The Abominable Dr. Phibes

Plot synopsis:
Dr. Anton Phibes was an expert in theology and music who was supposedly killed in a car crash in 1921, shortly after the death of his beloved wife, Victoria, during an operation. However, he survived the crash, horribly scarred by the accident and left unable to speak, forcing him to remake his face with prosthetics and use his knowledge of acoustics to regain his voice. Resurfacing in 1925, Phibes believes that his wife died a victim of incompetent doctors, and begins elaborate plans to kill them.
Phibes begins his quest for vengeance with the help of his beautiful and silent female assistant Vulnavia, using the ten plagues of Egypt as a basis, wearing an amulet with Hebrew letters corresponding with the appropriate plagues as he commits the murders. After three doctors are killed, Inspector Trout, a detective from Scotland Yard, learns that they had all worked together under the direction of Dr. Vesalius, who reveals that all of the deceased had been on his team in Victoria's case, as well as four other doctors and a nurse. When another murder is reported, Trout suspects Phibes is alive, and he and Vesalius go to the Phibes mausoleum at Highgate Cemetery. They find ashes in a box in Phibes' coffin, which Trout believes are the remains of Phibes' chauffeur; Victoria's coffin is empty.
Despite all of the police's best efforts, Phibes is able to kill the remaining doctors and the nurse. Reserving the final punishment for Dr. Vesalius, he kidnaps the doctor's son, Lem, then calls Vesalius and tells him to come alone to his mansion on Maldene Square if he wants to save his son's life. Despite Trout's protests, Vesalius knocks the inspector unconscious and immediately races to Phibes' mansion, where he confronts the mad doctor. Phibes has placed Vesalius' son under anesthesia and prepared him for surgery; a small key implanted near the boy's heart will unlock his restraints, but Vesalius must perform the surgery within six minutes (the same amount of time Victoria was on the operating table before her death) to get the key before acid from a container above Lem's head falls and destroys his face. Vesalius succeeds and moves the table out of the way; Vulnavia, backing away from the police, is sprayed with the acid instead.
Convinced he has accomplished his vendetta, Phibes retreats to the basement of his house to lie in the stone sarcophagus containing the embalmed body of his wife. He drains out his own blood and replaces it with embalming fluid as 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.

Tags: comedy, murder, cult, horror, atmospheric, revenge

Review:
Joseph Cotton in one of his best post-60's roles, here perfectly in character as a god-like doctor (particularly in the final operation sequence).There's also the Art Deco set design which many have oohed and ahhed over in here and elsewhere.The British cops are a bit too humorous, and there's not really a lot of background here.
Price has played many roles in the style of this character, but this is his best and I'd even go as far as to say that this is the quintessential Price performance.The plot of The Abominable Dr Phibes follows the man of the title as he gets revenge on the doctors that he believes killed his wife after she was fatally injured in a tragic car accident (the same accident that got Phibes his own injuries).
The story revolves around a dead-like "Dr. Phibes" playing his organ, directing music, dancing and ceremoniously killing off the surgeons who failed to fix his wife after a car accident.
PHIBES, after avoiding it for so many years because of THEATRE OF BLOOD, which I absolutely hated and since the stories for both films resemble each other and that the star of both films is Vincent Price, I had no desire to see THE ABOMINABLE DR.
I can't tell you how much fun I had watching DR PHIBES go about killing his victims in morbid but ingenious ways, along with the help of his beautiful and funny assistant, Vulnavia, with everything culminating in a truly suspenseful climax and an ending that left me giggling and smiling.
Well made horror movie full of black humor and a bit of gore where numerous people meet horrible deaths by a despicable avenger named Doctor Phibes (exceptional Vincent Price), causing wreak havoc and bizarre murders wherever he goes .
After being disfigured in a car crash , Phibes decides to seeks revenge against the members of a surgical team (whose chief is Joseph Cotten) and he seems to dispatch new weird death , committing inventive crimes and killing every few minutes of the movie with the assistance of his lovely companion ( a delectable Virginia North).
Camp terror movie with charismatic performance of excellent protagonists , Vincent Price and Joseph Cotten , and all around with special mention to Peter Jeffrey as intelligent Inspector .
It's followed by a good sequel titled ¨Dr Phibes rises again¨ again by Robert Fuest and Vincent Price in which Phibes attempts to revive his beloved wife and going on vengeance on those he thinks responsible for her death ..
