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Post by Prime etc. on May 18, 2021 21:20:11 GMT
Happy anniversary! Released in the US 50 years ago today (if sources are correct).
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Post by wmcclain on May 18, 2021 22:34:05 GMT
The Abominable Dr. Phibes (1971), directed by Robert Fuest. Dr Anton Phibes (PhD Theology, Heidelberg, and noted theater organist) may have had his face burned off and can speak only through a tube, but that will not stop him from exacting revenge on the doctors who could not save his wife. His means: cleverly sadistic murders inspired by the Plagues of Egypt. This horror-comedy is a remarkably odd little film, a 1920s art deco piece proleptically informed by 1960s mod art motifs and crooner music. The visual composition sometimes rises above B-movie needs and becomes quite fine. Despite the appealing weirdness, I prefer Theater of Blood (1973), a similar comedy revenge story Price made with Diana Rigg a couple of years later. Oddities: - Phibes also has a young, pretty, mute assistant, but no explanation of who she is or how she comes to be with him.
- We have no reason to think the doomed doctors were negligent, but Phibes is deranged by his love for his dead wife, making this a horror-romance. Actually, that's a continuing theme in Price's horror films.
- One of the murders has a man impaled on a brass unicorn's head which we are told was fired from a catapult. I don't know which plague that was supposed to be.
Available on Blu-ray with an unexpectedly good image. Two commentary tracks: a low energy (and very faint) conversation with the director, and a gushing appreciation by a serious fan.
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Post by Prime etc. on May 19, 2021 0:09:20 GMT
Madhouse is also inspired by Dr Phibes (and Theater of Blood). He has a woman assistant in it as well. It is centered on the film business. It is an uneven movie but the ideas are interesting--the actor who ends up in a mental hospital--the actress who gets disfigured by a bad pickup--the masked killer who resembles a slasher movie kind of stuntman character--it is a simplified non-thespian version of Price's screen character and pre-dates the first such killer (Texas Chainsaw Massacre came out a little later than Madhouse). With the exception of Robert Englund who like Price went to England for study, all the known slasher movie horror starts are more like anonymous stunt men characters. Or a special effect voiceover (like Chucky).
I think Phibes is a good idea but shows the strains of early 70s AIP when Nicholson was about to depart the company.
"It's the latest thing. It keeps out drafts."
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Post by wmcclain on May 19, 2021 2:23:22 GMT
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Post by poelzig on May 19, 2021 3:52:01 GMT
The Dr Phibes movies were cool but Theater of Blood was best. The same plot basically but it's like the Phibes movies were test runs and TOB was the final results.
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mgmarshall
Junior Member
@mgmarshall
Posts: 2,043
Likes: 3,297
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Post by mgmarshall on May 19, 2021 6:52:14 GMT
Always a favorite of mine, and with the exception of Theatre of Blood, it's really Vincent Price's last great starring role. The slapdash Dr. Phibes Rises Again and the cheap, stock footage-addled Madhouse pale in comparison. But the original Phibes is a first class piece of work. A 30's period piece with a color palette dominated by vibrant 70's purples and yellows, gloriously outlandish costume design and garish set design, excellent starring turns from Price and Joseph Cotten, a superb set of victims (including the delightfully pervy, blood-drained Terry-Thomas), wonderfully gruesome, over-the-top death scenes (it hardly matters that the movie completely botches the ten plagues of Egypt), Peter Jeffrey, John Cater and Norman Jones doing a likeable Keystone Cops routine, and a score filled with eerie, memorably weird music cues. I highly recommend it.
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Post by Prime etc. on May 19, 2021 7:55:47 GMT
I watched it tonight. The unicorn represents the plague of beasts.
I was going to say how atmospheric is.
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Post by novastar6 on May 19, 2021 15:57:08 GMT
My mother and I saw part of the sequel a long looooong time ago, and we had to shut it off promptly after the scorpion scene, that was some freaky shit. I've always had a morbid curiosity about seeing the first movie though.
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Post by Prime etc. on May 19, 2021 16:38:26 GMT
Yeah the scorpion scene was creepy. The ceramic dog figure.. The video release couldn't use Over the Rainbow--I know they ran that version on tv--but when it first came to video they couldn't use it. Yet the original film uses it at the end of the movie.
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