Tom Thumb

George Pal – 1958 – USA

Though at times intolerably saccharine, even by the standards of children’s programming, George Pal’s Tom Thumb has just enough bite to keep the interest of a serious viewer.  [Pal might have been better off continuing to allow seasoned journeyman directors to helm his productions, though, as he had so successfully on things like Destination: Moon (1950) and War of the Worlds (1953).]  The ever-leaping, ever-back-flipping Russ Tamblyn plays Tom.  He may be a wee bit too old for the part, but no child actors were likely capable of the death-defying gymnastics that Tamblyn pulls off.  Of course, the major highlight of the film is the famous sequence when all of the toys in Tom’s room – (his adopted siblings) – come to life when the parents go to bed and sing and dance with him.  Another major plus is the presense of the great Peter Sellers and the gleefully smarmy Terry-Thomas as the film’s villains.  A true fairy tale put on film, and certainly a forerunner of Pal’s much more ambitious outing in the same genre, 1962’s The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm.