(Roy Rowland, USA, 1953, 92 minutes)
Left: How are they gonna get out of this one?
Wait a minute. A film co-written and designed by Dr. Seuss?? From the 50s?? With fantastic sets and costumes?? And musical numbers?? With an evil piano teacher (that's "T" for Terwilliker!) who enslaves 500 kids?? ARE YOU KIDDING ME??? Yes. It's all true. And what's also true is this: this film is simply amazing and a definite must-see. Don't be fooled by the image I put up, this thing was shot in glorious Technicolor. I just had to show everyone what the evil henchmen look like, because they crack me up.
I haven't seen this in WAY too long, because I stupidly do not own the DVD. No matter--it's better to see it on the big screen anyway, so I'll be dragging myself out of bed tomorrow to get to this early showing. I know it'll be hard, but get yourself out of bed too, throw down some coffee, and go see this!!!
The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T plays tomorrow - Sat, Sept 20, at 10am. You can buy tix online from SIFF here. $7 for adults, and only $2 for kids.
Image of Tommy Rettig with a henchman from Royal Books.
I agree. Haven't seen it since it played the Neptune many moons ago, but it definitely made an impact, and I'm happy to report that El/Cherry Red released Frederick Hollander's soundtrack on CD a few months ago (though the Amazon customer reviews suggest it hasn't been remastered). They issued Nino Rota's "La Strada" score at the same time.
ReplyDeleteI was just wondering if the soundtrack was available! Most of the songs wouldn't hold up outside the movie, but I'd love to have Hans Conreid's song about dressing in camembert cheese.
ReplyDeleteIt's funny, because the technicolor is one of the main charms of the movie, and I suppose it's because of how people love to reprint the gorgeous black and white production stills, but I always forget that the movie is in color.