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The
Abominable Dr. Phibes
review by Terry Wickham
The Abominable Dr. Phibes is a film that I would call a director's film. By that I mean that a good portion of the film is without dialogue (Duel, Black Christmas, Mute Witness) and the story is told mostly by the characters actions, shots and editing. In my opinion, it's one of the strongest way movies can be made. Films are a visual medium. This doesn't mean the story or the performances are lacking, in fact they are so good it's the reason a film can work like this. Vincent Price has appeared in many memorable roles. Dr. Phibes has to be one of his best. While watching the movie I actually never thought of him as Vincent Price the man. He completely goes into character. Price has all the attributes that make up Dr. Phibes. He's an eloquent, sophisticated concert organist who survives a horrible accident (we never see in the film). The story is that Dr. Phibes wife Victoria Regina Phibes (Caroline Munro) has to have emergency surgery when Dr. Phibes is away performing a concert. Phibes makes an attempt to rush home to be with his beautiful wife, but unfortunately gets in a car accident. All the doctors who perform the surgery can't save her. Wanting revenge, Phibes brilliantly conceives a plan to act out the ten deadly Hebrew plagues (remember this film pre-dates Seven by twenty-three years). Phibes has an assistant Vulnavia (Virginia North) to help him accomplish each curse. The ten curses are; boils, bats, frogs, blood, rats, hail, locust, death of the first-born and darkness. Some of the scenes with Inspector Trout (Peter Jeffrey) are pretty funny, which is not because of poor filmmaking but rather the quirky dialogue and how the characters are fleshed out in the film. The transfer MGM has made is excellent. The film looks very sharp with excellent color reproduction. The trailer is included but sadly that's the only extra. An audio commentary track is sorely needed for this thirty-year-old classic. This must be Caroline Munro's strangest screen credit, as she doesn't actually physically appear in the film. We only see her photograph, which is amazing, as I know there are legions of fans that fell for the dark haired beauty by just seeing her picture. If you haven't seen Dr. Phibes, you should quickly make an appointment with the good Doctor.
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