Thiel-a-Vision Review: The Abominable Dr. Phibes

The Abominable Dr. Phibes stars Vincent Price as a waxen-faced organist hell-bent on revenge against the medical team whom he blames for the death of his wife.

Make no mistake, this is one weird-ass picture. It doesn't quite reach the level of pop-art spoofed in the Austin Powers comedies, but the production design is outlandish and Phibes and his beautiful assistant frequently take time between murders for a dance sequence. With its many eccentric deaths and the quasi-romantic relationship between its main characters, it reminded me a great deal of the old Avengers TV show; with good reason, as the director also helmed several episodes of that series.

Phibes subjects his victims to punishments patterned after the Biblical curses visited upon Egypt. The final one is meant to evoke the death of the firstborn, and has the chief surgeon operating on his own son to extract the key to the manacles holding the boy beneath a tube of acid...and all this three decades before the Saw movies.

Phibes is a strange part for Price, as his character was mutilated in a car accident and can only speak (via voice-over) through a tube in his neck that plugs into an old-timey gramophone. That he still manages to retain much of his charm despite being unable to change his facial expression is a testament to Price's talent.

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