HALLOWEEN HORRORFEST 2021/RATAPALOOZA NIGHT NINE: The Abominable Dr. Phibes (1971)

We're back to Ratapalooza again, and our sponsors for today is the Morticia and Gomez of the Podosphere, the keepers of The Great Library of Dreams and the hosts of such engaging fare as Hypnogoria and Commentary Club, Jim and Theresa Moon.  Now this essay was supposed to come out yesterday, which was Theresa's birthday...so let's send our retroactive wishes her way!  Jim not only provides the music for the 8TW adaptation of Strangers In Paradise, he just recorded a special role for something that will drop a week from Friday.  The Moons represent The Dogs Trust, which helps find stray dogs their forever homes!

Jim and Theresa, suspecting I would jump at the chance, took the fact that there is a scene in the film where a doctor flying a plane is attacked by rats to justify their pick of the 1971 Robert Fuest masterpiece The Abominable Dr. Phibes!

Inspector Trout (Peter Jeffreys) is investigating a series of bizarre deaths that he suspects are actually murders--and discovers that all of the victims have a connection with Dr. Vesalies (Joseph Cotton).  In talking with Vesalias, Trout begins to suspect that someone is avenging the tragic death on the operating table of one Victoria Phibes (an uncredited Caroline Munro, who is depicted mainly through photos and home movies)...and that someone may very well be the long-thought dead organist and doctor of theology Anton Phibes (Vincent Price).

This is, no joke, one of my favorite films, period.  It's a movie I've watched countless times before--one time at the legendary and long-missed Thalia revival house on a double bill with Theater of Blood--and one I have discussed a number of times, most recently on an episode of Dread Media.  I consider its director, Robert Fuest, an underappreciated cinematic genius who took a stint on my favorite TV show of all times, The Avengers, and used it as a basis for the look and feel of his best films.  It is one of those films that serve as a transition between the gothicy horror movies of the 60's and the more brutal and nasty fare of the 70's.  It is humorous without letting said humor interfere with the horror.  It features an outstanding performance by Vincent Price (this was supposedly his 100th film, but the publicists at AIP were...exaggerating a bit), who spends most of the film silent, and the utterly stunning Virginia North, who defined the evil henchmen in my mind as Vulnavia (It's not for nothing my silent henchman is named Virginia on The Honeywell Experiment).

This time out, the thing that struck me is how this horror film may be anchored to a different, more obscure genre that was arguably at its height in the late 60's--The Master Criminal Film.  There are ways you can say this film owes more to Danger: Diabolik or Judex or the Christopher Lee Fu Manchu films than to the kind of stuff being ground out by Hammer, Amicus, AIP and the like.  Like those later films, it's obvious that Phibes is the hero of this movie.  Even though we follow Trout and Vesalias at times, we spend the bulk of our time with Phibes and Vulnavia, frequently in their super-cool, super-stylized villain's lair complete with a clockwork band and an organ that rises out of the floor.  Like those later films, the police and the heroes are pretty much useless--although I really like how the script by William Goldstein and James Whiton (supposedly heavily rewritten by Fuest to make it a little less grim) portrays Trout as a very capable and intelligent police officer hamstrung by his superiors and the fact that he's playing a game that he doesn't know the rules of.  Like those later films, our villain gets away--Hell, in this film, our hero succeeds in achieving all his plans.  I suspect Phibes is Fuest's interpretation of a master criminal feature through the surreal spy-fi lens that Brian Clemens perfected.

This is a film which I truly wish had remained a one-off.  It was one of those lightning-in-a-bottle situations where the right director got his hands on the right property at the right time to get the right cast to interpret it.  The film was so profitable that a sequel was forced into existence a year later that totally misunderstood what made this film so amazing.  Yeah, there are moments when I am intensely curious about the planned third film, but in a way I'm glad it never manifest.

The Abominable Dr. Phibes is brilliant.  I don't care if you guys are gonna whine about it being 'too old and corny'--you owe it to yourself to watch it.  Preferably more than once.

Tomorrow I return to The Ratapalooza Randomizer for a film so fresh it was released earlier this month...a curious film about a mutant man-rat raising havoc that was obviously shot in the UK but apparently is meant to be taking place...here?  Join me for the latest 'when is it going to show up in those 10 Horror Movie Packs at Walmart?' epic, The Mutation!

There are presently eleven open slots for this year's festival, and if you'd like to be included, there are four ways to get your share of the spotlight:

1) You can become a Domicile of Dread Patreon at any level.  Patreons always get a free slot, as well as advance access to podcasts and other goodies!

2) You can buy me a coffee at Ko-Fi.  Suggested donation is $3

3) You can make a donation to Queens Community House Covid-19 Relief and Recovery Campaign.  Suggested donation is $10.  Please forward your receipt to me as proof.

4) You can choose to make a donation to the charity chosen by a sponsor on his/her/their day. Like with the third possibility, please forward me proof of donation.

It is not necessary to choose a rat-based horror film.  However, if you do, I will forward you a special Ratapalooza banner you can display on your website.