Good morning Phoenix – it’s Monday again, and time for Movie
Trivia. From now till Halloween, I’ll highlight scary movies that are good to
watch for Halloween.
Vincent Price has always been one of my favorites. He’s
campy and spooky all at the same time. This is an oldie, but a goodie: The
Abominable Dr. Phibes.
'Before “Seven,” there was “nine” — the nine biblical
plagues, which Dr. Phibes visits upon his victim in one of the best of the
Vincent Price horror movies.
Doctors are being murdered in a bizarre manner: bats, bees,
killer frog masks, etc., which represent the nine Biblical plagues. The crimes
are orchestrated by a demented organ player with the help of his mute
assistant. The detective is stumped until he finds that all of the doctors
being killed assisted a Dr. Vesalius on an unsuccessful operation involving the
wife of Dr. Phibes, but he couldn't be the culprit, could he? He was killed in
a car crash upon learning of his wife's death...or was he?
Trivia: Dr. Phibes murders were inspired by the 10 plagues
of Egypt found in the Old Testament: 1. Boils (Prof. Thornton is stung to death
by bees; it's referenced but not shown) 2. Bats (Dr. Dunwoody is mauled to
death by bats) 3. Frogs (Dr. Hargreaves's throat is crushed by a mechanical
frog mask) 4. Blood (the blood is drained from Dr. Longstreet's body) 5. Hail
(Dr. Hedgepath is frozen to death by a machine spewing ice) 6. Rats (Dr. Kitaj
crashes his plane when he is attacked by rats) 7. Beasts (Dr. Whitcombe is
speared by the horn of a brass unicorn head) 8. Locusts (Nurse Allen is eaten
by locusts) 9. Death of the first born (Phibes kidnaps and attempts to kill Dr.
Vesalius's son) 10. Darkness - This may refer to a) Phibes drains the blood
from his own body while injecting embalming fluid, apparently joining his wife
in death or b) the depiction of a solar eclipse at the very end.
Vincent Price said Joseph Cotten was very uncomfortable
doing his scenes, so he intentionally made a lot of funny faces to make him
laugh.
Vincent Price often cracked up during filming, wrecking his
makeup.
Joseph Cotten would grumble on the set that he had to
remember and deliver lines, while Vincent Price's were all to be post-dubbed.
Price responded, "Yes, but I still know them, Joe." In fact, Price
was well-known in Hollywood for his ability to memorize all of the characters'
lines in a given production, not just his own.
For visual reasons, the plagues of flies and gnats were
replaced with rats and bats.
Goofs: The film is set in 1925. The automobiles, airplane,
and film projector seem to be from the 1920s, but the house interiors,
including the lights around Dr. Phibes' organ, and clothing appear to be early
1970s "mod" style. At the end Dr. Phibes plays "Somewhere Over
The Rainbow" which was written in 1935.
The airplane featured is a De Havilland Hornet Moth which
was not manufactured until 1934, nine years after this movie is set.
In the shot where the car is chasing the plane before
takeoff, you can see the shadow of the camera and camera man.
The Clockwork Band plays "One For My Baby and One More
For the Road," sung by a Frank Sinatra imitator. The song was written in
1943; Sinatra recorded it in 1947.
When the nurse is killed, the color of her hair changes
dramatically from a beautiful red to a horrible gray (obviously to increase the
horror).
Have a fangtastic Monday my friends! Party on!
<3 Brock V"""V