Vincent Price plays Dr. Phibes, a man hell-bent on getting revenge for the death of his beloved wife.
This splendid black comedy has a virtually identical plot to a more celebrated Vincent Price classic of two years later, 'Theatre of Blood' - a cultivated and artistic madman, perceiving himself wronged (in this case, the failure of the medical profession to save his dying wife) sets out to systematically and elaborately revenge himself on those responsible - nine surgeons.
Vincent Price plays Dr. Phibes, a man bent on seeking vengeance (of biblical proportions!) against each member of the surgical team that was operating on his wife when she died.
The cast is outstanding, featuring Vincent Price as the title character, Terry-Thomas and Joseph Cotton as two doctors, and Virginia North as Phibes' mysterious silent assistant.
Vincent Price is spectacular as Dr. Phibes, a deranged organ player who seeks his revenge on the surgeons he believes are responsible for his wife's death.
Classic horror film starring Vincent Price as a man seeking revenge on the doctors he holds responsible for his beloved wife's death.
Well-directed with a clever script, beautiful sets, and a great cast that includes Price in one of his best roles, the great Joseph Cotten as one of the would-be victims, Virginia North as the lovely Vulnavia, and Peter Jeffrey as the police inspector who gets many of the film's funniest moments.
Believed dead but instead in hiding and seriously p****d, Phibes begins to hunt down and imaginatively murder the nine doctors he holds responsible for failing to save his wife, building up to Dr. Versalius (Joseph Cotten), in the style of the Ten Plagues of Egypt from the Old Testament.It would be easy and indeed lazy to label Dr. Phibes as camp.
It's deliciously free-spirited, never allowing something like logic to get in the way of fun, acid-trip horror.It shares a lot in terms of narrative with the superior Theatre of Blood (1973) - which is often labelled Dr. Phibes 3 by it's fans - so the film is little more than murder after murder.
Vincent Price plays the good Dr. Phibes, who was hideously scarred in an auto accident while rushing home after his wife died in an operation.
How wrong I was!Vincent Price Plays Dr.Anton Phibes a man who was presumed dead following a car accident after the Death of his beloved Wife on the operating table.
But low and behold Dr. Phibes isn't dead although is terribly scarred and can only speak with the help of a grammaphone, and decides to have revenge on the Doctors he believes Killed his wife.Price's performance is outstanding - hilarious one minute and scary the next, but thankfully he plays it tongue-in-cheek as do his co-stars Including Joseph Cotten,Terry-Thomas among the Doctors and Peter Jeffrey as the Det. leading the investigationDon't just dismiss this as a Obscure,awful British B-Movie- It deserves better!Follwed by a sequel.My Rating *** out of ***** or 7/10.
Each surgeon is killed according to the ten curses of the Pharaoh from the Old Testament, which include killer bats, rats, bees and locusts.A highly enjoyable camp horror with a number of memorable sequences including the opening where Price emerges from the ground in a sinister black cape at the consul of his art-deco cinema organ.
Vincent Price as Phibes and Joseph Cotton as Dr Vesalius, the head surgeon who the madman is reserving until last and Peter Jeffery as the hapless Inspector Trout all score in their roles.Dr Phibes Rises Again emerged in 1972, which saw the mad doctor resurrected along with his beautiful henchman Vulnavia and the pair headed for Egypt in order to discover the Elixir of life, which would enable Phibes to revive his wife.
Using the plagues of Egypt as his inspiration, the Abominable Dr. Phibes exacts revenge upon the doctors who allowed his beloved and beautiful wife (the stunning Caroline Munro, seen here only as a lovely portrait) to die on the operating table during what should have been a routine procedure.
Assisted by his silent and sinfully pretty assistant Vulnavia, Dr. Phibes creates some of the most bizarre and creative methods of murder ever seen on film!There's a frog mask which slowly shrinks and eventually crushes it's wearer to death whilst a happy ragtime jazz song plays in the background.
This film never takes itself too seriously and is an absolute riot to watch, a fantastically brilliant black comedy that should not be missed by horror fans, especially fans of the late great Vincent.
The eponymous Phibes (Vincent Price) takes revenge for the death of his wife by murdering her surgeons one by one, using as his modus operandi the Biblical plagues of Egypt.
The movie is right up there with "Theater of Blood" as among the best things Price did.If you like horror films and haven't yet seen this entertainingly bizarre classic, give it a whirl..
