Dr. Phibes

A joint production between the US and the UK, The Abominable Dr. Phibes is a strong cult classic.  Like Scream and Scream Again it features a mystery of who is serially killing off doctors in very, very strange ways.  Of course, the viewer sees that the killer is Price, but still we don't know why he's doing it.  For the horror fan, it's hard not to love this film.  It has multiple devices, such as the crazy "Dr. Phibes Clockwork Wizards" band, with robots on instruments and Phibes himself on organ.  Or the Hebraic sub-text of the killings, colorfully fetching methods of revenge straight out of the Old Testament.  Or the great British character actor Peter Jeffery assaying the role of Inspector TROUT!  And this is just the tip of the list of the vehicles that the movie uses to convey an otherworldly strangeness, rich with some sort of mad purpose.  Black humor at it's best.

Filmed at the famous Elstree Studios, just outside of London in typical Hammer Horror color.  The principle production company was the American AIP (American International Pictures), but the film is solidly English.  Vincent Price considered it the first in a triology of Brit Horrors that ranked as his favorite UK role (the other two include the Phibes sequel and Theatre of Blood).  It also stars the seductive Virginia North of the Vulnavia (yes, what a name!), the great Welsh character actor Hugh Griffith as the rabbi that explains the necklaces with the Hebrew figures on them, and Joseph Cotton as Dr. Vesalius the principle surgeon that Phibes wants dead.

Originally Peter Cushing was set to play the role of Vesalius, but had to pull out of the production at the last minute due his wife's serious illness, so Cotton was called in from Hollywood at the last minute to fill in.  Apparently, British horror movies filled with loads of dark humor and set hyperbole were not Cotton's "cup of tea" so to speak.  Price said that Cotton was often uncomfortable saying his lines, so he would make funny faces at Cotton to get him into the spirit of role.  

Released on May 18 1971 in the United States, despite it's British theme, it is set in 1925, so designers were allowed to go crazy with Art Deco themes of all sorts, from the furniture, to the sets, even the clothes.  It's worth noting that the "clockworks," Phibes' robots had their own set at Elstree very near where Stanley Kubrick had a set for Alex's flat in A Clockwork Orange, released earlier in 1971.  As another piece of trivia:  as today's is Price's 100th birthday, this was his 100 film.

The Ten Plagues of Egypt:

Boils

Bats

Frogs

Blood 

Hail

Rats

Beasts

Locusts

Death Of The First Born

Darkness