The Abominable Dr. Phibes
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Movie Reviews of The Abominable Dr. Phibes
Movie Review: Campy horror film offers much on so little.
Summary: 3 Stars
During the height of his film career, expatriate actor Vincent Price played a variety of different roles, but excelled in oily or despicable characters. Witness, for instance, the role of effete Shelby Carpenter in the Otto Preminger classic, 1944's "Laura." But as the 1960's approached, Price was relegated to portraying loathsome villains in a string of low-budget horror films. Still, this gave the actor life, as he proved that his face and that famous creepy voice gave longevity to a career that would have long since been terminated for most other actors who chose the road Price took.Price would take the pigeon-holing in stride with 1971's "Abominable Dr. Phibes", and make the movie and its subsequent sequel, "Dr. Phibes Rises Again", camp horror classics. This low-budget film is saved almost entirely by the fact that Price breathes life into the menacing Dr. Anton Phibes, a chemist with a flair for music who wreaks his own unique brand of vengeance on a number of doctors he felt was responsible for botching an operation on his wife, Victoria, leading to her early demise. The film takes place in the early part of the twentieth century, a number of years after Victoria's death. Phibes, a resident of London, was away on the Continent when he was notified of Victoria's passing; en route to London, he was ostensibly killed in a car accident. However, Phibes did manage to survive, and used the fact that he was presumed to be dead to his advantage in planning the destruction of all the doctors responsible for robbing him of his wife's love, in private.
Phibes uses the ten plagues of Egypt, as documented in the Bible's Old Testament book of "Exodus", as the blueprint for the ways in which his victims would die. Inspector Trout (played by Peter Jeffrey) is assigned the case of the second victim, who was killed in his bed by a swarm of marauding bats. He begins to see the pattern, and goes about trying to protect the surviving physicians, including the head surgeon in charge of Victoria Phibes, Dr. Vesalius (Joseph Cotten).
Trout stumbles about through the course of the film, as the nefarious Phibes manages to to inflict each of the plagues on his victims with seeming impunity. Indeed, Trout is a bit of a bumbler, and the machinations of his boss, Goldsmith, don't make his job any easier. Even funnier, Goldsmith insists on calling Trout "Pike"! Meanwhile, his elusive quarry is always a step ahead in his murderous mission. You see, Phibes, as it turns out, has other reasons to be angry: He was disfigured horribly in the crash, and wears elaborate make-up to give himself some semblance of human appearance. In one scene, where he cavorts with his silent accomplice, Vulnavia, he drinks a glass of wine through a hole in his neck! Still, we see traces of Phibes' humanity as he talks to a picture of Victoria, and tells her that his murders are done to avenge her death, and when he has finished, he will join her on the other side. To insure this, Phibes has exhumed his wife's body, keeping it preserved with embalming fluid in the mansion's cavernous basement.
As with most low-budget films, the special effects are downright horrible. On DVD, the cheapness of the effects is magnified significantly. For instance, in the scene where one of the doctors is attacked by bats, you can clearly see the string propelling one of the winged creatures as it dives in for an attack! Equally appalling is the unconvincing make-up of the skeletal face of Phibes, as he reveals his true self near the end; it seems to have been applied by a trowel. The camp quality is also essential in allowing the viewer to not take what he/she sees so seriously; Phibes has his mansion decorated even more gaudily than Liberace could have dreamed up for his home, as a mannequin big band play accompaniment to Phibes' more whimisical moods. Watch as set curtains fall as the music plays, and Vulnavia arrives to dance with the evil doctor in his spacious parlor.
It is the dark humor and Price's eerie, oozy charm that make the movie such a B-film classic. Only "The Rocky Horror Picture Show" has surpassed the "Phibes" duo in reaching a pinnacle of B-movie exalted status. Certainly, "Abominable Dr. Phibes" would not win any awards in any era, but makes for a great Hallowe'en treat. It may just be a refreshing change from the plethora of emasculating slasher films so prevalent in the film world. I'll take Vincent Price's brand of horror any day.
The DVD's picture is actually quite decent, as one would expect from an MGM production, as much as one made on a shoestring budget can be. There aren't any extras, either, save for the original theatrical trailer. There's no booklet accompanying the DVD, but for the cost, it is worth having in your collection.
Movie Review: It's not "Rises Again," but it'll do in a pinch.
Summary: 3 Stars
The Abominable Dr. Phibes (Robert Fuest, 1971)
I have to make a confession that will probably scandalize most film snobs; I've always preferred the sequel, Dr. Phibes Rises Again, to The Abominable Dr. Phibes. Still, this one is not without its charm.
