My approved thing about this movie is - NOTHING is exactly as it seems.
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For instance, although entitled “The Seven Faces of Dr. Lao”, Tony Randall plays =eight= roles - and himself as well. Another example - nobody in town, not even Mike, the diminutive confused boy, calls Dr. Lao by Lao’s gain pronunciation of his name. Most people say “La-Oh” when Lao himself uses “Outrageous”. Again, although Dr. Lao rides in on a shrimp donkey, alone, the circus tent is substantial and has many other characters in it.
My common scene no one else has mentioned so far is when the twisted businessman goes into the tent of The Serpent. The Serpent, possibly even the Serpent which tempted Adam and Eve, tells the businessman he knows the secret - a railroad will soon reach thru this microscopic western town, making it a destination point rather than the departure point it is now. But is this objective a condemnation of the businessman (saying, in essence, he is a “snake” for not telling the residents about the railroad), or is it a subtler jab at all curved businessmen? Or both? Or more? Only Dr. Lao knows - and he isn’t telling. Observe the Serpent open to sight more and more like the zigzag businessman as the scene progresses.
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Based on the “fact” that every other creature in Lao’s circus is virtually world-famous, it wouldn’t surprise me if Dr. Lao is really Lao-Tze, one of China’s greatest philosophers. This role of Tony Randall’s will soon have you totally forgetting his role in “The Unfamiliar Couple”. As far as I’m concerned, this is Randall’s greatest moment. Ever. Explore his face carefully during the scene where he portrays Apollonius of Tyana and sight what I mean.
How many faces of Dr. Lao?
1) Dr. Lao
2) Apollonius of Tyana
3) The Medusa
4) The Terrible Snowman
5) Pan
6) The Serpent
7) Merlin
The Loch Ness Monster
9) Himself (Tony Randall)
Based on the Charles Finney classic “The Circus of Dr Lao”, George Pal, the director of this film, brings his knowledge of science fiction and fantasy (”The Time Machine” and “The War of the Worlds” among many others) to this satisfactory blend of Western, Science Fiction, Fantasy, Mysticism, and even Religion to one of its greatest achievements. Survey for the kill of the circus when all of the characters parade into the center ring to say goodbye. In the crowd, Tony Randall sits, as himself, shaking his head about the absurdity of it all, when everyone else is applauding and laughing. Stare also for the townspeople’s reactions to the circus performers they have met.
At the kill of the movie, Mike wants to go travelling with Dr. Lao. This is one of the rare times Dr. Lao does not drawl in a very stereotypical fraudulent Chinese accent. He says: “Mike, the whole world is a circus if you ogle at it the honest procedure. Every time you lift up a handful of dust, and behold not the dust, but a mystery, a marvel, there in your hand - every time you cessation and reflect, ‘I’m alive, and being alive is amazing!’ - every time such a thing happens, Mike, you are fragment of the Circus of Dr. Lao.”
You can be fraction of the Circus of Dr. Lao too, when you determine to have this movie work its magic on you. One of my very highest recommendations.
The day after Tony Randall passed, I pulled out my DVD of “The 7 Faces of Dr. Lao,” one of the oddest movies in Randall’s long career. It’s also one of my very celebrated movies of all time.
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The status is aesthetic simple. Dr. Lao, a peculiar Chinese gent, comes riding into the dying town of Abalone, Arizona on a yellow donkey. A catfish in a bowl rides gradual him. He comes into town to stage his circus.
His arrival comes at an titillating time. Clinton Stark, the town entrepreneur, is at loggerheads with newspaper publisher Ed Cunningham. Stark has honest made an offer at a town meeting to assume out all the property in town stating that the water main is collapsing and the town doesn’t have enough money to repair it. However, Stark’s trusty motive is that the railroad will be coming through town and he can turn a distinguished profit on selling the land to the railroad. The townsfolk are fair about ready to sell out; Stark’s offer sounds edifying and Abalone is in the middle of nowhere. Editor Cunningham is suspicious, and so is Angela Benedict, the town librarian. Ed’s in appreciate with Angela, but she’s calm wearing her widow’s weeds for a husband eight years tiring,.
Into all this rides Dr. Lao, who sets up his circus…a circus of the mind where no one who walks through the tent flap remains unchanged.
