7 Faces of Dr. Lao
Dr. Lao brings his circus into a small western town where the exhbits give the residents a glimpse of themselves. Tony Randall plays six roles in the film in addition to Dr. Lao. There’s a love story between widow Angela Benedict (Barbara Eden) and Ed Cunningham (John Ericson) the local newspaperman. There’s the evil guy, Clint Stark (Arthur O’Connel), who, knowing a railroad is coming through town, is trying to buy out the residents. Lao, as the all-knowing, all-seeing, maginc conjourer comes to town to make things right and ensure that everyone lives happily ever after, which, of course, they do.
I had hopes for this as it was done by George Pal who also did the excellent The Time Machine, the not-excellent-but-still-good War of the Worlds, and the pretty good When Worlds Collide. But this just falls flat. I can’t see Tony Randall as anything but Tony Randall and no amount of makeup can make him appear as anyone other than Tony Randall. The story was weak, full of every cliche western character out there, including the kid that can’t act his way out of a wet paper bag.
During most of the film, I was half expecting Gene Wilder to come riding in from the distance. But some of the individual scenes had some merit, especially the Barbara Eden-Pan scene, but otherwise this is definitely a pass.
; would not watch again.
