I saw a couple negative reviews of this essentially well made film online. They seemed to have some issues with Tony Randall, a white American, playing a Chinese man. I really had no problems with this and do not feel fantasy films of the 60’s is the best place to vent one’s political correctness. It is so strange and out of place to hear people rant in a serious tone about the racist and sexist nature of older films as if modern cinema has finally raised itself above all that. Some other complaints were that the story line was lame and vacuous essentially and the film was preachy and condescending. What are these people talking about? First off the film leans towards a younger audience and like most films aimed at kids (like every animated movie made these days) is going to rely on clichés and gimmicks to deliver its message. It is well made, well acted with great make up by William Tuttle and decent special effects for the time. Does it stereotype Asians at times and is some of the plot more than a little corny and predictable? Certainly. But is it loaded with overt racism, sexism and pedantic, patronizing dialogs? Well, yea maybe. But that is still no reason to not watch this likable film by director George Pal (Atlantis, the Lost Continent, The Time Machine).

Dr. Lao (Randall) rides into the desert town of Abalone on his wobbly mule one day and brings with him his one tent circus that consists of a small group of unique characters, each one played by Randall. The characters are the senile old wizard Merlin, the blind fortune teller Apollonius, the serpent haired Medusa, the Abominable Snowman, the lustful Pan, and the animated snake whose face resembles the heartless tycoon Clint Stark (Arthur O’Connell) who wants to purchase the town out from under its citizen to make way for a railroad line. While Stark is hardened on the surface by life he is in fact a disillusioned idealist who secretly wants right and good to triumph. Among the other townsfolk is Angela Benedict (Barbara Eden), an uptight librarian who is passionately pursued to the point of harassment by the new idealistic newspaper reporter Ed Cunningham (John Ericson from The Bamboo Saucer). Seems in these old films a guy only had to tell a gal “I am gonna keep telling you that I love you until you give in and marry me. No matter how many times you say NO, NO, NO I will persist and you will one day be all mine!”. All women really wanted to be stalked in old films. Angela’s fist husband died and she now raises their son Mike (Kevin Tate) on her own. Mike is a lonely kid who wants a father figure but DR. Lao and Ed can’t seem to eager to constantly ditch the kid. I see a future barfly in poor Mike.

So there you have the makings of a soul searching film as each of the town’s people face one of the acts in Dr. Lao’s circus, which are in fact mirrors into their own souls. It can be easy to dismiss some of this as maudlin and hokey but I liked the film. I saw it a few times as a kid and when I watched it recently with some friends with their ten year olds they liked it as well. The story, from a book by Charles Finney that was meant as a critique on American materialism, moves along well enough. Nothing much comes asa surprise since most films of this time (though less than films of today) shied away from abrupt surprises and sought to tell the story in a direct and predictable fashion. There is often an obvious moral to the story and maybe some people do not like to have messages in films. They are above all that.

Admittedly some performances and dialog is a little annoying. The little kid Mike who runs crying after Dr. Lao is just too much like the ending of Shane not to notice. And while during the same scene he starts juggling with some golden balls left by Dr. Lao and begins crying as he says “Look Dr. Lao I can do it! I can do it!” is pretty cheesy it also sort of got to me. I did not cry! No way! I think the viewer has to have the knack for watching and interpreting older films or all of this will certainly seem strange. I think regular readers of this type of blog can do that so I am preaching to the choir so to speak. It is a little corny to see Mike juggling the balls and crying for Dr Lao but and you could say it is driving the message home with a hammer but I also do not feel we need to strip all movies apart and over analyze them. Sometimes it is okay to just let the film happen and wash over us.

Barbara Eden is effortlessly sexy as usual and Arthur O’Connell plays the same role he always did in fine fashion. Also appearing in a small role is Noah Berry as the newspaper editor. There is a lot of crap out there to watch and waste out lives on but this is not some of it. It is a good movie if you are a fan of old Disney style films directed at a kid’s matinee. Look for catastrophe scenes from Pal’s Atlantis, the Lost Continent and The time Machine. If you are easily offended by racial and gender stereotypes then maybe you should avoid this one. But if you are cool with white guys playing orientals once in a while then, as Dr. Lao might say, “I leccommend you see dis film chop, chop!”

