Thanks for the memories!

From my favorite movies..

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

Much like many evenings before, I felt the lacking of a great feature film to engage my prefrontal cortex. And since my go-to tends to be horror and horror only, I decided to change things up a little bit with a Horror/Comedy. Usually I try to stay away from this rather ambiguous mix of genres, but since I've got a weak spot for 70's horror, I gave it a shot. And boy, am I glad I did.From the very beginning there is something about the setting of the scene and the tension clouding up the room in its own silent way that reminded me of "The Holy Mountain", by the great Alejandro Jodorowsky. A somewhat strange comparison you might think, but it doesn't strike me as strange at all; maybe it was a favorable way for directors to approach the arts in the 70's. Whatever the common denominator might be, the opening scene presented, in my opinion, an undertone of similar vibes as that of "The Holy Mountain"; which is a good thing, of course. Overall, the film isn't all that scary, I must say. But that doesn't take away the fact that it is a great film. And also I wonder how scary a horror/comedy can get without it being a straight up horror film. Anyhow, even if it doesn't make my hair stand up on end it is still a great horror story. The film is an impeccable mix of the two genres; it's predominantly horror, with the occasional (and well placed) joke making an entrance when you least expect it.The comic elements sneak up from behind and grab you by surprise. At times, the jokes enter on such uninvited note that it really catches you off guard and make you burst into laughter. It is really my type of humor - black comedy. Compared to today's black comedy, it might appear somewhat modest, naturally; although how modest it might seem today, I'm sure that it was all but in the 70's. Overall, "The Abominable Dr. Phibes" is a film worth your while. If you enjoy a solid 1970's horror flick and at the same time don't mind the occasional laughter, you can't go wrong with this one. Even if you tend to avoid horror/comedy films, like me, I recommend that you give this one a go - it's timeless.

If Dr. Philbes is a surgeon, I'm staying as far away from that hospital as I can get. But don't be fooled by the title: Philbes is a doctor of music, a doctor of theology, a doctor of culture. He's eccentric, passionate, humorous, dapper and sophisticated. He's also creative. When he gets a plan into his head, he takes it to the extreme, whether creating a band made out of plastic men, planning his wife's funeral, or killing the doctors he blames for her death and the accident that left him morbidly scarred. So between the birds and the bees, frog heads that crush skulls, a veggie head mold that makes a delicious lunch for locusts and all sorts of other inventive ways of torturous end of life methods, he gets an "A" in the school of evil creativity. It's so creative, in fact, that for actor Vincent Price, who plays this part, he not only got a sequel, but a sort of unofficial remake where the victims were changed from doctors to theater critics and his profession from well-rounded doctor of whatever to ham actor thriving on Shakespeare.Dr. Philbes doesn't thrive on Shakespeare here. He lives through the science of the ancient Egyptians and the tribulations brought to them when pharaoh didn't let Moses and his people go free. It's ironically another reference to "The Ten Commandments" for the over-the-top Price who played Baka, the chief master builder in that classic Cecil B. de Mille epic and later his appearance in "The Story of Mankind" where his satanistic attorney utilized references to the ancient Egyptians and Moses himself. Then, there's his campy performance in "Queen of the Nile" where he looked like a female impersonator playing Jeanne Crain's high priest father. "Dr. Philbes" is obviously meant to be camp, and I ain't referring to Camp Snoopy.British character players make cameo appearances as his victims, the most famous of which is gap toothed Terry-Thomas who was so memorable in this that he got to play another role in the sequel. Hugh Griffith, too, plays different characters in both films, a slightly larger one in the second, but here seen as a Rabbi who confirms the necklace Price puts around each of the necks of his victims as a Hebrew representation of the plagues of Moses which God put on the Egyptians for not obeying his word. Joseph Cotten co-stars here as the head surgeon during Price's wife's operation which presumably killed her, and Price's revenge against him is the most evil of all.The gory death scenes will certainly gross some people out. Fortunately, watching this right before bedtime, I didn't have nightmares, but I did have to turn my head away a bunch of times. Obviously meant to represent the art-deco style of the 1930's with its choices of designs and music, it is attractive to look at and definitely creative, but I hesitate in calling this a masterpiece because it seems to take great pleasure in its mean-spiritedness even if its tongue is firmly in its cheek. I also have to say that this film didn't warrant a sequel, and that comparisons to older horror movies is quite inevitable.

