Retrospective Film Review

The Abominable Dr. Phibes (1971) • 50 Years Later

A doctor, scientist, organist, and Biblical scholar, Anton Phibes, seeks revenge on the nine doctors he considers responsible for his wife’s death.

The Abominable Dr. Phibes isn’t just another cult horror movie. It’s so much more. A half-century on and there are enough die-hard ‘phans’ to warrant conventions, online communities, and a lively market in replica props. It’s since been recognised as a bona fide work of art, as the New York museum of Modern Art has screened it as such. Earlier this year, Dr. Phibes’ 1926 Rolls Royce came onto the market and the classic car auctioneers made a key selling point of it featuring prominently in the film. Alas, I couldn’t drum up the funds to make a bid!

In the film, the car is driven by the glamorous Vulnavia (Virginia North) as she chauffeurs her super-stylish serial-killer master, Dr Anton Phibes (Vincent Price) from one murder to the next. Phibes has at least two doctorates, in music and theology. One assumes it’s the latter that inspires him to base each…