07/30/06 The 5,000 Fingers Of Dr. T

The 5,000 Fingers Of Dr. T (1953), directed by Roy Rowland

watched w/ Leslie; VHS (personal copy) @ home

Here comes another piece of surrealist absurdity, but in place of the French New Wave junkies it's put into the capable hands of one imaginative American cartoonist...Dr. Seuss. Yes, when we came across this faded old VHS box in the video store, I was somewhat surprised to hear about this...sort of a long lost Dr. Seuss story. We all know the greats, "How The Grinch Stole Christmas," "The Cat In The Hat," and "Horton Hears A Who,"...but this live-action film pre-dates any Jim Carrey or Mike Myers post-mortem vehicles. I believe this was his first foray into live-action fictional cinema, seeing that his previous-kiddie-cartoon life had him making training videos for the U.S. troops in World War II and developing the origins of his fanciful cartoon creations. The story here is very cheesy (circa 1950's "Leave It To Beaver" familial mentality) one, but begins with a lot of promise. Young Bart is raised by his widowed mother, and taking piano lessons from the stern Dr. Terwilliker. Bart is a daydreamer (naturally), and drifts off into a fantasy world where his piano teacher becomes the evil Dr. T who has created a world where the piano is the only musical instrument allowed. With all other musicians banned to an underworld, and the evil Dr. T trying to capture young children in his world where they will have to learn to play a gigantic 5,000 keyed undulating piano, the dreamworld can become very frightening to youngsters (think Pinocchio's trip to Pleasure Island, where mischievous children turn into donkeys). Beyond the unsettling themes and corny dialogue (which in my opinion didn't include quite enough of Seuss' signature rhyme schemes, and too many musical numbers), the amazing thing about this film is the wondrous set design of Bart's dreamland. Dr. Seuss had a hand in not only creating such lively sets & landscapes, but also writing the screenplay and song lyrics. I'm still fascinated about this movie even having existed, since I had never heard about it before happening across it. His work was yet to be polished, but this early raw work of his genius should not be missed, if for nothing else but historical purposes.

3 out of 5 stars