Movie  1971
The Abominable Dr. Phibes      Back      Home
Dr. Vesalius: I'm going alone. Maybe he'll trade my life for my son's.
Inspector Trout: If you think you can reason with him, then you're as mad as he is!
Crow: Anyway, medical men die every day.
Inspector Trout: I'm aware of that sir.
Crow: Good. They're composed of the same flesh and blood as you and I.
Inspector Trout: I'm aware of that too sir. I happen to have seen rather a lot of their flesh and blood in the past few days.
Dr. Phibes: I have no faith in your profession. After my crash I was told I would never speak again. But as you can see and hear, I have used my knowledge of music and acoustics to recreate my voice!
Dr. Vesalius: You don't need to remind me of your ingenuity Doctor Phibes.
Inspector Trout: But all this would just be myth of course, sir?
Rabbi: Oh, I think not.
Inspector Trout: No?
Rabbi: No. There is little doubt that the plagues did occur, though so distant now as to seem a myth.
Dr. Vesalius: For God's sake!
Dr. Anton Phibes: Don't cry upon God, Dr. Vesalius. He is on my side! He led me, showed me the way in my quest for vengeance.
Inspector Trout: Oh, don't take him out like that. At least cover his face... what's left of it.
Waverley: Most of the people on the force are searching for a man who according to you has been buried once.
Crow: One of Trout's theories sir...
Waverley: I don't know about Trout's theories, but I've had a belly full of Trout's practice!
Goldsmith: One of a set.
Inspector Trout: A set? You mean there's more than one of them?
Goldsmith: Of course there's more than one of them, that's why it's a set.
Goldsmith: Good day, Inspector Pike.
Inspector Trout: Trout, sir.
Goldsmith: Ah, yes, of course.
Dr. Phibes: My love, precious jewel and noble wife. Severed, too quickly, too cruelly from this life. I alone remain to give delivery of your pain. Nine killed you. Nine shall die. Nine times, nine! Nine killed you! Nine shall die! Nine eternities in DOOM!
Dr. Phibes: Love means never having to say you're ugly.
Inspector Trout: Somebody is using these ancient biblical curses to kill everyone associated with the Phibes' operation. But, I mean: the husband's dead, there's no children, it all happened ages ago - so who the hell are we looking for?
Sgt. Schenley: Well I have discovered they all have one thing in common.
Inspector Trout: If you say they've all died mysteriously I'll bloody kill you!
Inspector Trout: Uh, these ten curses, would they follow any particular order?
Rabbi: Hm. That is a point that Talmudic scholars have debated for generations.
Inspector Trout: One more question, if I might, sir? What did she look like?
Goldsmith: Well, she was a tall, attractive, young lady. She didn't speak much, as I remember, but she was, uh...
Inspector Trout: Smart, sir?
Goldsmith: Fashionable.
Dr. Phibes: Vulnavia, my work is almost complete. Go and destroy all that I have created.
Dr. Vesalius: Your wife no, Phibes, but you I will kill!
Dr. Phibes: But you can't, Doctor Vesalius. I am already... dead.
Goldsmith: There was a lady.
Inspector Trout: Right, this woman...
Goldsmith: No, not a woman. A lady.

Dr. Vesalius: Human error won't stop him. He's had years to hide, to plot this damnable thing. He's compelling himself to follow exactly the classic death pattern of the G'tach. It's the psychic force that holds the man together, this maniacal precision. If we could just throw it off, interrupt the cycle, then he might be stopped by his own inflexible standards.
Waverley: Now if we don't handle this with kid gloves, there'll be questions in the House. This whole thing's a political time bomb, do you realize that? We're all of us as vulnerable as hell, especially me.
Inspector Trout: Well you should have driven faster.
Sgt. Schenley: Faster? I got there five minutes before the locals.
Inspector Trout: But two minutes after the plane had crashed!
Caretaker: [Vesalius and Trout visit the Phibes vault in Highgate cemetery] Fools. They'll have the worms soon enough.
Dr. Anton Phibes: Where can we find two better hemispheres, without sharp north, without declining west? My face in thine eye, thine in mine appears, and true plain hearts do in thee faces rest. Within twenty-four hours, my work will be finished, and then, my precious jewel, I will join you in your setting. We shall be reunited forever in a secluded corner of the great elysian field of the beautiful beyond!
Dr. Phibes: I will have killed nine times in my life, Dr. Vesalius, how many murders can be attributed to you?
Rabbi: There is no doubt that the classical tradition is the curse of boils, bats, frogs, the curse of blood, the curse of rats, hail, of beasts, the locust, of course, the death of the first-born, and then, finally, of darkness.
Inspector Trout: Darkness, rabbi?
Rabbi: Yes. The final curse upon the land. To end forever the sleep of man.
Waverley: A brass unicorn has been catapulted across a London street and impaled an eminent surgeon. Words fail me, gentlemen.
Dr. Phibes: Nine killed her; nine shall die! Eight have died, soon to be nine. Nine eternities in doom!
Dr. Anton Phibes: Work faster, Doctor! The acid is descending! My wife existed only six minutes on the operating table, and then she was dead. You murdered her!
Dr. Vesalius: No!
Dr. Anton Phibes: Murdered her!
Inspector Trout: Sorry for taking up your valuable time.
Goldsmith: Reasonably valuable I would like to think.
Dr. Vesalius: I didn't kill your wife!
Dr. Anton Phibes: No?
Dr. Vesalius: I tried to save her!
Dr. Phibes: With a knife in your hands?
Dr. Phibes: You will see your son, under conditions that may bring back memories to you, Doctor. You need not be alarmed, he's already been anaesthetized.
Dr. Anton Phibes: Perhaps your hands will shake and he, too, will die under your knife. A few remaining minutes are all you have. Because when the acid reaches him, he will have a face like mine!
Amazon.com
This unusually beautiful horror classic features Vincent Price in the title role of Dr. Anton Phibes, a genius who specializes in organ music, theology, and concocting bizarre deaths for anyone who wrongs him. Discovering why is half the fun, so for now let's just say that Phibes is a little mad and very, very angry. With his assistant, the lovely, silent Vulnavia, Phibes begins cutting a gory swath through London's medical community, with the dogged Inspector Trout hot on his tail. Phibes contains many pleasures--exquisite art direction and a dark sense of humor among them--but the real treat is in watching an old pro like Price at work. Whether he's playing his organ, staring down a victim, or drinking through his neck, Price is at the top of his game. He mixes dark menace with wry comic touches, revealing both Phibes's maniacal obsession and offhanded confidence in his own genius. Settle in for an evening of elegant gore and if an attractive, mute deliverywoman comes to the door, whatever you do--don't answer! --Ali Davis