Freaky Fridays ~ One Weird Movie! The 5000 Fingers of Dr. T

I had forgotton about this movie and probably for a good reason...it creeped me out when I saw it in the early 1960's as a kid! I remember it was on the early show one afternoon after school and since it was a Dr. Seuss title, I decided to watch it (being a kid and all!)

Now if you're 8 years old, taking piano lessons that you dread go to every week, this movie is the story of a nightmare that might really happen. Here is the premise (courtesy Wikipedia) of the movie:

"Young Bart Collins lives with his widowed mother Heloise. The major blight on Bart's existence is the hated piano lessons he is forced to endure under the tutelage of the autocratic Dr. Terwilliker. Bart feels that his mother has fallen under Terwilliker's ominous influence, and gripes to visiting plumber August Zabladowski, without much result. While grimly hammering away at his lessons, Bart dozes off and enters a fantastical musical dream, in much the same fashion as Judy Garland in The Wizard of Oz.

In the dream, Bart is trapped at the surreal Terwilliker Institute, where the piano teacher is now a madman dictator who has imprisoned non-piano-playing musicians. He also built a piano so large that it requires Bart and 499 other boys (the 5,000 fingers) in order to play it. Bart's mother has been turned into Terwilliker's hypnotized assistant and bride-to-be, and Bart must dodge the Institute's guards as he scrambles to save both his mother and himself. He tries to recruit Mr. Zabladowski, who has been hired to install all of the Institute's sinks ahead of a vital inspection, but only after much skepticism and foot-dragging is the plumber finally convinced to help. The two of them empty their pockets and construct a noise-sucking contraption which ruins the mega-piano's opening concert. The enslaved boys cheerfully run riot, and the "VERY atomic" noise-sucker explodes in spectacular fashion, bringing Bart out of his dream.

The movie ends on a hopeful note for Bart, when the real-life Mr. Zabladowski finally notices Heloise, and offers to drive her into town in his jeep. Bart escapes from the piano, and triumphantly runs off to play."

Yes, it finally ends in a good way, but the majority of the movie dealt with being enslaved to play the piano all day...a nightmare for any 8 year old!
So if any of you have small children and have thought about buying this movie, take heed....DON'T! Your children will be happier and better human beings if you don't subject them to this film.