The Abominable Dr. Phibes was on the cutting edge of extreme horror back in the early seventies. It was almost unspeakably graphic for its time, and even today, in this age of high-tech CGI horror, it still has the power to startle on a fairly regular basis. Phibes (played by the immortal Vincent Price) is a concert organist who was horribly disfigured in an auto accident in which his wife was killed. Phibes sets out to exact revenge on the nine people he considers responsible for his wife's death, finding extraordinary and yet appropriate ways to kill each that mirror the plagues of the old testament.
It's pretty obvious that, while the structure and plot have nothing to do with Romero's classic Night of the Living Dead, the guys who came up with this had watched that movie a whole lot of times beforehand. The in-your-face gore attitude was exclusive to Romero in Western cinema at this point; the gialli hadn't quite caught on yet, and Argento's films from this period are, compared to his later work, positively restrained. (Fulci was still doing Westerns at this point.) As well, the ending, which can be categorized at the time as "anti-Hollywood," is also straight out of the Romero playbook. Phibes' singleminded obsession with his goal is also Romero-like, in a way, though it also traces back to the classic noir films of the forties and fifties. (One could also draw a parallel between Vincent Price being in The Last Man on Earth, based on Richard Matheson's brilliant novel I Am Legend, and Romero and Russo also using that novel as a basis for Night of the Living Dead, but that would probably be stretching the point, wouldn't it?) It's great to see the same basic thematic structure coming to fruition in two entirely different films and both of them being worthwhile.
Price plays his role with an odd kind of enthusiastic detachment, which is exactly what it requires. His supporting cast is a bit more anemic, but are, at least, never less than amusing. Joseph Cotten, as one of Phibes' potential victims, is the real wild card here; he's normally a wonderful actor, and it's impossible to disguise his quality here, but he still seems out-of-place, almost lost in the role. Still, he does the best he can with it.
The movie's true draw, though, is its weirdness. It's the kind of thing that makes you wonder what everyone involved was smoking at the time they came up with it, and whether you can get some on short notice. It's like the crew that made all those great, cheesy Hammer flicks suddenly discovered the magic of LSD. It's a lot of fun, but as Dr. Phibes Rises Again shows, it was still something of a diamond in the rough; it's almost as if they'd gone too far out on the bleeding edge, and weren't exactly sure what to do with themselves when they got out there. Once they'd refined the ideas and gotten some firm ground under their feet, they made the second movie and really delivered the goods. Still, this movie is a good deal of fun. If you're a fan of the second and have never seen this-- which doesn't seem to get as much screen time on the movie channels as does the sequel-- it's definitely worth checking out. *** ½
Movie Review: "A BIT OF A LETDOWN"
Summary: 3 Stars
I recently rented this film, expecting it to be Price's crowning achievement as an actor. Instead, what I got was an entertaining, if slightly outdated and overly art-orientated B-movie. I am a fan of Price, having had the privledge to view such films as "Twice Told Tales," and "Bucket of Blood." While I did enjoy some of the death scenes, many of them have been re-used in more recent films--and, if I may add, in a better way (remember the scene in Exorcist III, involving a priest having all his blood transferred to little bottles?). Also, I was kind of dissappointed in the screenwriter's choice to take away Dr. Phibe's ability to speak. Always a staple of Price's movies, his eerie dialogue is virtually absent here. Furthermore, the "Phantom of the Opera" sequence after each death was a bit of an annoyance, and should have been edited out. On the back of the Midnite Movies edition, the Syracuse Herald-Journal raves that the film climaxes in what may be one of "the eeriest endings ever." Unfortunately, this cannot be further from the truth... Whereas I was led to expect a Hitchcockian type of twist, I instead recieved an unresolved conclusion that leaved the door open for the sequel. Injecting oneself with embalming fluid may have shocked audiences back in 1971; however, this type of act is hardly disturbing in the cinematic climate of the 00's.Movie Review: Surprisingly well-made horror nonsense
Summary: 3 Stars
This is an oddly captivating farrago of horror and comedy, with Vincent Price camping it up as the eponymous doctor, determined to wreak revenge on the surgeons under whom his wife died.
It's all rather gruesome and unpleasant, and yet at the same time, the film's dark, wicked sense of humour will surely raise a few laughs. Director Fuest milks the central character for all the pathos he can get, which only adds to the film's ironic undercurrent.
For its genre, The Abominable Dr Phibes is surprisingly well-made, with high production values, including splendid art-deco scenery by designer Brian Eatwell and a fitting score by jazz musician Basil Kirchin.
Movie Review: Good but not great
Summary: 3 Stars
I just bought the movie "Dr. Phibes" on DVD, I am a great fan of Price, and remembered watching the movie on the late, late, late movies. I enjoyed it but not as much as his "Theater of Blood". I only hope that this title comes out on DVD soon. The two movies are similar in that he creates wonderful ways to eliminate people who have wronged him.