Dr. Seuss made a movie - in 1953!

I just finished watching "The 5000 Fingers of Dr. T." on TV. I have never seen nor heard of this movie, but watching it was somehow familiar. It came out in 1953 (I was 6 years old at the time) and starred Hans Conried, whom I remember from his years in TV as a character actor, and was a futuristic-in-a-friendly-way, very creative endeavour.

It takes place in a weird fortress of a mansion with stairs that went up to nowhere and holes in the floor from which people climbed in and out of rooms. We parents have seen that before! The furniture was strangely shaped and the boy wore a beanie with a hand perched on top of it (the fingers stuck up).

The guards wore two-tone outfits and the musicians in the dungeon had instruments which suggested the forms of trombones, trumpets, saxophones, and tubas. Pickle juice gave one power and clever inventions of all sorts were evident.

Looking it up on IMDB after it ended, I found out that the concept for it and the story from which came the screenplay was the brainchild of Dr. Seuss! That's why it was oddly familiar. Dr. Seuss also wrote the screenplay along with another writer.

It also starred Peter Lind Hayes and his wife Mary Healy, known to me from 50's TV, and Tommy Rettig as the boy, Bartholomew. Tommy Rettig I knew well from "Lassie". He was the original Timmy.

I learned that due to his short stature - he grew to be 5'4" just like Michael J. Fox - he had trouble landing adult roles. He also had an untimely death at age 55.

In the last part of his life he had become a respected and expert software developer. Earlier in his life, after the roles dried up, he suffered the fate of so many child actors: drugs and the troubles they bring.

The 5000 Fingers of Dr. T. refers to piano playing. The movie was a musical with long unmusical parts between long musical numbers, some of them incredibly good.

George Chakiris (West Side Story) was the lead dancer, so I looked him up, too. He's always stayed in my mind as a dynamic dancer with wonderful, precise technique. His last foray into entertainment was in 1997 and he's been a jewelry-making silversmith ever since! Who knew?

Chakiris had wonderful things to say about West Side Story, the movie which made him famous. He felt it was a privilege to be one of the cast and to work on it every day. He still cries when he sees the ending. Sounds like a sensitive, lovely person.

Even today, folks would find this movie innovative and very quirky and I can see it having a cult following (I don't know if it ever did) à la Monty Python.
_______________________________________________________________________________

Wikipedia explains the reaction to the film - which did indeed develop a cult following:

Although he had written the original treatment and all the song lyrics, Geisel regarded the finished film as a "debaculous fiasco" and omitted any mention of it in his official biography with Random House.^[1] At the film's Hollywood premiere, it was reported that patrons walked out on the film after 15 minutes, and box office receipts were equally disappointing.^[2] Nevertheless, the film has gained a cult following over the years, and has been favorably compared to the live-action adaptations of Seuss's works made since his death.

Also interesting is the influence the characters' names had on The Simpsons TV show. Bart Simpson's nemesis is Sideshow Bob, whose last name "Terwilliger" is taken from this movie - Dr. T. is Dr. Tewilliker (with a "k"), the archenemy of Bart (Bartholomew Collins) in the film.