The bizarre children’s fantasy written exclusively for the screen by Theodore “Dr. Seuss” Geisel (his only feature screenplay). Ever been forced as a kid into music lessons that you didn’t want to take? Here’s your story, told as an Expressionist dream that’s half-nightmare. It’s a cousin to The Wizard of Oz, but its effect is closer to a kiddie Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. In dreams, a little boy’s stuffy piano teacher (a great Hans Conried) becomes a snarling villain who lords over dungeons and torture chambers for kids who slack on their lessons. Meanwhile, the boy’s good-hearted single mother is a duped accomplice and a friendly plumber is his sidekick in the struggle. The outrageous sets here are still eye-catching and the story’s wicked imagination ages well. In 1953 though, it bombed all around. It was so unpopular that Geisel himself disowned it and never bothered with the movie business again. Bosley Crowther—the New York Times critic who wrote negative reviews at the time of so many American cult movies of the 1950s and 60s—criticized it partly for “dismally lacking in humor or the enchantment that such an item should contain”. In a way, I see Crowther’s point (though I disagree that the film is humorless). After all, today this lives on as a favorite among adults who enjoy the wild and weird, as opposed to being a family classic. Maybe in 1953, not many saw the value in that.
1953 was a good year for offbeat films from a child’s point of view. The original Invaders From Mars is less surreal than this, but bears a similar Expressionist touch. Then, there’s The Little Fugitive, the proto-verite independent classic about a little boy lost and alone at a Coney Island amusement park.