My wife and I just saw on Turner Classics a film I'd first seen almost 40 years ago--The 5000 Fingers of Doctor T. I was bowled over by it then; saw it again in college; saw it with my wife when I videotaped it off the television once many years ago, as well. It's a great fantasy, one of the truly great and neglected classics of film.
It was made in the early 50's, and had a screenplay, lyrics, and a lot of set design by Theodore Geisel--who is better known today as Dr. Seuss. There is a great deal of Seussian character about this film, which has a "typical kid" (played by Tommy Rettig, of Lassie fame) who wants to play catch outside and run around, but who is harassed and bullied by a strict authoritarian piano teacher (played by Hans Conried). Rettig's mother (played by Mary Healy) wants him to practice, too, and he thinks she's hypnotized. The boy's only friend seems to be the local plumber, Mr. Zabeldowski (played by Peter Lind Hayes). As he's practicing a horrible little exercise for some kind of group recital the following week, the boy falls asleep...
...And wakes up in a Kafkesque nightmare world that mixes cubism and surrealism, a land where Conried's Professor Terwerliger rules. As the boy tries to run, he comes across oversized, oddly shaped television screens running odd messages--like one that shows a bust of Terwiliger with Conried intoning, "If you practice diligently at Terwiliger Institute, you will find that you grow to become a concert pianist of stature. But if you try to escape--" and the camera cuts to the outside image of an enormous complex in silhouette--"you will discover the perimeters of the complex are ee-LEC-trofied, ee-LEC-trofied, ee-LEC-trofied..." with the barbed wire flashing and hissing in time to Conried's voice.
And so it goes. There are enormous, bending ladders, that lead to...nothing. In signs that lead to out signs, with nothing in between. A pair of jailkeepers dressed in turn of the century suits, joined by an enormous beard, on rollerskates. A dungeon where the prisoners are all players of other instruments except the piano. (Terwiliger made a point before the boy, Bart, started dreaming, of poking fun at "scratchy violins, screeching picolos," etc.)
Terwiliger has hynotized the Bart's mother; Mr. Zabeldowski helps them escape, over a very long and fascinating, delightful tale. There's tons of typical nonsensical Seussian lyrics, and Conried has the time of his life as the lead villian. Rettig gets a number that's astonishing in the way it strikes to the heart of kids--singing about how it's unfair to shout and beat people because they're smaller, or that growing beards doesn't mean you grow any additional sense, etc. All this, in a 50's film, too.
The choreography, sets, and costuming match the bizarre Seussian atmosphere, and the music presents a delightful satire on various popular forms of the day. Needless to add, the film had its budget slashed by the studio before release, was underpublicized, and bombed. Only in recent years has it become a "cult classic."
A roommate of mine in college (who also worked at the college theater boxoffice) told me that Conried came there to give several performances a couple of years earlier, and he (my roommate) had asked Conried what his favorite role was. "Oh, something no one's ever heard of. A character in a film called The 5000 Fingers of Dr. T," he replied.
I heartily recommend this unusual and delightful film, which is now being marketing and rented quite successfully. One final, trivia note: a friend of mine who works as a programmer for New World Computing (the producers of Might & Magic) is named Tommy Rettig, Jr. His dad was the 12-year-old kid named Bart in the film, and also the star of Lassie. Died about 5 years ago, had 3 kids--all of 'em, programmers.
EDIT: I just did some research on the film, and discovered some interesting material about it. Evidently, Seuss hated it--because he had submitted a 1200 page first draft for the original filming! He was totally unrealistic in his expectations. Stanley Kramer produced it and actually wished to direct it, but the film company wanted someone cheaper and easier to manipulate--so they brought in a hack. The film was shot to take 2 hours, 20 minutes; the company said it would be released no longer than 1 hour, 45 minutes. It was cut to that, and released, then previewed to a Pasadena audience in a theater where the air conditioning died. The audience left, the company panicked, and another 15 minutes was excised from the film.
Some people have been searching about to see if an original, uncut version exists. The released version has been rereleased, and is now regarded as a minor masterpiece by several Important People in the film industry. Cut songs were evidently saved from the trash, and were released in a bootleg album alongside the included film music a number of years ago.
Fascinating stuff. I still recommend this film. It's wonderfully Seussian, and an opportunity to see his work at a relatively early stage in his popularity with one of his favorite artists (Conried).
[ 12-16-2001: Message edited by: fable ]
