Vincent Price and The Abominable Dr. Phibes

 By Bruce Shawkey

One of the more scary movies I remember as a teen was The Abominable Dr. Phibes, made in 1971, and starring Vincent Price.

Price plays Dr. Anton Phibes, who blames the medical team that attended to his wife's surgery four years earlier, for her death and sets out to exact vengeance on each one. He is inspired in his murder spree by the Ten Plagues of Egypt from the Old Testament. The film co-stars Joseph Cotten, Hugh Griffith, Terry-

Thomas, Virginia North, with an uncredited Caroline Munro appearing as Phibes's wife. North had earlier appeared as a Bond girl in the movie, On Her Majesty's Secret Service.

Plot

Dr. Anton Phibes, a famous concert organist with doctorates in both music and theology, is believed to have been killed in a car crash in Switzerland in 1921, while racing home upon hearing of the death of his beloved wife, Victoria, during surgery. Phibes survived the crash, but was horribly scarred and left unable to speak. He remade his face with prosthetics and used his knowledge of acoustics to regain his voice. Resurfacing secretly in London in 1925, Phibes believes his wife was a victim of her doctors' incompetence, and begins elaborate plans to kill those he believes are responsible for her death.

Aided in his quest for vengeance by his beautiful and silent assistant Vulnavia (played by Virginia North), Phibes uses the Ten Plagues of Egypt as his inspiration.

The police are unable to prevent Phibes from killing the remaining members of Vesalius's team, so they focus their efforts entirely on protecting Vesalius himself. Phibes kidnaps Vesalius'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. Trout refuses to let him go, so Vesalius knocks the inspector unconscious and races to Phibes's mansion, where he confronts him. Phibes tells him his son is under anaesthesia and prepared for surgery. Phibes has implanted a key near the boy's heart that will unlock his restraints. Vesalius has to surgically remove the key within six minutes (the same time Victoria was on the operating table) to release his son before acid from a container above Lem's head is released and kills him. Vesalius succeeds and moves the table out of the way. Vulnavia, who was ordered to destroy Phibes's mechanical creations, is surprised by Trout and his assistant; backing away, she is drenched with the acid and killed.

Convinced that he has accomplished his vendetta, Phibes retreats to the basement to inter himself in a stone sarcophagus containing the embalmed body of his wife. He proceeds to drain his blood while simultaneously replacing it with embalming fluid and lies down in the sarcophagus next to Victoria. The coffin's inlaid stone lid lowers into place, concealing it. Trout and the police arrive but cannot find Phibes.

A great movie. It has been billed as a partial comedy, but I didn't there was anything funny about it. The special effects seem cheesy in retrospect, but they were plenty scary at the time. I especially recall the scene where one of the doctors is consumed by locusts.

The movie had a sequel, Dr. Phibes Rises Again, but I did not see it.

It's interesting to note that Price was, at heart, a funny guy and did not take himself very seriously. Vincent Price appeared on "The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson" at least once, on November 1, 1975. During his appearance, he demonstrated how to poach a fish in a dishwasher. He also did a voice-over on Michael Jackson's Thriller video, which was one of MTV's most successful music videos ever, copied by cruise ship activities directors, and local theater buffs on Halloween.