The mysterious Dr. Lao

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Movie
German title The mysterious Dr. Lao
Original title 7 Faces of Dr. Lao
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 1964
length 99 minutes
Age rating FSK 6
Rod
Director George Pal
script Charles Beaumont
production George Pal / MGM
music Leigh Harline
camera Robert Bronner
cut George Tomasini
occupation

The mysterious Dr. Lao ( 7 Faces of Dr. Lao ) is an American fantasy film directed by George Pal from 1964 with Tony Randall in a multiple role .

action

At the beginning of the 20th century, an old Chinese man came to the small town of Abalone in Arizona on a donkey. The Chinese, who otherwise only has a fishbowl with a harmless-looking fish, is Dr. Lao. He visits Edward Cunningham's newspaper office to place an ad. There his traveling circus is announced, which is to perform in Abalone for two days.

Abalone is shaken by inner difficulties. The rancher Clint Stark found out that a railway line should lead into the city. He plans to buy the land cheaply in order to later sell it to the railway company at a high price. Meanwhile, Cunningham, who opposes Stark, has romantic feelings for the widow Angela Benedict.

Lao hangs up posters for his circus in town with the help of Angela's son Mike. Mike finds out that the Chinese man is 7322 years old. Cunningham researches, goes to the circus and confronts Lao with his findings that the Chinese hometown has not existed for centuries. But Lao can evade the questions.

The circus begins its performances and is well attended by the population. Lao shows up in many masks to give advice to the people, which is also partially accepted. Stark encounters Lao as the "Great Serpent" and as Apollonios of Tyana . Mike meets Merlin while his mother Angela listens to the songs of the Greek god Pan . A quarrelsome woman is turned to stone by Lao in the form of Medusa and redeemed again by Merlin, whereupon the woman is meek.

Meanwhile, two of Stark's men destroy Cunningham's office. Cunningham and his printer discover the chaos and are horrified. But the destruction is magically led by Dr. Lao repairs. The two immediately put a new edition of the newspaper in print. Cunningham personally delivers a copy to Stark.

In the last performance, Dr. Lao presented a magic lantern . It shows the mystical city of Woldercan, which is inhabited by doppelgangers of the city population. The residents succumb to temptations that are personified by Stark. A meeting will be held after the performance is over. There they vote on Stark's land purchase plan. The vote was negative for Stark, who, now defeated, passed on the information about the railway construction. An approaching sandstorm lets the city's population disperse.

The two Stark employees want to destroy the Laos circus. In doing so they destroy the fishbowl. The fish swells in the air and turns into a sea snake. She chases the two men out into the storm. Mike alerts Dr. Lao, who conjures up a downpour through fireworks that makes the snake shrink.

The next morning the circus is gone. Mike spots a circle on the floor and finds three wooden balls that he's juggling. He hears Laos voice reminding him what he said to him before: Dr. Laos circus is life in itself and everything in it is a miracle.

Reviews

"A lavishly decorated fairy tale, the fantastic magic of which, although sometimes overdone, is at the service of humane wisdom."

- Lexicon of international film

"The script is overly sentimental and brings Dr. Laos parabolas without great finesse. Thanks to Tony Randall's strong performance in the lead role and the amazing special effects, it was still a successful film. "

- Alan Frank

background

Forrest J Ackerman's collection also includes the masks for Tony Randall (middle shelf, left)
  • The script was based on the novel The Circus of Dr. Lao (Doctor Laos Great Circus) by Charles G. Finney .
  • George Pal's first choice to star in the title character was Peter Sellers .
  • Tony Randall played all seven "faces" of Dr. Lao: Dr. Lao himself, Merlin, Pan, the Snowmen, Medusa, the giant snake and Apollonius of Tyana. If you add a short sequence as "spectator" in which he practically played himself, Randall drew level with Alec Guinness , who also played eight different roles in " Adel obliged " ( Kind Hearts and Coronets , 1949).
  • The circus film that Dr. Lao to the townspeople includes scenes from George Pal's 1961 film Atlantis, the Lost Continent
  • MGM brought the film to the German movie theaters on August 13, 1964. In this dubbed version, which is still in use today, Tony Randall got the voice of Gerd Duwner .

Awards

Soundtrack

  • Leigh Harline : 7 Faces of Dr. Lao. Original motion picture soundtrack . FSM Silver Age Classics. FSM (Film Score Monthly), Hollywood 2006, sound carrier no. FSM Vol. 9 No. 11 - Original recording of the film music (stereo) under the direction of the composer

literature

  • Charles G. Finney : Doctor Laos Great Circus. (Original title: The Circus of Doctor Lao. ) German by Joachim Kalka . Hobbit press. Klett-Cotta, Stuttgart 1984, ISBN 3-608-95165-2 .
  • Charles Finney: The Circus of Dr. Lao. Original edition (English). University of Nebraska Press, 2002, ISBN 0-8032-6907-2 .
  • Gail Morgan Hickman: The Films of George Pal. Barnes and Yoseloff, London and Cranbury 1977, ISBN 0-498-01960-8 .

Documentary film

  • The Fantasy Film Worlds of George Pal . Documentation by Arnold Leibovit, USA 1985/2000

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ The mysterious Dr. Lao. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used 
  2. ^ Alan Frank: The Science fiction and Fantasy Handbook . London 1982