Warner Archive’s ‘7 Faces Of Dr. Lao’ Reviewed
by Rachel Bellwoar
Warner Archive provided me with a free copy of the Blu-Ray I reviewed in this article. The opinions I share are my own.
Tony Randall may have seven faces, but the one he appears with the most in George Pal‘s 7 Faces of Dr. Lao is that of the title character — the face of a Chinese ringmaster. Now, had Victor Sen Yung (The Letter), Jack Soo (Barney Miller), or another Asian American actor been cast as the lead, then the conversation about this movie could revolve around the surprisingly dark and sophisticated screenplay by Charles Beaumont and Ben Hecht. Instead, Randall — a white man who shouldn’t be doing any of these these things — was put in the position and agreed to play a Chinese character who occasionally speaks pidgin English. Yellowface isn’t new to movies, but 1964 is a late example for it. Another option would’ve been to stray further from Charles C. Finney‘s source novel with this adaptation and eliminate or replace Dr. Lao with another character. None of the other faces are race-based, so Randall’s casting wouldn’t have raised objections.
It’s impossible to ignore this aspect of 7 Faces of Dr. Lao, nor should it be ignored. But outside of this central casting choice, it is a really fascinating movie centering on a businessman named Clinton Stark (Arthur O’Connell), who’s trying to cajole the people of Abalone into selling their land to him. Stark, of course, claims he’s doing them a favor — fixing their broken pipe wouldn’t be worth the expense; much better to move away then try and save their small town.
Opposing him is a newcomer to Abalone and journalist named Ed (John Ericson). He tries to convince his neighbors that there’s something fishy about Stark’s proposition, but gets branded as a “troublemaker” instead. Enter the magical Dr. Lao and his one-man circus to confront the people of Abalone with the hard truths they’ve been avoiding.
Stark has all the makings to be a cardboard villain, but he’s anything but. A former idealist turned cynic, he seems to relish the competition Ed poses rather than let his path to victory be too easy.
To focus again on the writing for Dr. Lao, there’s some clever commentary about code switching and how Lao will suddenly be speaking perfect English after having given the impression (and playing into expectations) that he can only speak it brokenly.
As far as the special effects are concerned, with animation wizard Pal as director and MGM head makeup artist William Tuttle on the faces, there’s no question that Randall is properly disguised. Of the faces, the Abominable Snowman might be the least expressive (which is probably why he gets the least screen time), whereas the most narrative tension comes from Appollonius, the fortune teller who refuses to sugarcoat the future. Meanwhile, the Great Serpent provides Pal with the opportunity to showcase some stop-motion animation.
7 Faces of Dr. Lao has a lot to say about human foibles and features a great supporting cast, including I Dream of Jeannie‘s Barbara Eden as a single mom/librarian, Angela, and brilliant character actor Royal Dano as one of Stark’s goons.
Warner Archive’s Blu-ray comes with a Tom and Jerry cartoon (“The Cat Above and the Mouse Below”) in which Jerry gets to be the villain for a change as he tries to sabotage Tom’s opera performance. There’s also a must-watch archival behind-the-scenes featurette of Tuttle being interviewed by Wayne Thomas and demonstrating some of his process for making molds of actors’ faces.
7 Faces of Dr. Lao is on sale now from Warner Archive and to purchase from Movie Zyng.