The score by Basil Kichin and the exquisite Deco/Bauhaus sets by Brian Eatwell (done with inimitable British style on a shoestring) have a lot to do with how beautiful this film looks and sounds, as does the cinematography and the role of the neglected genius Robert Fuest at the helm.This film inspired a whole cycle of revenge thrillers in the early Seventies, many of them starring Vincent Price.
Probably the best one after the original was 1973's Theatre of Blood, thanks to his support from Diana Rigg and a whole roster of the great and good in British theatre, among them Coral Browne, who was to become his wife after they worked together on this film.In 1973 plans for a third Phibes film (featuring the good Doctor's encounter with Hitler) were scrapped because of the star's dissatisfaction with studio-dictated cuts to the sequel.
a horribly disfigured doctor, (we do not see his ghastly face till the end), anton phibes, survives the car accident his wife was killed in and, following the Ten Plagues of the Old Testament, takes stylish vengeance on the nine doctors guilty of letting her die on the operating table.
phibes is basically a twisted genius who lives in a surreal world of his own making, inhabiting(if my memory serves me) an abandoned mansion in which, like the phantom of the opera, he pounds on his organ and plots his deadly revenge against the doctors who let his beloved wife die.
Price gives one of his best performances as Dr. Phibes, a doctor revenging his wife's death by killing the 9 who let her die.
Dr. Phibes is a former doctor turned mad organist...and killer.Alongside his partner, Vulnavia, he has been targeting a group of doctors who once worked under one Doctor Vulsalias.For each victim Phibes possesses an amulet (that contains a hebrew symbol); which he places upon a wax bust of their image upon their death, that he then melts with a blowtorch.The detective investigating the recent spate of deaths eventually figures out that these Hebrew symbols represent the ten curses placed upon the land of the Pharaohs in Jewish folklore.And that they seem to be lining up with the causes of these recent deaths.Turns out that Vulnavia was the love of Phibes' life- who died on the operating table under the care of these now dying or already deceased doctors.A total of eight doctors (and one nurse) had worked on the case; so- with Phibes thought to be dead- the detectives race to find the culprit and solve the case, before those still alive become victims, themselves.But there were ten amulets, so that leaves the final curse- Darkness- unfulfilled upon the conclusion of the film.Thus spawning the sequal Dr. Phibes Rises Again.It would also go on to inspire Theatre Of Blood (which also featured Price)- in that the plot revolves around a mistaken death; 9 victims; and kills based on deaths in Shakespeare plays, to equate with how this film uses the Hebrew curses.The scenery in this film has a cool Art Deco look that nicely compliments the mood of the film; and it's soundtrack, which consists of 1920's source music alongside 1940's jazz standards (despite the film being set in the 20's).The special effects in this are pretty basic- and some of the kills are pretty implausible- but Phibes' make-up is rad.And the costumes Vulnavia wears are pretty great.It may not be the best horror film of the era- with Price typecast in his House Of Wax role, yet again- but it's influential in it's own right.And quite enjoyable.5.5 out of 10..
Following a strange rash of deaths, a police inspector realizes that the deaths were all of the men were in the employment of a doctor who let a distinguished professor's wife die in their care and sets out to stop him from continuing his plan of revenge against them.This here is a classic by any means of the word, and easily one of Price's best films.
Freaky Fun. I wasn't expecting much from this movie and I was pleasantly surprised.This was the first horror movie I watched in awhile that actually made some sense and wasn't full of plot holes.While the cops in the movie did say and do some dumb stuff.Like saying to double check the bats for rabies after they killed a guy.Would they give rabies shots to a corpse?Besides little things like that it wasn't too bad.I'm not sure if I have ever seen any other Vincent Price movies but I was assuming everything he did was cheesy and this definitely wasn't.It was a good story and it wasn't boring.There was too much bad music but the story makes up for it.
It is Vincent Price in a diabolically campy performance as Dr. Phibes, out to avenge his wife's death.
Nine shall die, nine eternities in doom!" Nicely put there.The British black vein comic-strip horror "The Abominable Dr. Phibes" is a flamboyant soap opera bathing itself in decorative camp (stunningly fabricated set-designs and inventively devised deaths) and a blown-up turn by Vincent Price.
The Abominable Dr.Phibes is up there among the best horror films Vincent Price starred in.
