The Abominable Dr. Phibes

• Directed by Robert Fuest
• April 1971 (UK) / May 18, 1971 (US)

Inspired by the Ten Plagues of Egypt from the Old Testament, a man who blames the medical team that attended to his wife’s surgery four years prior for her death sets out to exact vengeance on each one.

The one great thing about Vincent Price is that no matter the time and no matter the film he always seemed to be enjoying his work. He liked his job and he liked what it allowed him to do. He was one of the great villain actors of all time and apparently in real life not only a nice guy but a fun person as well. His joy in his work elevated whatever he was doing

As Dr. Anton Phibes Price is absolutely delectable. The Abominable Dr. Phibes is a strange bit of early 70s filmmaking and one that would not have worked with any other performer of the time. Price gives Phibes a theatrical menace that makes the character a touch unsettling but once you learn his backstory Phibes is a little sympathetic as well. For the first portion of the film Phibes never speaks and much of what Price accomplishes with the character is done with expression. He was truly talented.

Aside from Price, in this film we have the great Joseph Cotten starring as Dr. Vesalius who was the head of the medical team that failed to save Phibes’s wife Victoria Regina Phibes (Caroline Munro). While Price gives his material camp mixed with seriousness, Cotten delivers his work as though it were fine dramatic material on par with anything else he may have done during his long and illustrious career. Despite the two different approaches it works. Cotton’s Vesalius starts out as concerned but builds to disturbed and then afraid as he realizes that he is not the next target for punishment but rather his son is.

Inspector Trout (Peter Jeffrey) and Sgt. Schenley (Norman Jones) are the main source of humor here. While not clueless, the unusual nature of the investigation and the case as well as their attempts to handle it is where the jokes arrive from. The legendary Terry-Thomas in keeping with what he was best known for portraying shows up as Dr. Longstreet. Longstreet’s death occurs after he watches a porn film and engages in a kink.

I need to mention Vulnavia (Virginia North). She is Phibes’s beautiful and speechless assistant. She’s the one that he sends out into the world and is often described by characters as not saying much when the inspectors interview them. During the course of the film she doesn’t say anything. The best we get is a scream at the end. The implication is that she is one of Phibes’s mechanical creations though truth be told then as now I could see that going either way. If she is actually a creation she is definitely a pinnacle of his work.

The design of The Abominable Dr. Phibes is very much a product of its time. Bright and garish colors and an excessive soundtrack that is only made more so because Phibes is an organist. They went all in. The look is like visual glam rock.

This film is a dark comedy though the jokes are not necessarily ones you bust out laughing at. You will smile and smirk and maybe chuckle but you will certainly see the humor in them. In that the best way I can put it is that this is a very British film. And there’s nothing wrong with that.

One thing The Abominable Dr. Phibes has going for it is that the kills are Biblically themed. Phibes decided to get revenge on the medical team that failed to save his wife who he considers to have murdered her and is using the plagues of Egypt as his basis. The one thing that bothers me today is that with each plague is clearly aimed at one of the medical team but based on the numbers there is one death that would not be used and that never raises a suspicion among the cops.

The film is set in the 1920s though to be fair I have trouble seeing that. It’s one of those things in the film that is not well-established. And I think the story moves just a little too fast. Everything is established and you understand what’s going on but it moves too swiftly. It’s not a breakneck speed but at times it feels they are cramming to get everything in. I like a trimmed down film but sometimes you can excise too much. You need to let the audience breathe a little bit and that’s where the fluff comes in.

The costuming is rather good and it contrasts nicely with Phibes’s rather sinister attire. He tends to wear relatively reflective fabrics that make him look like some dark science-fiction priest.

But a highlight for me as a child and now is the makeup used for Phibes’s true face. It’s established early on that he is believed dead having been burned alive in an auto accident as he raced to be with his wife. Remember this film is set in the 1920s so the techniques to discern identity then were not as good as they are now or were in the 70s. Phibes did indeed survive the accident (obviously) with his driver having perished and this is unknown to the police so Phibes is rather horribly scarred. This is no Freddy Krueger look but rather on near skeleton-like face. It also neatly explains why Phibes was forced use his acoustic knowledge to speak.

The humor is dark and witty and the performances great. This movie will keep you hooked from beginning to end with its unique villain and quirky characters. It is unlike anything you might encounter today.

The Abominable Dr. Phibes is a great early 70s horror bit of horror comedy. The jokes are not sidesplitting but the humor is dark and overall the film is very entertaining and carried largely by Vincent Price with great support from Cotten. If you haven’t seen this you should search it out wherever you can and give it a look. You will not be disappointed!