis Carroll) and because the film includes some of the most amazing Jim Henson Creature Shop creations of all time! These puppets are full size, moving versions of the first book illustrations and they are gorgeous, genius, and the stuff of nightmares. I saw a photo of the Mad Hatter and I knew I had to find this movie as a kid.
Second: Let’s get the historical accuracy out the way right now. The film shows Mrs. Hargreaves and her ward, a teenage girl named Lucy, being wined and dined at the expense of Columbia University for the centenary celebration. In reality, 80 year old Alice Hargreaves was escorted by family members including a younger sister who is not included in the film.
Third: I will not be giving my personal thoughts or known theories of Charles Dodgson’s sexuality or why he was friends with children. I’m focusing on how the movie depicts him. And even that will be… a little difficult to explain.
Dreamchild jumps back and forth between 80 year old Alice Hargreaves (Coral Browne), an extremely proper English lady confused by the fuss over Alice in Wonderland, and 10 year old Alice Liddell (Amelia Shankley), a slightly bratty, but spirited girl who enjoys the friendship she and her sisters share with the Oxford mathematics professor Charles Dodgson (Ian Holm). Elderly Alice begins to be haunted by memories of her friendship with the stammering, shy grown man from her childhood. She watches a romance unfold between her orphaned ward Lucy (Nicola Cowper) and a former reporter (Peter Gallagher) who steps in as Mrs. Hargreaves agent when various advertisers want to use her status as the “real live Alice” to sell their products.
Alice’s flashbacks start with simple afternoons of telling her mother how Dodgson confides in her as a child and how he loves her, to which her older sister explains that he loves them all and they all enjoy his silly poems and photography. These simple memories start to warp into scenes from the novel in which elderly Alice is scolded, questioned, and berated by the Mad Hatter, March Hare, and the Caterpillar (all performed by the Henson creature shop).
Spoiler alert: Eventually, Alice comes to terms with her memories, realizing how she shied away from Dodgson’s feelings of love for her. No where in the film are these feelings acted upon, but they are shown through the grown man’s staring at Alice intently, him attempting to asking Alice about marriage, her own awkward feelings about him wanting her attention especially as she grows older, and Mrs. Liddell burning his letters to Alice when she’s too old for appropriately hanging out with him. In the end, she comes to terms with the idea that he did love her, but regrets that she was not kinder to him or cherish the story he wrote for her more dearly.
As this being a film about a writer, it shows two aspects of the process. The first, a primary theme is how if a book becomes famous that it can effect the people involved. Alice felt like the girl in the book was never truly her, but as her memories return she realizes that much of the character truly was inspired by her and her sisters silly, yet childlike logic. Still, as an adult she hated that people wanted her to BE Alice. She hated the idea of anyone expecting her to have really dreamed of a fantasy land. Proper English ladies do not follow rabbits, after all. In truth, the real Alice Hargreaves did sell her original copy of Alice’s Adventures in wonderland when she was a grown woman and sometimes seemed to resent being asked about “Lewis Carroll”.
Dodgson himself is socially awkward and does better with communicating with children than adults. From what I understand of Lewis Carroll, this is fairly true. Although he was child photographer and had many “young friends” who he wrote the Alice stories for, the movie focuses on the way he created the first concept to amuse the Liddell children on a boating trip. He is so wrapped up in their smiling, amused faces he doesn’t care that he is keeping the party from their tea (a true crime in Victorian Britain). But the movie is also about the sensitivity of a writer. He wants Alice to keep the copy of Alice’s Adventures Underground all of her life and is proud enough of his work that he recite it after publication. The film makes sure to include a part of quote:
“Lastly, she pictured to herself how this same little sister of hers would, in the after-time, be herself a grown woman; and how she would keep, through all her riper years, the simple and loving heart of her childhood: and how she would gather about her other little children, and make their eyes bright and eager with many a strange tale, perhaps even with the dream of Wonderland of long ago: and how she would feel with all their simple sorrows, and find a pleasure in all their simple joys, remembering her own child-life, and the happy summer days.”
This sums up Dodgson as a writer well in Dreamchild. He was disappointed in the idea of Alice growing up and not enjoying his stories any longer and he hoped that she wouldn’t forget. No writer wants to be forgotten if their work had a specific audience.
RIP IAN HOLM who did a great job of being kinda creepy, but not TOO creepy in this movie.
Images copyright Thorn EMI and MGM distribution. Don’t sue me. Pretty Please