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Sunday, February 17, 2019

TOM THUMB (1958)

After creating dozens of Animated Stop-Motion ‘Puppetoon’ shorts, George Pal moved up to Sci-Fi oriented features as Producer before hyphenating into Producer-Director on this Kiddie Musical Fantasy. No great shakes as story, little Tom Thumb seems to have spent a few matinees watching Walt Disney’s PINOCCHIO before joining childless couple Bernard Miles & Jessie Matthews as their very own little boy, getting involved with a pair of thieving scoundrels (Peter Sellers & Terry-Thomas), fulfilling a wish thanks to a materializing fairy, saving the day with his bravery . . . you get the idea. The playing is English Pantomime broad and a handful of mediocre songs go on ad infinitum. But worth a look for a fine-spun picture-book look from cinematographer Georges Périnal; the varied special-effects tricks (holding up pretty well or fanciful enough so you don’t mind spotting the seams); Russ Tamblyn’s athletic gusto as Tom (though he does put out a weird sexy vibe); and of course the liberal use of Pal’s signature ‘Puppetoons’ whether on their own or cleverly interacting with other elements inside the same frame. Fun, though today’s kids may well have moved on at an awfully young age.

DOUBLE-BILL: Pal’s next, THE TIME MACHINE/’60, is his best remembered; his last, 7 FACES OF DR. LAO/’64, his best. (Or is if you don’t mind Tony Randall in YellowFace as ancient, mythical Asian.) OR: For more late-‘50s analogue camera tricks in scaling a cast down to size, try DARBY O’GILL AND THE LITTLE PEOPLE/’59.

ATTENTION MUST BE PAID: One of two tunes written for the film by Peggy Lee, ‘Are You A Dream,’ is lip-synched by Alan Young. But who did the fine dubbing?

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