The Abominable Dr. Phibes
All actors and roles (10)
All team (33)
Short description
The Abominable Dr. Phibes centres on a wealthy and celebrated organist, Anton Phibes, who is believed to have died in a car crash. He survives, badly disfigured, and becomes convinced that the surgeons who operated on his wife were responsible for her death. From a hidden lair, he sets out to take revenge on the medical team, devising killings modelled on the plagues visited upon Egypt in the Old Testament. A silent female accomplice, Vulnavia, assists him, while Scotland Yard and the head of the medical team try to trace the pattern behind the deaths before it is complete.
The film was directed by Robert Fuest and followed his 1970 thriller And Soon the Darkness; a sequel, Dr. Phibes Rises Again, came the following year. James Whiton and William Goldstein wrote the screenplay, and the cast is led by Vincent Price as Phibes, with Joseph Cotten, Hugh Griffith, Terry-Thomas, Virginia North and Peter Jeffrey among the thirty-two credited performers. It is a British production from Amicus Productions and American International Productions.
Released in April 1971, the film took about two million dollars worldwide on a modest scale. It holds a rating of 7 out of 10 on IMDb from around 18,000 votes and the same score on TMDB from roughly 345 votes, while a critics' rating of 7.2 out of 10 from 41 reviews places it slightly above those audience scores.
What's left behind the scenes
- British actor Peter Cushing was considered for the role of Vesalius, but due to his wife's illness, he did not risk spending time on filming, preferring to stay with his seriously ill spouse.
- Actor Joseph Cotten (1905-1994) grumbled on set that he had to memorize his lines, while Vincent Price (1911-1993) was later dubbed, to which he always replied that he had still learned his character's lines first. In reality, Price was known as an actor capable of memorizing the lines of all the characters in the film, not just his own.
- During filming, Vincent Price often burst into laughter, after which he had to reapply his makeup.
- To increase the spectacle, the swarming of flies and mosquitoes was replaced by a swarming of rats and bats.
- Before filming scenes requiring Vincent Price to speak without opening his mouth, his face was covered with collodion, which immobilized his facial muscles.
- According to screenwriter William Goldstein, it was originally intended to make Vulnavia mechanical, even down to a winding key in her neck. Director Robert Fuest (1927-2012), however, decided that the protagonist needed a more mobile assistant. He made her that way, although the movements of Virginia North (1946-2004), who played the role, are mechanical, and her face retains a blank expression.
- Instead of spending time in the makeup chair, Vincent Price simply put on a mask.
- The murders committed by Dr. Phibes are based on the 10 plagues of Egypt from the Old Testament.
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