The Abominable Dr. Phibes is a 1971 horror film starring Vincent Price. Its art deco sets, dark humor and "over the top" performance by Price has made the film and its sequel Dr. Phibes Rises Again "camp" classics.
Anton Phibes, a famous organist with doctorates in Music and Theology was thought to have been killed in a car crash in 1921 while rushing to the side of his sick wife, Victoria. He in fact survived the crash but was horribly disfigured. He fashions himself a wig and lifelike mask to hide his injuries, and using his musical expertise creates a system whereby he can speak through a hose connecting his windpipe to a gramophone. When Phibes discovers that his wife had died on the operating table he is convinced that she was a victim of incompetent doctors, and spends several years planning a vendetta against those who operated on her, and begins killing them in 1925.
Inspector Trout suspects Phibes, but finds little support from Scotland Yard. Trout is also hindered by the incompetence of his police force. Eventually Dr. Vesalius, head of the team of doctors that operated on Phibes's wife, begins to believe inspector Trout is right and aids him in the hunt for Phibes.
Using various highly imaginative methods, Dr. Phibes kills seven doctors and a nurse with the help of his beautiful and silent female assistant Vulnavia (played by actress Virginia North). He has reserved the final punishment for Dr. Vesalius. He kidnaps the doctor's son and places him on a table on which a container full of acid is waiting to destroy the boy's face. A small key implanted near the boy's heart will free him, but Vesalius must perform the surgery within six minutes to get the key before the acid falls. The operation succeeds and the acid instead strikes Vulnavia.
Convinced he has accomplished his vendetta, Phibes retreats to a stone sarcophagus beside the embalmed body of his wife. As he drains out his own blood and replaces it with embalming fluid the coffin's inlaid stone lid slides into place, concealing them both in darkness. Trout and the police arrive and discover that Phibes has mysteriously disappeared. Trout and Vesalius recall that the "final curse" was darkness and they speculate that they will encounter Phibes again.
[edit] The Ten Plagues of Egypt
Dr. Phibes takes his inspiration for the murders from the Old Testament, the Ten plagues of Egypt:
- Boils: Prof. Thornton is stung to death by bees (not shown, only referred to during the film)
- Bats: Dr. Dunwoody is mauled to death by bats
- Frogs: Dr. Hargreaves's (who is not really a surgeon; just a psychiatrist) throat is crushed by a mechanical mask of a frog
- Blood: Dr. Longstreet has all the blood drained out of his body
- Hail: Dr. Hedgepath is frozen to death by a machine spewing ice
- Rats: Dr. Kitaj crashes his plane when attacked by rats
- Beasts: Dr. Whitcombe is impaled by a brass unicorn head
- Locusts: Nurse Allen is eaten by locusts
- Death of the first born: Phibes kidnaps and attempts to kill Dr. Vesalius's son Lem
- Darkness: At the ambiguous ending of the film, Phibes drains the blood from his own body while injecting embalming fluid, apparently joining his wife in death.
[edit] Production notes
- Robert Fuest rewrote most of the original screenplay. One of the few scenes to remain as scripted was one in which Trout consults a rabbi and first learns of the curses. Some original plot lines and sequences that were altered or eliminated:
- Phibes was to be much more violent in the original script, abusing Vulnavia, smashing furniture, etc. The filmmakers ultimately decided to make the character more sympathetic.
- The victim of the plague of rats was to be attacked on a boat rather than in a plane. It was changed as most people's reaction was, "Why couldn't he just jump off the boat?"
- Vulnavia was going to be revealed as another one of Phibes' clockwork devices (he has a clockwork band called "Dr. Phibes' Clockwork Wizards.")
- Phibes was originally to kill Vulnavia and then escape his house (which was to catch fire) in a hot air balloon with Victoria's body.
- In order for Joseph Cotten to know his cues, Phibes' dialogue was read aloud by a crew-member.
- Price commented that Cotten was uncomfortable doing these scenes, so he intentionally pulled a lot of faces to make him laugh.
- Vincent Price went through hours of make up, which often had to be reapplied as he kept laughing.
- The name "Vesalius" is a reference to Andreas Vesalius, a Flemish scientist who cut up corpses to learn about the workings of the body.
- The film was followed by a sequel, Dr. Phibes Rises Again, in 1972. Several other possible sequels were planned, including Dr. Phibes in the Holy Land, The Brides of Phibes and The Seven Fates of Dr. Phibes, but none were made.
- Incredibly, Dr. Phibes wife, played by the beautiful '70's supermodel, Caroline Munro, was excluded from the film's credits.
- The film - considered a high quality theatrical release in its day in the early '70's - is marred by several unintentionally hilarious imperfections that would never get by film quality auditors today. For example, during the bat scene, notice the plastic bats hanging from fishing line, clearly visible in the print. In the airplane murder of Dr. Kitaj by rats, he was attacked by no more than eight rats - hardly enough such rodents to kill a man. See the execution of Al Martin in Willard.
[edit] Critical reception
Critic Christopher Null wrote of the film, "One of the '70s juiciest entries into the horror genre, The Abominable Dr. Phibes is Vincent Price at his campy best, a former doctor and concert organist (go figure that one out yourself) who is exacting revenge on the nine doctors he blames for botching his wife's surgery, which ended with her death. Through a series of tortuous means that would make a Bond villain green with envy, the hideous Phibes is matched by Joseph Cotten as the doc at the end of the road. A crazy script and an awesome score make this a true classic."[1]
- The film opens with War March of the Priests (Mendelssohn) flamboyantly played by Dr. Phibes on a grand organ.
- The succession of murders is accompanied by period music including "Charmaine", "Darktown Strutters Ball" (sung by Paul Frees), "You Stepped out of a Dream", "Close Your Eyes" and "Elmer's Tune".
- The film also features a version of the Johnny Mercer hit "One For My Baby (And One More For The Road)" (sung by Scott Peters)
- "Over the Rainbow" closes the film over the end credits.
- The horror-punk band "The Misfits" has a song by the name of 'The Abominable Dr. Phibes'. It is a shortened version of the "Kryst the Conqueror" song 'Dr. Phibes Rises Again'. 'Kryst' was a post original Misfits band featuring brothers Jerry (long time founding member bassist of the Misfits) and Doyle (guitarist). The extended song was rerecorded by the Misfits with Michale Graves singing, on the album "Cuts from the Crypt".
- Punk and Goth pioneers, The Damned pay tribute to Dr Phibes on the track "13th Floor vendetta" from the 1980 "Black Album", The song opens with the lines " the organ plays to midnight on maldine Square tonight"
- Italian deathrock band Madre del Vizio has songs named "Dr. Phibes" and "Il Retorno del Dr. Phibes".
- German ska band The Busters released a song namend "Dr. Phibes" on their 2004 album "Revolution Rock". It is an instrumental with the organ as the main instrument, including a long organ solo.
- British heavy metal band Angel Witch released a song entitled "Dr. Phibes".
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