In 2008, one of his films was discovered, and then “Alice.” There may still be others out there. To pay off debts, the receivership company melted down his films to get the silver, which was the reason most scholars thought his films were lost. His company continued to make films in this early style through 1926, but eventually ran out of money. Cecil worked for several companies before setting up his own and wrote one of the first books on the subject, Animated Photography: The ABC of the Cinematograph. According to her bio at the Women Film Pioneers project, she did a bit of everything around the studio, “from special effects and set decoration to costume design and carpentry.” The early days of film have a real “student project” feel about them, no pigeonholed roles, just everybody chipping in.Īs for Cecil Hepworth, he appeared destined for a career in film, as his father ran magic lantern shows. May Clark, who played Alice, was 18 at the time, and had already worked on several Hepworth productions, and not just acting. Hepworth himself plays the frog-headed footman, and his wife played the Red Queen. That cat, by the way, was the Hepworth’s family pet.

They show knowledge of the camera trickery pioneered only a few years earlier by Georges Méliès, like the shrinking and growing Alice and the appearance of the Cheshire Cat. The film was produced and directed by Cecil Hepworth and Percy Stow out of their Hepworth Studios in Walton-on-the-Thames, near London.

A twisted tale alice in wonderland