The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T

The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T. is a 1953 musical fantasy film. It is best known for being the only feature film ever written by Theodor Seuss Geisel ("Dr. Seuss"), who wrote the story, screenplay, and lyrics.

The plot revolves around young Bart Collins (Tommy Rettig), who is living with his widowed mother Eloise (Mary Healy ). She is being courted by Bart's piano teacher Dr. Terwilliker (Hans Conried), whom Tommy dislikes intensely because of his autocratic style. Bart is trying to get his mother together with another smitten, but less acceptable suitor, local repairman August Zabladowski (Peter Lind Hayes ). Eloise also prefers August, but knows that Dr. Terwilliker can provide her and her son with a better living.

As in The Wizard of Oz, the plot descends into fantasy where the real life anxieties of Bart are duplicated within the fantasy plot. Bart and August step into a world where Dr. Terwilliker becomes the evil Dr. T., a madman with a piano so large that it requires 500 enslaved boys (the aforementioned 5,000 fingers) much like Bart in order to play it. Eloise become the damsel in distress to be saved from Dr. T. (preferably by August) at all costs, while Bart works to free the 500 enslaved boys.

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