Rating: 4/5
Hooptober 9.0 | 15/34 | Bloodthirsty old person/people film | Decades 5/8 | 1970s
Dr. Phibes Clockwork Wizards start playing a jazz tune — animatronics programmed to play songs that haven’t come out yet.
Dr. Phibes and his assistant, Vulnavia, cut a hole in a man’s ceiling, lowering a birdcage covered in a black cloak.
The man startles awake. Along the walls, he catches brief glimpses of passing shadows. One bat lands on him — then two. These cute little guys are licking their lips like they are bloodthirsty.
The police find the man dead, his face rendered unrecognizable by bat bites. A surgeon whose death is reminiscent of an earlier murder in which bees stung a man to death in his library. That man was also a surgeon.
For each murder, Dr. Phibes places a bejeweled necklace with a Hebrew letter on a wax bust of the victim.
A fabergé frog mask, constricting and slowly suffocating a guy.
A machine draining a guy’s blood.
All the deaths correlate to a plague visited upon Egypt in the Hebrew Bible.
The movie is full of indulgent decadence and 70s colors. Price’s Phibes is a showman, each murder a performance like a magic trick.
The humor of the movie comes from the absurdity of the kills. For example, Dr. Phibes launches a brass unicorn head from a catapult to pierce a guy’s heart. It’s not a laugh riot but a fun showcase of silliness.
The movie’s pacing is not consistently tight. I get a little antsy during the many music numbers. Still, I can appreciate the showmanship of it all.