That said, this is still a superb tongue-in-cheek horror.Price is Dr.Phibes, a Ph.D. in music and theology who seeks revenge against the nine doctors involved in the operation in which his late beloved wife passed away.
Still, we get to see beautiful Virginia North in some eye-popping costumes and hear some great old music--but that's not what I look for in horror films.The acting is good too--Price can't move a muscle in his face but still manages to overact (amusingly) with his voice; Peter Jeffrey is LOTS of fun as Inspector Trout; Joseph Cotton gives a very good performance as one of the doctors and North doesn't have a word of dialogue but looks stunning and plays her part completely straight-faced.
Not A Nice Man. Vincent Price is diabolically amusing as Dr. Anton Phibes, who is systematically murdering the nine doctors he blames for screwing up his wife's operation, resulting in her death.
It's films such as The Abominable Dr. Phibes that so clearly illustrate what a giant of the horror genre Vincent Price truly was.
The movie was so successful they made some kind of sequel called "theater of blood" which was,IMHO ,even better for Shakespeare was more inspiring than the plagues of Egypt and also because the hero had a more talented co-star in the shape of Dame Diana Rigg .But "Phibes" was the first one -although it owes ,like lots of other movies ,a good deal to Agatha Christie and "and then there were none" -and is a must for any horror buff;the crimes are ,so to speak,imaginative and you will know where the "Saw" writers found some of their better ideas when you see the scene of the operation;although American,Joseph Cotten has got the British stiff upper lip;the police never lose their composure amids all those horrors and brilliantly fail to prevent the good doctor from doing away with those who botched their work some years back..
The police are always one step behind, too late to prevent any of the killings, each accomplished in a very stylized way with a devilish flair of imagination (highly contrived, of course, in true horror movie fashion).Cotten is the last victim on Phibe's list and his fate is saved for the last segment in the film as he is forced on a mission to save his son from certain death.
Vincent Price plays Dr. Phibes, a cryptic jack-of-all-trades whose wife was killed by a team of nine doctors.
good but a little bit overrated but not by much this has some great Black comedy and camp humor in it and i cant say enough about Vincent Price performance it is just wonderful and it is one of the best performances in his career there is actually a lot of blood in this movie and lots of disturbing and strange deaths the rest of the acting is solid and steady as we see Dr.Phibes hideous deformed and decaying face that actually made me flinch and does not very often make me do that now there are a few things in here that i didn't like at first there is too much dialog and most of it is uninteresting but still this is a good horror flick that i do recommend the directing is pretty stylish the sets costumes are magnificent and it is also visually stunning you can see all the embalming fluid bottles all filled up (yuck) see it *** out of 5.
Demented organist Dr. Phibes murders the surgeons he blames for the death of his wife, with each killing based on the biblical plagues visited on the Pharoahs.In many ways, Dr. Phibes can be seen as a practise run for my favourite Vincent Price movie, the brilliant Theatre of Blood: as in Theatre, Price's protagonist is an unhinged individual, presumed dead by the authorities, who exacts revenge on the group of people he believes have wronged him by carrying out a series of highly inventive, 'themed' murders; the tone of both films is almost identical—haunting, macabre, and with a camp streak a mile wide; and like Theatre, The Phibes movies feature great supporting casts, including many faces familiar from 70s British TV and film.Phibes never quite reaches the level of magnificence achieved by Theatre of Blood—Price's camp style is still a work in progress, the preposterous death scenes aren't quite as well orchestrated, and there is a distinct lack of comical gore—but there is still plenty to enjoy in director Fuest's innovative direction, Norman Warwick's colourful cinematography, the quirky, anachronistic design, which cleverly combines the styles of both the 1930s and 1970s to surreal effect, and the very dark, tongue-in-cheek humour (best line: "I think it's a left hand thread").The horror audiences of the time certainly thought so, for Price returned the very next year for the rather disappointing sequel, Dr. Phibes Rises Again..
It's great to see Vincent Price with an altered screen presence - in this film, he plays a mad doctor who has adapted his way of speaking following a disabling accident.
******** The Abominable Dr. Phibes (1971) Robert Fuest ~ Vincent Price, Joseph Cotten, Virginia North.
The story is pretty basic about a man calling himself Dr. Phibes (Vincent Price) who seeks revenge for the death of his wife and his own disfigurement.
The role of Dr. Phibes is played by none other than the one and only Vincent Price, and his performance here (even though all of his dialogue was pre- recorded) proves just how irreplaceable the man truly was.