The 5000 Fingers Of Dr. T. (1953) What can I say about a movie that began life as a 1000 page script from the immortal children's book author Dr. Seuss?
To put it mildly, nothing like 1950's movie audiences had ever laid eyes on before.......and nothing they'd ever likely see again.....at least not until Tim Burton's flights of fantasy came along......
The sheer amount of creative ambition on display here staggered me. Visually it's an all-out, eye-popping rendition of a typical Dr. Seuss-ian universe......a warped. multi-colored landscape of wobbly structures, stairs leading to nowhere, a fractured dreamscape dominated by twisting trails of an endless piano with an equally infinite keyboard.
But it's a tyrannical kingdom, ruled by the preening arrogant piano teacher Dr. Terwilliker (the great, glorious and prolific theatrical ham Hans Conried). Dr. T.'s master plan - forcing 500 boys to simultaneously play on his miles long piano...(hence the astounding sight of 5000 little fingers pounding away...)
Stuck in this cartoonish, but cheerfully nightmare world is Bartholomew Collins (Tommy Rettig, soon to co-star with Marilyn Monroe in "River Of No Return" and then become Lassie's first TV pal). His single mom (Mary Healy) labors in evening dresses as Dr. T.'s hypnotized prisoner. To rescue her and escape Terwilliker's clutches, Bart enlists the aid of easy-going plumber Mr. Zabladowski (Peter Lind Hayes, who with his wife Mary Healy performed as a musical duo on stage, films and TV)
What follows here resembles a something of a cross between "The Wizard Of Oz", "Alice In Wonderland" and "Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory"......frequently laced with catchy songs featuring Dr. Seuss's lyrics, filled to the brim with the same kind of rhythmic intricate wordplay of that kids so love to read aloud in his books.
And I don't want to finish this review without mentioning the absolute show stopping, bring-the-house-down dance number in the middle of the film. Within Dr. T.'s dungeon, he incarcerates all the musicians and instruments he cannot tolerate ("Scratchy violins, screechy piccolos, nauseating trumpets, et cetera, et cetera!" ) In a brilliant, whimsical display of choreography and production design, the musicians break out of their cells in defiance.......furiously playing instruments exaggerated to extravagant, brilliant Dr. Seuss-ian proportions. Legendary stuff., the kind of sequence I'd love to come back to and watch all by itself, whenever I need a spirit-lifting moment.
Too much ahead of its time and far from any family film that 1950's audiences were used to, '5000 Fingers' found little favor amount parents and kids of the era. Returning to it now, it remains as audaciously weird, stunning and visually out-of-this-world as any recently produced family fantasy........and those original Dr. Seuss songs are exactly that.......funny, adroit, hummable , they could've only sprung from the mind of Dr. Seuss.
A spaced out odyssey for kids and adults alike.....and a must see for all cinema buffs....4 Seussical stars (****).
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