THE 5,000 FINGERS OF DR. T at Schlafly Bottleworks Wednesday Night

Let me see your fingers, lad! Are they limber? Are they happy?

THE THING WITH TWO HEADS, DANGER DIABOLIK, GATOR BAIT, and TARANTULA are a few of the movies they’ve screened in the past at Webster University’s Strange Brew cult film series. Always the first Wednesday evening of every month, the fun happens at Schlafly Bottleworks Restaurant and Bar in Maplewood (7260 Southwest Ave.- at Manchester – Maplewood, MO 63143). This week, on Wednesday February 5th at 8pm, they’re venturing it’s sheer ’50s madness with the amazing THE 5,000 FINGERS OF DR. T.

Admission is only $4!

Dr. Suess once said: “Adults are just obsolete children and the hell with them.” I wish Dr. Suess had been involved in more movies, but for most of his career, Theodore Geisel was reluctant to have his characters marketed in contexts outside of his own books. The one exception (aside from a few animated films) was the surreal 1953 adventure THE 5,000 FINGERS OF DR. T. Dr. Seuss wrote, helped design, and co-wrote songs for this eccentric fantasy about a young boy named Bart (Tommy Rettig) who, like most young boys, doesn’t enjoy his piano lessons with the mean-spirited Dr. Terwilliker (Hans Conried – the character of Sideshow Bob from The Simpsons got his last name of “Terwilliger” from this movie. There are some similarities between the two characters – both are arrogant, cultured types whose arch-nemeses have the name of ‘Bart’).

Bart figures his time would be better spent playing baseball with his friends or helping his grown-up buddy Arthur Zabladowski (Peter Lind Hayes), a plumber. One night, while fast asleep, Bart has a long and remarkable dream in which he’s trapped in the kingdom of the fearsome Dr. T, who has enslaved hundreds of little boys, forcing them to practice on the world’s largest piano until they drop. With the help of a friendly plumber, Bart plans a revolt that will topple Dr. T’s evil empire once and for all.

THE 5,000 FINGERS OF DR. T was a commercial flop at the time of its release but has since gained a significant cult following, mostly because of its weird design with dreamlike expressionistic sets (railing-less stairways that lead to nowhere, large stuffed hands pointing the way, and  hardly a line in the sets which isn’t slightly skewed)  and off-kilter Seussian dialog and songs. For a challenging, subversive, and at times frightening children’s movie (in the WIZARD OF OZ/WILLY WONKA mold), check out THE 5,000 FINGERS OF DR. T when it screens this Wednesday night (February 5^th) at Schlafly Bottleworks Restaurant and Bar in Maplewood (7260 Southwest Ave.- at Manchester – Maplewood, MO 63143). A yummy variety of food from Schlafly’s kitchen is available as are plenty of pints of their famous home-brewed suds.

And check out this vintage trailer for THE 5,000 FINGERS OF DR. T: