If Dr. Philbes is a surgeon, I'm staying as far away from that hospital as I can get. But don't be fooled by the title: Philbes is a doctor of music, a doctor of theology, a doctor of culture. He's eccentric, passionate, humorous, dapper and sophisticated. He's also creative. When he gets a plan into his head, he takes it to the extreme, whether creating a band made out of plastic men, planning his wife's funeral, or killing the doctors he blames for her death and the accident that left him morbidly scarred. So between the birds and the bees, frog heads that crush skulls, a veggie head mold that makes a delicious lunch for locusts and all sorts of other inventive ways of torturous end of life methods, he gets an "A" in the school of evil creativity. It's so creative, in fact, that for actor Vincent Price, who plays this part, he not only got a sequel, but a sort of unofficial remake where the victims were changed from doctors to theater critics and his profession from well-rounded doctor of whatever to ham actor thriving on Shakespeare.
Dr. Philbes doesn't thrive on Shakespeare here. He lives through the science of the ancient Egyptians and the tribulations brought to them when pharaoh didn't let Moses and his people go free. It's ironically another reference to "The Ten Commandments" for the over-the-top Price who played Baka, the chief master builder in that classic Cecil B. de Mille epic and later his appearance in "The Story of Mankind" where his satanistic attorney utilized references to the ancient Egyptians and Moses himself. Then, there's his campy performance in "Queen of the Nile" where he looked like a female impersonator playing Jeanne Crain's high priest father. "Dr. Philbes" is obviously meant to be camp, and I ain't referring to Camp Snoopy.
British character players make cameo appearances as his victims, the most famous of which is gap toothed Terry-Thomas who was so memorable in this that he got to play another role in the sequel. Hugh Griffith, too, plays different characters in both films, a slightly larger one in the second, but here seen as a Rabbi who confirms the necklace Price puts around each of the necks of his victims as a Hebrew representation of the plagues of Moses which God put on the Egyptians for not obeying his word. Joseph Cotten co-stars here as the head surgeon during Price's wife's operation which presumably killed her, and Price's revenge against him is the most evil of all.
The gory death scenes will certainly gross some people out. Fortunately, watching this right before bedtime, I didn't have nightmares, but I did have to turn my head away a bunch of times. Obviously meant to represent the art-deco style of the 1930's with its choices of designs and music, it is attractive to look at and definitely creative, but I hesitate in calling this a masterpiece because it seems to take great pleasure in its mean-spiritedness even if its tongue is firmly in its cheek. I also have to say that this film didn't warrant a sequel, and that comparisons to older horror movies is quite inevitable.
Dr. Philbes doesn't thrive on Shakespeare here. He lives through the science of the ancient Egyptians and the tribulations brought to them when pharaoh didn't let Moses and his people go free. It's ironically another reference to "The Ten Commandments" for the over-the-top Price who played Baka, the chief master builder in that classic Cecil B. de Mille epic and later his appearance in "The Story of Mankind" where his satanistic attorney utilized references to the ancient Egyptians and Moses himself. Then, there's his campy performance in "Queen of the Nile" where he looked like a female impersonator playing Jeanne Crain's high priest father. "Dr. Philbes" is obviously meant to be camp, and I ain't referring to Camp Snoopy.
British character players make cameo appearances as his victims, the most famous of which is gap toothed Terry-Thomas who was so memorable in this that he got to play another role in the sequel. Hugh Griffith, too, plays different characters in both films, a slightly larger one in the second, but here seen as a Rabbi who confirms the necklace Price puts around each of the necks of his victims as a Hebrew representation of the plagues of Moses which God put on the Egyptians for not obeying his word. Joseph Cotten co-stars here as the head surgeon during Price's wife's operation which presumably killed her, and Price's revenge against him is the most evil of all.
The gory death scenes will certainly gross some people out. Fortunately, watching this right before bedtime, I didn't have nightmares, but I did have to turn my head away a bunch of times. Obviously meant to represent the art-deco style of the 1930's with its choices of designs and music, it is attractive to look at and definitely creative, but I hesitate in calling this a masterpiece because it seems to take great pleasure in its mean-spiritedness even if its tongue is firmly in its cheek. I also have to say that this film didn't warrant a sequel, and that comparisons to older horror movies is quite inevitable.