The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T

The only live action film written by Ted Geisel (A.K.A. Dr. Seuss), this film is like if Road Dahl had written a version of the Music Man while on shrooms and gave the script to Julie Taymor to direct, and while I haven’t actually seen any of Julie Taymor’s films it seems like the best way to describe this movie. Jello Biafra has said this is one of the weirdest movies he’s ever seen, but as bizzarre as The 5,000 Fingers is, the most surprising thing about the film is the brilliant sense of comic timing of it. I can’t think of a single other movie that has made me laugh so much, at least while sober. Hans Conried, who’s voice you might recognize from about a billion animated films over the past several decades (notably Captain Hook and Mr. Darling in Disney’s Peter Pan), is brilliant as the flamboyant Dr. Terwilliker, an evil piano instructor who turns into a mad, child-enslaving professor in the boredom induced fever dream of a young boy named Bart.