Rating: G | Runtime: 100 minutes
Release Date: June 30th, 1971 (USA)
Studio: Paramount Pictures
Director(s): Mel Stuart
Writer(s): Roald Dahl / Roald Dahl (novel Charlie and the Chocolate Factory)

The suspense is terrible … I hope it’ll last.

First time watching Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory in almost two decades and oh what a joy it is to see real sets. It’s truly like a live-action Alice in Wonderland in many respects with Gene Wilder playing the Cheshire Cat as guide.

The opening credits had me thinking it was crazy that Roald Dahl adapted his own book so loosely, but I turned to Wikipedia to discover he actually only handed in an outline highlighting certain passages before exiting that role completely. David Seltzer agreeing to write without credit under the promise of getting his next film produced (what ended up being One Is a Lonely Number, also directed by Mel Stuart) makes a lot more sense.

Wilder is far and away the highlight (and why Tim Burton and Johnny Depp’s version could never work as well as why I have little faith in Wonka, the reason for this rewatch), but the music is a close second. Maybe it’s just that the songs are ingrained in my brain from watching it so much as a kid, but each one is an earworm.

The whole does end quite abruptly—I think I always felt that—but it works since there’s not really anywhere else for it to go. The film is pretty much a series of skits with specific life lessons from the Oompa Loompas anyway, though. So, story is always secondary to spectacle. And to humor, of course, with my favorite parts as an adult now being those random asides depicting the absurdity of Wonka fever.

Oh, and how much does Rory Kinnear look just like his father Roy?

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Gene Wilder in WILLY WONKA & THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY.