If you're in the mood for a quirky, campy, goofy mashup of Hammer Horror flicks and English comedy, look no further than 1971's The Abominable Dr. Phibes.
In one of his last performances for legendary sixties independent studio American International, Vincent Price stars as Dr. Phibes, a walking corpse filled with revenge.
Phibes is executing all the members of the medical team that lost his wife on the operating table after a horrible accident. The film cleverly sets up each of these murders as a replication of the biblical plagues of boils, frogs, death of the firstborn, etc and Price has a lot of fun setting up each of the murders. Peter Jeffrey is hilarious as Inspector Trout, the hapless detective always a step behind Phibes and his beautiful assistant.
Joseph Cotton and Terry Thomas are great as well and the movie benefits from a superb sense of sixties style courtesy of director Robert Fuest, the man behind the classic series The Avengers.
From the clever poster (a takeoff on the huge hit "Love Story" from the previous year) to every set and costume, Fuest infuses the flick with so much style and fun that it's easy to ignore the low budget and silly premise.
An early seventies camp classic that murders a solid, silly B.
(007 fans look for Caroline Munro (The Spy Who Loved Me) as the black and white images of Phibes' late wife.)
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