Hello everyone. Now, as some of you might know, I have promised some blogs that I have, unfortunately, not gotten around to yet. Well, this is the time for me to dust off a few movies and make good on those promises. Welcome to the month that I like to call “ABOUT TIME”! So, the first movie we have here is The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T. Now, if you remember two years ago, at the end of almost every blog, I did a little quiz and the first person to answer it correctly would get to request a movie for me to review. I got three such requests. One of them I have already done (that movie being the gift of the devil 'Cool Dog'). So, here is installment number two.
Background:
This is one of the most fascinating movies that I’ve ever reviewed. This movie is known as the only movie that Dr. Seuss ever wrote. Apparently, after World War II, after working on some [slightly racist] propaganda shorts, he decided to write a movie. Columbia Pictures apparently agreed. The movie is a musical, so in addition to writing the screenplay, Dr. Seuss wrote all the lyrics to the songs as well. He also had major control of the sets as well and worked with the production designers. There are many other stories that go along with this film, so stay tuned.
Plot:
Here is as much of a plot as you can get from Dr. Seuss: A child is taking piano lessons apparently against his will that are given by Dr. T. (no relation to Mr. T.). The boy seems to think that Dr. T. is a bit of a slave-driver. We also meet up with his apparent single mother who wants him to take these lessons. There is also a plumber working on the sink. Then he goes into a dream where the boy is in a dictatorship whereby Dr. T. has captured 500 children and forces them to play the piano. The boy’s mother has been brainwashedand the plumber is in the dream and in love with the boy’s mother. The boy has to figure out how to free himself and the other children and get his mother off the mind control.
Opinion:
Standard Hollywood practice is that the studio has a test audience around a year before the movie comes out to see if the movie is working and if the public will like it. Depending on the movie and its reaction, there can be multiple test audiences. The same thing happened with this movie. It received a poor reaction from the test audience, so the studio decided that massive edits needed to be made. The problem with that was that the movie became incoherent and hard-to-follow at times. We really don’t know how much of that had to do with the edit and how much had to do with the screenplay itself. There are several good things about this movie: the set design looks like an actual Dr. Seuss book that’s come to life. The acting is pretty good. Especially Hans Conreid as Dr. T. If his voice sounds familiar, he did the voice of Captain Hook in the Disney classic Peter Pan. Interesting fact: this is his first and only live-action film work that Hans ever did which is a bit of ashame. Some of the songs are pretty well written. Now here’s where the bad stuff comes into play. There are alot of, some would say, creepy elements to this movie. Towards the end of the movie, there’s a song called “The Elevator Song” that is sung by what looks to be an executioner. He basically sings about the different ways of torture that they have (including a thumb screw). As terrifing as the song is, it is not even the whole song. Some of the song was deleted. Part of the deleted material includes the gas chamber and the electric chair. And this is the guy who wrote Cat in the Hat? Overall, The 5,000 Fingers is a fascinating mess. There are several interesting concepts, but unfortunately the movie just falls flat. Maybe it was because of the massive edits or maybe it was because the ambition was too great. We will never really know. Overall, I give The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T. 2.5 stars.
There is still time to vote in the run-off for which movie to do next. Please click on the link down below to cast your vote. Goodnight, and Bee Happy!™
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