Die 5000 Finger des Dr. T

I've been familiar with this relatively obscure film for quite a few years, and while I am not familiar with the various VHS versions of it, I have had the laserdisc version for at least a decade, or more. The new DVD release is amazingly superior to that edition in picture quality, in terms of definition, color and contrast. Even the darkest, shadowy portions of the picture are rendered in sharp detail in the DVD, whereas those areas in the laserdisc picture are just an indistinct, dark grey blur. The colors are stable and vibrant, as well. All this helps tremendously in presenting the vivid imagery of this film to best effect. If you have any regard for this film, you really should have this edition.

I can't add much to the accolades already posted for this fascinating, and genuinely unique, work of pure imagination. I've never seen a bad review of it. I might only make another mention of the hilarious `dressing-up' song that Hans Conried performs near the end of the film. Much comment has been made about the items Dr. T calls for in the lyrics (`undulating undies,' `purple nylon girdle,' `peek-a-boo blouse,' etc.). However, it should be pointed out to those yet unfamiliar with this film that these items bear no relation to the outfit in which he is actually being dressed, which is a cartoonishly-exaggerated drum major uniform. I guess you couldn't do THAT in 1953, at least not in such a mainstream venue. Those sophisticated enough to get the joke will get it, though, and the rest will find it strange, but amusing. My point is that despite all the bizarre and subversive attributes people have seen and commented on in this film, it is very much of its time in style, and decidedly family-friendly viewing. Anyone with a fondness for `Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory' should appreciate this, and I'm not sure it isn't superior to that film in style, wit, and pure imaginative pizzaz.