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I will jabber you this: this is a corny movie, and everything does turn out all fair in the kill. The special effects won an Academy Award in 1964, but they are stop-motion effects (from director George Pal) and the makeup and effects are puny by time and plot.
And yes, there’s a kid and even a dog. Don’t bear that against this film. In its defense I will say thatit was written by Charles Beaumont, the writer responsible for a number of classic Twilight Zone episodes. And there are more than a few edgy and even unsightly moments here, far more than anyone should demand from a “family” movie in 1964.
For example, the completely frivolous Mrs. Cassin goes to visit the seer Apollonius of Tyana to derive her fortune read. Mrs. Cassin’s character is that of a beauty past her bloom, a snobbish, gossipy and laughable faded lady who peaceful fancies herself the belle of a long-forgotten ball. Having her fortune read is a lark to her. She ventures into Apollonius’ tent.
The first time you gaze Tony Randall as Apollonius, you believe, “Oh jeez, Tony Randall in a blonde wig, mustache and beard.” Yes. Lawful. But his face. Randall’s Apollonius looks infinitely faded, infinitely tired. In essence the corny-ness of the makeup is destroyed by the map Randall holds himself and speaks. In spite of yourself, you bag yourself believing that this is an infinitely extinct and murky man who sees the future, and maybe doesn’t want to.
Mrs. Cassin, flustered by Apollonius’ faraway attitude, eventually ends up taunting him. Her lawful nastiness emerges as she finally says, “I paid you! go on then, boom my fortune!”
In one of the most chilling moments in the movies (and I will defend that statement), Apollonius tells her:
“Tomorrow will be like today, and the day after tomorrow will be like the day before yesterday. I explore your remaining days as a dumb collection of hours tubby of useless vanities. You will consider no unusual thoughts. You will forget what slight you have known. Older you will become, but not wiser. Stiffer, but not more dignified. Childless you are, and childless you will remain. Of that suppleness you once commanded in your youth, of that curious simplicity which once attracted men to you, neither endures, nor shall you recapture them…When you die, you will be buried and forgotten, and that is all. And for all the first-rate or injurious, creation or destruction, your living might have accomplished, you might impartial as well never have lived at all.”
Randall says this without judgment or malice, in an infinitely shaded and infinitely empty tone. If you do not feel the cool wind of apprehension across your soul when you discover this, you’re not paying attention.
Mrs. Cassin rushes out of the tent weeping. When Angela Benedict, the Librarian, finds her, Mrs. Cassin’s face snaps succor to its usual phony cheerfulness, and she chirps, “Oh, it was quite exciting. Do you know, he told me that I shall marry Mr. Stark!”
Ah, Angela Benedict. Angela is played by Barbara Eden. A young and quite delicious, brunette, Barbara Eden. Before Jeannie. Benedict is clinging to her widow’s weeds to avoid the attentions of Ed Cunningham, to avoid rejoining life. And Angela Benedict ventures into the tent of Pan.
Yes, Pan. the Colossal God Pan. Once again the shortcomings of the makeup(according to our recent technology) are overcome. Pan begins to play his pipes and dance around Angela. She loses her balance. The music gets wilder. The tent is gone; we are in a forest. She loses her focus. Her schoolmarm’s dress becomes undone at the neck. She sweats. Her hair falls out of its bun. Pan’s likeness changes; he looks like Ed Cunningham, but Ed Cunningham with horns and hooves, half-naked, much, laughing, taunting her, enticing her.
There’s no sex, not even a kiss at the ruin of this scene; only a very young and very, very glowing Barbara Eden clinging to a convenient tent pole, or is it a tree in the forest? coming undone, sweating, gasping, and completely under the spell of Pan. And again, if you don’t acquire this scene intensely erotic, you’re not paying attention.
In short, folks, even though this film is corny and has technical flaws according to our 21st Century standards, it is far outside the boundaries of 1964, and touches on things that no other movie has. Suspend your disbelief and explore this movie.
I will leave you with this, from a scene where Dr. Lao is talking to Mike, who is Angela Benedict’s son.
“Mike, the whole world is a circus if you inspect at it the apt procedure. Every time you occupy up a handful of dust, and spy not the dust, but a mystery, a marvel, there in your hand - every time you discontinuance and contemplate, ‘I’m alive, and being alive is fabulous!’ - every time such a thing happens, Mike, you are portion of the Circus of Dr. Lao.”
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