It’s been a while since I’ve been so thoroughly entertained by a movie. Sure, I’ve seen good movies that I’ve enjoyed watching, and one that affected me in unexpected ways. However, while watching 7 Faces of Dr. Lao (1964), I simply sat back, soaked it in, and had a delightful experience.
You might say I’m 62 years behind in watching it, but it hasn’t been quite that long. The film was a box office disappointment and made a profit later through television sales. As a child, I saw commercials for airings… a lot of commercials. In my memory, it was on all the time, yet I never watched it (that I can remember.)
In retrospect, that seems odd. I’m certain the commercials would have contained images of some of Lao’s more horrific creations, such as the abominable snowman or Medusa. Heck, it even has the Loch Ness Monster in it! Somehow, though, it never appealed to me, even though I claim to have been a monster kid through and through.
The movie also struck a sentimental chord that hasn’t been touched in a long time. I used to be a sucker for sweet, life-affirming films, and let me tell you, tears would flow. They didn’t flow during 7 Faces of Dr. Lao, but my cold, hard adult heart swelled as the strange man who came to town changed its citizens forever.
Tony Randall plays the strange man who rides into Abalone on a donkey with a fishbowl on his lap. (It contains Nessie, but only when it’s exposed to dry air.) He wiggles two fingers, accompanied by a jingling sound, and begins working his magic. During the two days between a vote for the town’s future, he puts on an unusual, transformative circus.
Randall plays all the character attractions at the circus. Apollonius of Tyana provides sobering truth to Mrs. Howard Cassin (Lee Patrick) and Clint Stark (Arthur O’Connell.) Pan mesmerizes Angela Benedict (Barbara Ededn) with his flute. The Giant Serpent resembles Stark, the town’s benefactor and villain, and verbally berates him.
Willima Tuttle won a well-deserved honorary Oscar for outstanding make-up achievement for 7 Faces of Dr. Lao. A 12-minute special feature on the Warner Archive Blu-ray release, King of the Duplicators, shows Tuttle, dressed in a suit, demonstrating the process for creating face masks and appliances. It’s a fun, vintage behind the scenes supplement.
The male lead is Stark’s rival, newspaper publisher Ed Cunningham (John Ericson.) He’s a handsome man and all the way through, I was thinking he resembled Rod Taylor from The Time Machine (1960) and that George Pal had “a type.” Interestingly, Pal originally wanted Taylor to play the role, who is also the romantic interest of an initially reluctant Angela.
Yes, Pal produced and directed the film, and it has his signature “look.” Colors are rich and sets are fantastical. It even features footage from previous Pal films in the climactic “Woldercan” production, “The Fall of the City,” a fable that hits close to home for the citizens of Abalone.
My only nitpick is that while it’s nice to see a villain, sans twirling moustache, O’Connell’s Stark doesn’t seem villainous enough. He’s an actor with whose friendly demeanor I’m familiar, so maybe I just didn’t buy it; or perhaps he was miscast. Ericson feels a little weak, too, but he at least is the leading man type.
While the multiple title roles seem better suited for Peter Sellars, the original choice, Randall does an amazing job. His Apollonius and Merlin are heartfelt, one deeply saddened by the truths he’s forced to tell and the other befuddled by the unreliable efforts of his aging magical powers.
If all of this didn’t capture the wonder of my now dormant childhood, the second bonus feature is a classic Tom & Jerry cartoon, The Cat Above & the Mouse Below. I can’t tell you the last time I watched a Chuck Jones cartoon, but it was the icing on a cake I never expected to be so delicious.
7 Faces of Dr. Lao is available on Blu-ray from Warner Archive (see above.) You can purchase it from Movie Zyng by clicking here, and I strongly recommend you do!
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