Vincent Price plays the macabre Doctor Phibes. He is a living corpse who is out for revenge on those he holds responsible for his wife's death on the operating table. There are nine he holds to blame, eight doctors and a nurse. One by one they die by strange and varied ways. All are curses from the ten Biblical plagues of the Old Testament. Eight are killed by those various means. The last to be alive is Joseph Cotton playing the lead surgeon Dr. Vesalius. He is called to the house of Phibes to save his son by operating on him for a key that will unlock the son's collar and the gurney before acid will drop on Vesalius's son and kill him. Vesalius conducts the operation in time and moves his son from harm. As this happens Phibes, thinking he has succeeded in his final revenge, goes to the vault where he has his wife's body, inserts needles into his arms, lays down with the body, and is drained of blood while embalming fluid enters. As the police leave they wonder about the final curse, that of darkness. Well the lights go out before they exit the building but no one further is harmed. A fairly good movie all in all.

This Film was one of the most intriguing and interesting I have watched in years. I first encountered this movie one slow afternoon, with nothing else to watch. I was hooked about 1 minute into the film, It was that good, and whatever flaws it may have are vastly overshadowed by the positives.I believe that the first thing worth noting is how the film looks, and it looks stunning in all of its eccentric marriage of 1920's Art-Deco and early 70's vibe. This might sound odd on this review, but trust me it looks beautiful (in an odd but compelling way) and only makes this film stand out from the pack of its contemporaries and even films today. Truly marvelous. The story is sublime, and very original for its time. Of course, the idea of a man getting revenge on those who failed him may be a cliché today in many horror style movies (Err, the entire SAW series), but Phibes arguably was the birth of such an idea made over 30 years before the first SAW movie. Unlike in SAW, Phibes actually has clear motives from the get-go, and his reason for revenge is truly touching actually(His Wife died on the operating table and he blames it on the surgeons). I won't give the whole movie away, but I will mention that the methods of revenge are some of the best parts of the movie, using inspiration from the Old Testament to carry out some of the most creative kills ever. The movie's ace card is undeniably the acting/dialogue. 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. Price went from campy, and actually rather humorous, to warm and sentimental, to ice-cold murderer sometimes in the same scene, handled with aplomb by the master. The facial expressions he pulls of sync perfectly with the solid dialogue pre-recorded (check out the scene where Phibes gives his first lamentation to his dead wife,- "Nine Eternities in Doom!" couldn't have been pulled off better by ANY other actor!. While Price is the greatest acting force here, Terry Thomas and Peter Jeffrey also have likable characters and do solid acting efforts as well. Even Joseph Cotten was not nearly as bad as everyone else says he was. Virginia North as Vulnavia may not have much to do and her character is unexplained, but she sure does look good, and same with Caroline Munro as Victoria Phibes who has even less to do (lie in a coffin), but is easily one of the most stunning actresses in the history of film. The film is not without its flaws though,as sometimes the humor can get too silly for its own good, the pacing can occasionally slow, the sometimes shoddy SFX, and fact that some of the deaths are so OTT they are hard to believe.None of this though affects Phibes' shining credentials. This film cannot really be pigeonholed. It is officially known as a horror film. It is not a horror, but it does contain some genuinely horrific scenes.Sometiems it is called a comedy, though it is not really a comedy, though it does contain truly funny moments. It is even considered a romance movie by some, but i believe it is not a romance either, even though the pain that Phibes feels for his wife comes off as shockingly authentic, and translates well to the attentive viewer. The ending in particular is actually one of the most poignant and emotional in any film. The fact is, Phibes combines the best things about different types of genres, and largely it succeeds. I suggest to anyone sick of the mostly hackneyed garbage that is modern horror movies, to check out this little gem immediately. Better yet, anyone who loves film should see this at least once. You won't be disappointed.