Review: The 7 Faces of Dr. Lao

The small Arizona town of Abalone is being targeted by soulless tycoon Clint Stark (Arthur O’Connell), who wants the locals to sell all their land to him for a cheap price before a railroad is supposedly meant to come through the town. Although most of the town seems to have bought Stark’s bullshit, the main hold-out is widowed Angela (Barbara Eden) the local librarian and school teacher. John Ericson plays the local newspaper man and chief opponent for Stark…and chief admirer of Angela. Entering this small town is a mercurial old man named Dr. Lao (Tony Randall), riding a donkey and looking to place an ad in the paper for his travelling circus that will play in town for a couple of nights. It’s a very special performance aimed squarely at the townsfolk of Abalone.

 

One of my childhood favourites, this bizarre but enchanting 1964 blend of ‘townie’ western and mythology-tinged fantasy from producer-director George Pal (his last directorial effort, he previously produced the 1953 version of “War of the Worlds” and directed “The Time Machine”) held up pretty damn well on my most recent viewing. Tony Randall deserved an Oscar here for playing several different characters/guises with varying dispositions. It’s a truly bravura lead performance, I particularly enjoyed his rather glum Apollonius of Tyana, the weird Giant Serpent, and the somewhat tired, foggy-brained Merlin the Magician. His turn as Merlin in particular is rather sad and genuinely touching.

 

I suppose modern audiences might be taken aback by a non-Asian actor seemingly in ‘yellow-face’ makeup to play the mercurial Dr. Lao, but I think Randall and the film get away with it, if there’s anything necessary to ‘get away with’. Yes, Dr. Lao takes on the guise of an elderly Chinese mystic trickster of-sorts. However, Randall also takes on the guise of a bunch of other characters in Dr. Lao’s circus, and they’re all presumably the same person in different guises. Also, even though at one point Dr. Lao claims to be from a town in China, said town was extinct centuries ago. My point? The film is a fantasy, and Dr. Lao is likely not a human being, but some kind of magical being, thus any cries of ‘cultural appropriation’ or whatever are foolish and missing the point. Besides, Randall’s Dr. Lao (in his natural guise – if indeed that is his natural guise, who even knows?) speech alternates between perfectly spoken English and deliberately stereotypical Asian diction when Dr. Lao is taking the piss out of the ignorant locals. So the filmmakers and Randall clearly know what they’re doing here and it’s not racist, at least to my non-Asian sensibilities. You’re mileage may differ, but please try to remember what this film is and what it’s about. Randall’s seemingly having the time of his life (apparently he very much wasn’t), and you will too if you allow yourself, I think.

 

The Dr. Lao makeup is pretty good for the 60s, as is the makeup for the other guises (Yes, Randall really is playing the usually female-depicted Medusa). Makeup artist William Tuttle (“The Time Machine”, “Young Frankenstein”) won an Oscar for his excellent makeup here, the first time an Oscar had been awarded in that category. The use of stop-motion is a lot of fun too, particularly the giant sea monster at the climax. In addition to Randall’s multi-character work, there’s plenty of familiar faces here doing solid work. Chief among them is Arthur O’Connell as the crafty villain of the piece, a greedy tycoon looking buy up the whole town. A real selfish fool, his villainy is somewhat comic in nature in keeping with the fairly light tone of the film, but he’s a completely soulless bastard nonetheless and easy to boo. Barbara Eden and John Ericson aren’t exactly magnetic on screen as the young lovers, but he’s likeable and she’s really sweet. Small town colour is provided by veteran character actor John Qualen, whose on-screen wife Minerva Urecal is hilariously horrible in the Margaret Hamilton mould. She’s a real nasty hoot. As O’Connell’s dopey henchmen, western veterans Royal Dano and John Doucette couldn’t be more perfectly cast. Look out for Randall again, sans makeup as an audience member in a town meeting, a cute cameo/walk-on.

 

A wonderfully imaginative, one-of-a-kind fantasy-western for all ages, with Tony Randall given a real showcase in several wildly different roles. He’s terrific and so is the film which mythology buffs in particular should enjoy. Yes, it’s an extremely weird film, but it’s enchanting and fun. The screenplay is by Charles Beaumont (“Queen of Outer Space”, “The Masque of the Red Death”) from the much more mature-minded “The Circus of Dr. Lao” by Charles G. Finney.

 

Rating: A