Search - Frederick Hollander, Hans Conried, Mary Healy :: The 5000 Fingers of Dr. T [Songs and Music from the Original Soundtrack]

5000 Cheers for Dr T

Jay Hass | Ft Lauderdale, FL | 12/07/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I never thought it possible that this soundtrack would ever be available on CD...after all, the movie's debut in 1953 was hardly auspicious. The vinyl recording of the songs was more a formality than a record anybody actually wanted. I wanted it, though. I wanted it in the 1970s when I first discovered the movie on television. I also discovered that the movie only aired once a year and I was hungry for a record that I could enjoy the rest of the year. This, of course, was before the VHS tape or DVD disc gave us 24/7 viewing privileges.



When the VHS tape of the movie came out in the early 1990s I didn't long for the soundtrack any longer since I had the entire movie at my fingertips, and it was no longer available in any event.



Kudos to E Records of the UK for bothering. I appreciate very much that they gambled on such an arcane product. Other than myself I know scant people who will buy this costly CD. There is nothing special about the first half of it...songs from the movie are pretty generally standardized here, except for the opening track which was cut in the film but kept intact here.



Extra special kudos to E for releasing the bonus tracks which are a real treat to diehard groupies of the movie like myself. The songs are the real meat of the score but were, alas, cut from the film. It is frustrating that these great songs did not survive except, just to cite one instance, "One Moment Ago," as underscoring. There is nothing remastered here either. It is a simple transfer to CD from the original masters, something I would have appreciated greatly in the 1970s. But this is a product on the market whose availability flabbergasts me now!



Let it suffice to say that this CD is a collector's item for diehard fans of the the much-under-rated film and is not at all marketable for the general buying public. Fans of the composer Frederich Hollander (or Dr Seuss) might also feel it is worth investing in, but no one else will -- not even fans who just simple appreciate the movie withoug worshipping it.



I am so very grateful to E Records, though -- I can't imagine what possessed them to take the financial gamble here. They also took the gamble on another arcane soundtrack I love ("Pufnstuf" soundtrack, 1970)! Whatever possessed them, thank you!



I welcome all fans of the movie (and the upcoming stage musical version, which also has an awesome score) to write me...I'd love to have a coterie of Dr T fans as friends.



Jay - e mail: sondfan@gmail.com



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A Much Sought-After Rarity

Eric M. | New York | 08/31/2009

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Great to find this very obscure soundtrack. This movie is definitely a cult classic and its (however small) group of fans will be happy to know of this product. I believe there was a (now extremely hard-to-get) vinyl original, and the sound quality - purportedly - was not exceptional, but any copy is valued due to the needle-in-a-haystack nature of these recordings. Many thanks to all those who undertook the effort to bring these tracks to us."

Alas, Some Flaws

Presto Rubel | Brimfield, MA | 11/26/2009

(2 out of 5 stars)

"There are some significant problems with this recording. As an avid fan of Dr. T since childhood, and as a former music teacher and amateur musician, I would have been one of the first to welcome a CD of the score and lyrics. But this one was a project poorly done.



The only musical excerpts included are songs with lyrics; the rest of the musical score is left out. This results in a short series of equally short tracks, and deletes some splendid background music. Without this music and parts of the dialogue, the songs are taken out of context, to their detriment.



The sound quality is much worse than in the VHS and DVD of the movie. It is far worse in the outtake tracks, which are so muted that it is difficult to grasp the melodies and to understand the lyrics.



I had hoped, as a final compensation, that the album insert would provide interesting information, but such was not to be. The accompanying essay was loaded with name-dropping and references to psychedelia; it's only saving grace was that it was short. It was followed by several pages of ads for other CD's. As such, a marvelous opportunity was lost. I must add that the writer's comparison of Dr. T to a drug trip was absurd. To anyone raised on the OZ books (including those by Baum's successor Ruth Plumly Thompson and others, who wrote dozens of them), the flights of fancy taken in Dr. T are a normal and delightful expression of imagination. Many of the people who were youths when Dr. T was produced were raised, in part, on those books. Many of them went on to raise their own children on both those books and Dr. T, and on similarly imaginative books such as the Raggedy Ann series with its ice cream mud puddles.



In addition, most people with a background in dance, costuming, music, and theater would see nothing drug-related, Freudian, etc., etc. about Dr. T. Likewise, people with a well-grounded knowledge of children's literature of that era would see nothing of the sort in this gentle movie. Architects would find the sets an inspiration.



If I may broach a suggestion: if you have the necessary computer equipment, you might prefer to copy the DVD soundtrack, or parts of it, onto a blank CD for your own personal use only (please avoid copyright infringement).



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