Review of The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T. (1953) by Bryan B — 20 Apr 2010

You might see this on a movie channel or the Hollywood Video shelf and wonder if it's something the kids might like. Hm, depends. Now of late poor Dr. S's tales have made troubled transitions to the screen (and stage, remember the flop "Seussical"?). I attribute that mostly to money-hungry producers hoping to cash in on the recognition factor, but they don't have Seuss's vision and the 21st century doesn't have the 20th's sensibility. Dr. Seuss was personally involved in this film and it shows. Lots of people lately have pointed at the Grinch and Cat movies and said that Seuss just doesn't translate well to the screen. [I]Feh![/I] Sad to say, he actually doesn't translate well to the age of lavish CGI budgets and bankrupt stories. Modern audiences are going to run 5kFDT through the filters of their experience, which now includes having seen realistic monsters eating characters they didn't care about anyway.

* Kids now really [I]are [/I]more worldly. It's an inescapable part of our culture. About the only exceptions left are the Amish who only use horse-drawn DVD players :D A typical nine-year-old viewer in 1953 probably reacted differently than his 20** counterpart will.

* So does that mean you should watch it first and decide if it's right for them? Not really. An adult can see much more subtext than a child can, and brother has this flick got subtext! Not so much in the "real world" scenes as in Bart's dream. And haven't we all had dreams that are wide open to interpretation? In 5kFDT, you can find reference to any subtext you like.

** Gay: Mm-hm. Terwilliger is foppish. So what if he wants Bart's Mom? It's not about love, but about control. Since it's Bart's dream, he thinks T already has his Mom hypnotized into forcing him to learn piano. Mom is just a tool through which to control Bart. And why does the doctor have only boys play the giant piano? Again, it's Bart's dream. He's nine, it's the Fifties! Any sexual connotation would have to be purely unconscious, same as with Bart's closeness ([I]very[/I] close!) with August. He wants a Dad, not a daddy. And then there's half-naked men cavorting in a dungeon. [I]Sigh[/I]. Puh-leeze. It's Fifties choreography + Seussian topography and bold cinematography (sorry).

** Oedipal: Mom is caged. Men with long beards (actually 2 men with one beard...Oh Dr. Freud!) threaten to strangle Bart. Bart wants to disempower Terwilliger and take Mom home. August cuts the shared beard and the twins apparently die. Terwilliger waves his baton at Bart menacingly. Hmph. Sometimes a baton is just a baton.

** Social: Most people liked Ike, but the heralds of the Beat Generation saw the drabness of the era. Here, Dr. T is totalitarian. He wants only piano music to be heard. He imprisons his dissidents, who perform (literally) underground music on the forbidden instruments. Their bodies are shackled, but the --oh, you get it (I couldn't go on). Musical conformity is just as dreadful as social conformity. If piano ain't your thing, thass cool.

* Anyway. I liked it. I've watched it more than once and want to again. Most of the songs are fair, but "Dress Me Up" is grand, [I]gay[/I] fun (Dr. T called for a snood, but nobody brought him one, hm). The sets are pure Seuss. Peter Lind Hayes and Mary Healy do what they can considering their thin roles and the presence of Hans Conried, who leaves vapor trails of brio behind him.

* Your little kids won't get the subtext or worry about it. Some images might be scary to them, no more so than the Wizard of Oz's intimidating light show. Otherwise they'll be drawn to the imagery of it.

* Nine and up will possibly find it a refreshing change from more recent films. "Wow! This told a story. I didn't know movies could do that.".

* Adults, sit back and watch and make of it what you will. After all, it may just be time to rinse out those mental filters.