Bill Davies, are you still making sure the work of the Happy Fingers Institute goes on? I hope so. I am. Will be having my annual public viewing and sing a long next month. This will be about the 30th one in 33 years. Did you ever recover that plethora of information you had collected on you AOL site when they closed them down? I sure hope so but I have my doubts as I expect i would have discovered it by now.
I dream that this documentary becomes reality some day. Incredible movie!! Thank you so much for posting it! I discovered this gem as an adult and since then my admiration for it never faded out. I've raised my two children watching it from time to time and they loved it too! Great soundtrack, imagery and casting! All best wishes from the extreme south of Brasil!!
I was completely fascinated by this movie when I was around 7 years old when a classmate went cto see it and told me about it, as only a young boy could. I pestered him to tell me about it many times till I eventually saw it for myself. My classmate’s description never missed a beat. I knew the story from beginning to end!
The "Dress Me" song and the elevator operator's song were each brilliant in their own way. Loved this film as a kid when it came out, and love it every time I can see it again!
Oh my gosh, next I suppose you'll tell me it wasn't really Tommy and the other 499 boys playing Chopsticks so gloriously when Dr. T's institute went atomic. Truly a marvelous movie.
I'll never forget this film, Flight of the Bumblebee is one of my favorite. He says, you know, that the boy is on his lap is not his father, but as a kid I remember thinking they are blood brothers. There is something magical about that connection. I was surprised to find a special connection with my own dad, who later I found out was related biologically in our family.
Fascinating. I wish you could have made the entire documentary. Someone needs to do this!! This is a part of major part of cinematic history- the only full length live action musical made by Dr. Seuss. See my comments on Facebook on the 5,000 Fingers page.
This was so interesting I just went down a rabbit hole when someone mentioned this being suess’ first AND last live action movie because of how it turned out but seems like a neat little piece of history
This movie has never had the recognition it deserves It is a great movie, the opening dream sequence alone is fabulous Columbia always has had a reputation for daring to go where other studios would not dare
Rather like the collaboration between Walt Disney and Salvador Dali producing the animation 'Destino' I saw remnants of that before it was restored The stair sequence in '5000 Fingers' reminds me of that movie Both films were daring attempts at making something more interesting than the usual movie and trying to inspire the imagination and the artistic capacity of and I must use a dreadful phrase 'the ordinary people' of whom I am one, indeed that was specifically walt Disney's desire with 'Destino' and 'Fantasia'
@@jacobtennyson9213 hi I do not agree All too often remakes are shallow reflections of the original and I think in this case it would be impossible to recreate the wonderful imagery, especially as the market would inevitably be TV and streaming
20 years ago I was working in post prod and my client was Mgm. I scoured every vault in town in the hopes there might just be anything left of the assembly cut. I eventually had to come to terms I will never be able to reconstruct the original cut. I still have a small spark of hope that the film would get some sort of restoration. It would be a dream to see a version of the film that branches out to the storyboards, artwork to fill in for the lost footage.
Yea, I also had hope. The studio that produced the film, Columnia, was taken over by Sony and many of the films contained in their vault were lost. The late Stanley Kramer, the film's producer, owns a print of all his films. The most recent release of the film in a four disc Stanley Kramer special set, was produced with the cooperation of his widow and it was the cut version, so I don't believe his copy is the full version. We can still hope that it might be hidden in a private collection.
Bill Davies My clients at that time we’re Mgm, Sony and Fox. The possibility a working print found its way into the Mgm vault was slim but... ya never know. At that time I found a few storage boxes in the T.G. Estate collection at UCSD. The manifest was pretty amazing. It included the master stampers for the vinyl album. The continuity script. The storyboards. The original score. Concept art. Everything but film elements.
What happened to the production materials? Those could be our only view into dr seuss’s original vision for one of the most unique American films ever produced.
@@pinkmilk30 currently the story boards script and full musical score as well as the full studio recording masters are in storage at San Diego university per his estate. The actual film trims have not been located. From 1972 onward the Mgm film library has been in disarray. At times masters have popped up in public storage facilities that have gone up for auction due to payments in arrears. The turnaround at mgm has been catastrophic as there are no old timers left to read the almost incomprehensible data that could lead to a discovery of these elements.
@@54davies It was a bedtime ritual in my home.... read them all...... but this kinda shocked me when I first viewed it.... my parents hadn't seen it.... we saw it at school! The teachers were grumbling.... or shocked.... if I recall it correctly!
I love this movie. I watched it as a child in the 1960's and rediscovered it in the early 1980's. I have always been fascinated by Bart's house and neighbourhood. Any idea where that neighbourhood is located?
It took me a while to check through my files, but did come up with an address for the house. 6089 Selma Ave., Los Angeles, CA. It's still there but has a wall in front of it with red iron work.
