To me, this was a combination fantasy, comedy and story with a moral (or rather, several) that genuinely worked for the most part, which is a tricky thing. I'm sure there's been criticism (even before it became COMPLETELY popular to do this) about having a non-Chinese actor play the part (just as there's been with "Kung Fu", a show that strangely resembles this story). But Tony Randall, and his make-up, were so good, that there hardly seems reason for it. (Even the thick accent the character used part of the time was really another one of his disguises, not even meant to be his real voice.) So, whether it's called "political correctness", or something else, criticizing this movie (or Kung Fu itself) for THAT reason seems really off the point. One scene (though I'm sure it's been gone into here) that temporarily takes it out of the "family film" category is the "Pan" scene with Barbara Eden, which shows how "hot" a scene can be, in the middle of a completely different kind of story. But one thing that doesn't always seem to be mentioned is that Pan is played by TWO actors, first by Randall himself, and then by John Ericson, because the whole scene is about her "suppressed" feelings for the Ericson character. If there's one part that's a fly in the ointment to me (and unfortunately, it's a pretty big part), it's the "Atlantis" story that Dr. Lao shows as a kind of movie at the circus. Compared to all the other little "lessons" in the story, I think this one was pretty heavy-handed. And there was the kind of depressing scene between the Lee Patrick character and "Apollonius", but it doesn't stand out in the same way. At least that scene had the great line, "I only read futures, I don't evaluate them."
Review of 7 Faces of Dr. Lao
