"Anybody can make a bunch of flowers!"
7 Faces of Dr. Lao (1964)
directed by George Pal
rating: 2 out of 5 cravats
on DVD from Netflix
To begin, I'm not okay with the Mr. Moto and Charlie Chan adaptations of the 1930s. In both, Asian characters written by American authors are portrayed by, respectively, Peter Lorre and Warner Oland. I don't like that Henry Brandon, a German-born actor, painted himself up as Scar, a Comanche, in The Searchers. There are a hundred - a thousand - examples of these minor racist caricatures in films, and it's easy not to mention them because there are so many things about The Searchers worth discussing instead. But I love movies and they are full of bad stereotypes, and from time to time it is important for me to say so.
Here, Dr. Lao, the protagonist and heart of the film, is played by Tony Randall, an actor you probably recognize, as I did, "from TV." There is an "adviser of magic" in the credits and a funny joke in which a spurned suitor refers to a mourning dress as "widow's weeds." 7 Faces of Dr. Lao concerns a small Western town about to be swindled by a local land baron with insider information about water and trains. Like his fellow residents, Clint Stark is neither happy nor satisfied. Dr. Lao's carnival imparts a lesson about wisdom and revenge to each; hearts are softened, boys become men.
The movie is gentle, if misguided, and even its antagonist can be redeemed. Lao speaks of the dignity of man, and beneath his improbable big top in the desert, characters from myth and legend - Merlin, Pan, Medusa - stalk about and compel citizens to action. Among oddities that include the Abominable Snowman as a ticket-taker, Barbara Eden, the not-yet-merry widow, finds herself ravaged by the god of the wild to the point of visible perspiration. Lao says that charlatans are "secretive rather than mysterious," a nice synopsis - if someone else delivered it. Lao is the most prominent of Randall's seven performances, so you can't say that he didn't know what he was getting himself into.
directed by George Pal
rating: 2 out of 5 cravats
on DVD from Netflix
To begin, I'm not okay with the Mr. Moto and Charlie Chan adaptations of the 1930s. In both, Asian characters written by American authors are portrayed by, respectively, Peter Lorre and Warner Oland. I don't like that Henry Brandon, a German-born actor, painted himself up as Scar, a Comanche, in The Searchers. There are a hundred - a thousand - examples of these minor racist caricatures in films, and it's easy not to mention them because there are so many things about The Searchers worth discussing instead. But I love movies and they are full of bad stereotypes, and from time to time it is important for me to say so.
Here, Dr. Lao, the protagonist and heart of the film, is played by Tony Randall, an actor you probably recognize, as I did, "from TV." There is an "adviser of magic" in the credits and a funny joke in which a spurned suitor refers to a mourning dress as "widow's weeds." 7 Faces of Dr. Lao concerns a small Western town about to be swindled by a local land baron with insider information about water and trains. Like his fellow residents, Clint Stark is neither happy nor satisfied. Dr. Lao's carnival imparts a lesson about wisdom and revenge to each; hearts are softened, boys become men.
The movie is gentle, if misguided, and even its antagonist can be redeemed. Lao speaks of the dignity of man, and beneath his improbable big top in the desert, characters from myth and legend - Merlin, Pan, Medusa - stalk about and compel citizens to action. Among oddities that include the Abominable Snowman as a ticket-taker, Barbara Eden, the not-yet-merry widow, finds herself ravaged by the god of the wild to the point of visible perspiration. Lao says that charlatans are "secretive rather than mysterious," a nice synopsis - if someone else delivered it. Lao is the most prominent of Randall's seven performances, so you can't say that he didn't know what he was getting himself into.
posted by NPK at 6:59 AM
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