7 FACES OF DR. LAO

Dr. Lao

* This is the circus of Dr. Lao.
We show you things that you don’t know.
Oh, we spare no pains and we spare no dough.
Oh, we want to give you one hell of a show!
And youth may come and age may go,
But no more circuses like this show.

* Tricks? Gadzooks, Madam, these are not tricks! I do magic. I — I create, I transpose, I transubstantiate, I break up, I recombine — but I never trick!

* The whole world is a circus if you know how to look at it.

* Every time you pick up a grain of sand you hold a universe in the palm of your hand.

Dialogue

Dr. Lao: My specialty is wisdom. Do you know what wisdom is?
Mike: No sir.
Dr. Lao: Wise answer.

Ed Cunningham: Now, come on, Doc! What kind of oriental hocus-pocus is going on around here? A circus with no wagons, no animals, no cages? A crazy old magician? What’s it all about?

Apollonius: I only read futures, I don’t evaluate them.

Apollonius: Tomorrow will be like today, and the day after tomorrow will be like the day before yesterday. I see your remaining days as a tedious collection of hours full of useless vanities. You will think no new thoughts. You will forget what little 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 strange simplicity which once attracted men to you, neither endures, nor shall you recapture them.
Mrs. Cassin: You’re a mean, ugly man!
Apollonius: Mirrors are often ugly and mean. When you die, you will be buried and forgotten, and that is all. And for all the good or evil, creation or destruction, your living might have accomplished, you might just as well never have lived at all.

[Dr. Lao and Mike have an evening heart-to-heart discussion.]
Dr. Lao: Mike, let me tell you something. The whole world is a circus if you know how to look at it. The way the sun goes down when you’re tired, comes up when you want to be on the move. That’s real magic. The way a leaf grows. The song of the birds. The way the desert looks at night, with the moon embracing it. Oh, my boy, that’s… that’s circus enough for anyone. Every time you watch a rainbow and feel wonder in your heart. Every time you pick up a handful of dust, and see not the dust, but a mystery, a marvel, there in your hand. Every time you stop and think, “I’m alive, and being alive is fantastic!” Every time such a thing happens, you’re part of the Circus of Dr. Lao.

Dr. Lao: I wouldn’t care to trade with you.
Clint Stark: Maybe not, but the point is, my scaly friend, that you are in a cage, while I’m free to walk about!
Dr. Lao: Oh, you have your cage, too. You test your bars just as often as I test mine, kiddo.

Ed Cunningham: Hey! How come you speak perfect English all of a sudden?
Dr. Lao: [no accent] Oh, it comes and goes. Whatever dialect the mood requires.
Ed Cunningham: Oh, it just comes and goes?
Dr. Lao: [thick Chinese accent] Whassa matta you? Alla time asking silly questions! Wise guy!

Mike: Are you an acrobat?
Dr. Lao: [no accent] Only philosophically.
Mike: What?
Dr. Lao: [high-pitched, thick Chinese accent] Ohn-rheee phi-ro-sophic-areee!

[Dr. Lao is fishing in a dried-up riverbed.]
Ed Cunningham: I hate to tell you this, Doctor, but there aren’t any fish in that river. In fact, there isn’t any river.
Dr. Lao: That’s okay. Me no use bait.

Mayor James Sargent: He doesn’t want to lose. Who does?
Clint Stark: I do. Mayor Sargent, every time I bet on weakness, corruption, fallibility… I want to lose. But I always win.

[As the movie closes, a voice-over replays a variation of Dr. Lao's earlier words.]
Dr. Lao: Mike, the whole world is a circus if you look at it the right way. Every time you pick up a handful of dust, and see not the dust, but a mystery, a marvel, there in your hand, every time you stop and think, “I’m alive, and being alive is fantastic!” Every time such a thing happens, Mike, you are part of the Circus of Dr. Lao.

This entry was posted on Sunday, January 25th, 2009 at 6:51 am and is filed under Comedy, Science Fiction-Fantasy . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.