The Abominable Dr. Phibes

The Abominable Dr. Phibes is a 1971 film about a doctor who seeks revenge on the nine doctors he considers responsible for his wife's death.
 * Directed by Robert Fuest. Written by William Goldstein and James Whiton.

Revenge Is The Best Medicine. (taglines)

Dr. Phibes

 * My love, sweet queen and noble wife, I alone remain to bring delivery of your pain. Severed, my darling, too quickly from this life. Of fires drawn and memories met, I shall hold our two hearts again in single time.


 * 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!


 * 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!

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?

Dialogue

 * 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 will have killed nine times in my life, Dr. Vesalius; how many murders can be attributed to you?
 * Dr. Vesalius: None, for I did not kill your wife!
 * Dr. Phibes: No?
 * Dr. Vesalius: I tried to save her...
 * Dr. Phibes: With a knife in your hands? Doctor, I have no faith in your profession! I was told, after my crash that I would never speak again. The doctors were, of course, wrong, for as you see and can hear, I have used my knowledge of music and acoustics to re-create my voice!
 * Dr. Vesalius: You don't need to remind me of your ingenuity, Dr. Phibes... WHERE IS MY SON?


 * Inspector Trout: Uh, the-these ten curses, would they follow any particular order?
 * Rabbi: Oh, w... that is a point that Talmudic scholars have debated for generations, but there is no doubt that the classical tradition is, uh: the curse of boils, bats, frogs, the curse of blood, the curse of rats, hail, of beasts, the locusts 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.


 * Dr. Phibes: [on phone to Vesalius, after kidnapping his son] Nine killed her; nine shall die!
 * Dr. Vesalius: Is that you, Phibes? Phibes! Phibes!
 * Dr. Phibes: Eight have died, soon to be nine! Nine eternities in doom!
 * Dr. Vesalius: Phibes, I must see you. Where are you, Phibes? I must speak... PHIBES! WHERE IS MY SON, PHIBES?
 * Dr. Phibes: The organ plays till midnight! The large house in Maldene Square. Come alone!


 * Dr. Vesalius: Human error won't stop him.
 * Inspector Trout: Why? Wha'chu mean?
 * Dr. Vesalius: 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 that 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.


 * Dr. Vesalius: I'm going alone. Perhaps 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!


 * Dr. Phibes: You will see your son under circumstances which may bring back memories to you.
 * [Lights fade up in a room seen through a glass floor; in it lies Vesalius' son on a table, unconscious]
 * Dr. Vesalius: What is it you want?
 * Dr. Phibes: The skill of your hands, Doctor. I am giving your son the same chance that my wife had. You need not be alarmed. He has already been anaesthetized.


 * Dr. 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. Phibes: MURDERED HER... But he will have what she'' did not: a second chance!


 * Dr. Vesalius: Your wife, no, Phibes, but you I will kill!
 * Dr. Phibes: But you can't, Doctor: I-AM-AL-REA-DY... DEAD.


 * Dr. Vesalius: God's sake!
 * Dr. 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.


 * Dr. Vesalius: That still leaves the final curse.
 * Sgt. Schenley: Darkness.
 * Inspector Trout: Well he'll be working on it wherever he is.

Taglines

 * HE CAME BACK FROM THE DEAD FOR REVENGE with Nine Diabolical Curses ... BEES ... BATS ... BEASTS ... BLOOD ... FROGS ... HAIL ... LOCUSTS ... DARKNESS ... DEATH! THE ABOMINABLE DR. PHIBES ... the most terrifying film you will ever see!
 * Probably the most terrifying film you will ever see!
 * Nine Gruesome Curses!
 * Revenge Is The Best Medicine.
 * Love means never having to say you're ugly!
 * Dr. Phibes has great vibes!
 * There are two sides to Dr. Phibes.....both of them EVIL!

Cast

 * Vincent Price — Dr. Anton Phibes
 * Joseph Cotten — Dr. Vesalius
 * Peter Jeffrey — Inspector Harry Trout
 * Virginia North — Vulnavia (final film role)
 * Hugh Griffith — Rabbi
 * Terry-Thomas — Dr. Longstreet
 * Derek Godfrey — Crow
 * Norman Jones — Sgt. Tom Schenley
 * John Cater — Superintendant Waverley
 * Aubrey Woods — Goldsmith


 * John Laurie — Darrow
 * Maurice Kaufmann — Dr. Whitcombe
 * Sean Bury — Lem Vesalius
 * Susan Travers — Nurse Allen
 * David Hutcheson — Dr. Hedgepath
 * Edward Burnham — Dr. Dunwoody
 * Alex Scott — Dr. Hargreaves
 * Peter Gilmore — Dr. Kitaj
 * Caroline Munro — Phibes's wife, Victoria Regina Phibes