Hi Bill. We met several years ago when you drove to Houston for my annual public viewing of 5000 Fingers and sing a long. I still show it every year to a group that bas ranged from 20 to 200 or more. OK that was once but I am glad to see you are still around. Lost connection with you way back when AOL just shut down folks pages with all your 5000 Finger trivia and content. I still hope you can get this documentary made some day. Best of luck.
I'm big on "politics", but I think this is what these comment venues are all about; Sharing "neat stuff". I'm 60+ years old. Born 1957. I remember watching cartoons in the 60's and early 70's. I think a lot of these cartoons; Bugs Bunny, Looney Toons, etc, were made in the 40's. These were the best. I still remember how the quality of cartoons kinda declined in the 70's. Thanks again for the video. I'm big on movies too. I always look for Edith Head in the credits. I'm not big on fashion design, heh-heh, but I read somewhere that she was from my hometown of San Bernardino, California. For some reason I keep an eye out for makeup artist Ben Nye. Probably because they were pioneers in the "old school" of movies. A character in The Incredibles was based on Edith Head. There's a neat video about her out there somewhere.
@@larrysingleton2864 Wow! I too am always looking for Ben Nye. A big joke in my family. I also look out for Glenn Glenn for sound recording. Keep watching the old stuff like us!
THEODORE GEISEL-"Dr.Seuss" (RIP) did'nt realize what a great thing he did with this movie. His only live-action effort. The "atomic sound absorbing" device,was a stroke of genius.
The thing is, Geisel's original vision was muddled. He was often coerced into compromising the story, being forced to add a love interest against his wishes. Filming was a nightmare: the boys all gorged themselves on hotdogs for lunch. One boy ate too much, he puked, and that lead to a chain reaction. And then after a poor screening, producer Stanley Kramer extensively rewrote, filmed and reedited countless scenes. Geisel called the whole experience "a debaculous fiasco". "I am not made for Hollywood and it is not made for me."
@@yosefdemby8792 Well,as I said,it's DR. SEUSS' only live action.....just like THE GREAT MISSENDEN TREASURE was ROALD DAHLS' reality effort....As for those hotdogs,100 extras got sick....so 100 stomachaches.....TOMMY RETTIG..later the ORIGINAL " Timmie" from LASSIE.....Morris Stoloff,eh? He did the instrumental from PICNIC (1956)....GREAT NAMES FROM THIS PROJECT!!
"Is it...atomic?" "Yes - *very* atomic!" 🤣🤣🤣 I named my production company "Very Atomic Entertainment." (Maybe someday I'll actually produce something under that name...)
What is the status of the documentary ? I have the original pressbook, as well as the merchandising supplement for this film, as well as some great off camera production stills. Best of luck with your project. It's a wonderful film.
This is awesome! I was just wondering for the Re-edited version of the film you posted a few years back where you got all the information, like where the songs were placed and where scenes were put in different places. Is it from the screenplay? Is there a censorship record of the film? I would really like to know, since your video got taken down.
+Bill Davies Wow! Have you ever thought of scanning your script and putting a pdf online? There are a lot of people who are fans of this film who would love to read that script, including the 2,000 people who watched this video.
I remember this film being shown on Australian television in the 1960s. Dr Suess or no Dr Suess, truly, it is one of the most visually surreal mainstream American films ever made. However, for all its design finesse, perhaps a more interesting result would have been achieved if filmmaker William Cameron-Menzies were in charge of direction and design? I knew nothing of Rettig's voice being dubbed. If Criterion get around to remastering "5000 Fingers of Dr. T", perhaps the documentary material seen here could form the basis for an "extra" essay on the film? Have you pitched it to them?
Truly one of the greatest films of all time! Been a huge fan of this film since I first saw it as a child. Fun to go to the revival houses from time to time and see who shows up for the screenings. I went into your posts and saw that the unedited film has been blocked. Any way to get a copy of that somewhere? I never get tired of watching this film. Really enjoyed this documentary piece, hope that work goes well on the completed work.
always liked 10 little fingers song,,,theres a brand new song that's playing on the radio now with the song melody ,,,,,don't know if they ripped it off from the movie or not,,,, btw,, looking for the original 5 fingers hat,,,
Mr. Davies: I was one of the boys in the film. I recently came upon a picture of me in my beanie. If you would like it, please let me know. I'm impressed with the work you've done on the film. You can contact me at malibuboy1945@gmail.com. Dave Rubini
Wow reminds me of my father who started working on the Rail Road at the age of Sixteen.Retired from B.N. who got on The Gospel Train.Dec. 19th 2013 age 80.I remember as a child him outside in the winters at Daytons Bluff Yard St.Paul,MN. Thanku for this great song!
I've been in that yard in the winter. I have great respect for the men and women who work year round to get the trains through and on time. The worst conditions I ever experienced was working outside in Minot, ND in the snow at -7degrees real temperature (-60 wind chill).
One of my favorite movies of all time. Always remembered it from early days and seem to be the only person I know who has seen it. Recently discovered on dvd and have loaned to all my friends. Guess I'm still the only one I know who loves it.
