Product Description

THE ABOMINABLE DR. PHIBES: Original Theatrical Trailer DR. PHIBES RISES AGAIN!:

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #10978 in DVD
• Brand: MGM HOME VIDEO (UNDER FOX)
• Released on: 2005-02-15
• Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
• Formats: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .20 pounds
• Running time: 184 minutes

Features

• The Abominable Dr. Phibes Vincent Price plays a diabolical doc seeking the ultimate in revenge with precision creepiness and surgical wit! After a team of surgeons botches his beloved wife's operation, the distraught Dr. Phibes unleashes a score of Old-Testament atrocities from a plague of locusts to an attack of rats on his enemies that climax in what may be one of "the eeriest endings on sc

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The high baroque period of Vincent Price's career is well represented with this box, which offers seven horror-minded feature films and some supporting extras. If there were ever any doubt that Price was in on the joke, this collection would dispel it: in most of these movies he's having a ball, cheerfully sending up his own image--although the set also boasts perhaps his finest straight performance.

Thanks to the previous likes of House of Wax and The Fly, Price had his horror cred well established, which is perhaps why he's already winking at the idea in the earliest movie here, 1962's Tales of Terror. The movie certainly has an impeccable horror pedigree: three stories by Edgar Allan Poe, adapted by Richard Matheson, and directed by Roger Corman. Price stars in all three, making a slow start with "Morella," then clicking into gear with Peter Lorre in a broadly comic "The Black Cat," and winding up with great liquefying make-up (and Basil Rathbone) in "The Case of M. Valdemar." The 1963 Twice Told Tales borrows Corman's triptych set-up with three Nathaniel Hawthorne stories, but the results are fairly dull. The best of the trio is the first story, in which Price and Sebastian Cabot sip a youth potion, with regrettable results.

Witchfinder General (re-edited and known for years in the U.S. as The Conqueror Worm) is the gem of the collection, a truly harrowing film for which Price eschewed any hint of camp. He plays a 17th-century witchfinder, and the film pulls no punches in pointing out the sadism of his job (and the way religious paranoia is linked to misogyny). It's the best and final work by the promising director Michael Reeves, who died in 1969 from a drug overdose; he was only 24 when he made this film.

From there, the set skips into Price's 1970s silly season. The Abominable Dr. Phibes was a surprise hit in 1971, and it's easy to see the appeal: Price goes over the top in his portrayal of a Phantom of the Opera type who exacts revenge by invoking the Old Testament plagues. Joseph Cotten and Terry-Thomas are in the cast. Dr. Phibes Rises Again isn't quite as madly focused--this time the doctor is in Egypt, looking for a way to revive his late wife--but the tongue-in-cheek spirit prevails.

Those films paved the way for a similar but more inspired outing, and a movie Price spoke of as a personal favorite: Theater of Blood, a deliciously wicked thing about a ham actor who murders his critics. Not only does Price have a high old time reciting Shakespeare, he gets to knock off some wonderful victims: Robert Morley, Jack Hawkins, and Price's future wife Coral Browne among them. Diana Rigg is a welcome bonus. Madhouse rounds out the disc, an actively bad movie along the same lines; Price plays a horror-movie actor whose personal instability mirrors his film persona. The picture is ham-handed in every way, though it's good to see Peter Cushing toe-to-toe with Price. Also in the set: a Disc of Horrors, with an hour's worth of featurettes on the man. --Robert Horton

Customer Reviews

A collection of Price's better horror films plus extra features
This set will contain seven of Vincent Price's better horror films of the 1960's and 1970's and even includes a bonus disc of extra features. MGM is no Warner Home Video when it comes to DVD boxed sets and extra features, but this one shows progress in that direction. The following are the details on the included films and extra features.

Abominable Dr. Phibes: Price gives a campy performance in one of the few horror films which successfully and intentionally joins comedy and horror. Joseph Cotten and Terry-Thomas are just two of the victims on whom Price seeks vengeance for his disfigurement and his wife's death. The Art Deco sets give the film a stylish look and the British deadpan delivery of many of the jokes helps immensely.

Dr. Phibes Rises Again: The disfigured madman (Price) is back as he and his deceased wife go boating down the Underground River of the Dead in this sequel to The Abominable Dr. Phibes. Once again, everybody is in it for the laughs including the set designer.

Tales of Terror - Three stories adapted very loosely from the work of Edgar Allen Poe - "Morella", "The Black Cat" and "The (Facts in the) Case of M. Valdemar", each roughly one half-hour in length.

Twice Told Tales - This is a compilation of three short films based on Nathaniel Hawthorne works - Heidegger's Experiment, Rappaccini's Daughter and The House of Seven Gables. In both this film and "Tales of Terror", the idea is not so much to be true to the original story, as it is to use the foundation of the story to the advantage of Cormen's ability to make scary movies and in Price's ability to star in them.

Theater of Blood: An entertaining horror film about a demented Shakespearean actor (Price) who takes a bloody revenge against the eight theatre critics who gave his performances bad reviews. To me this one of Price's often forgotten and most underrated films. He really hams it up and it works perfectly.

Madhouse: Price stars as an actor who returns to the screen to reprise his role as a killer a few years after his wife-to-be was decapitated by a killer nobody caught. Price is good as always, but it just seems a little tired and more like a tribute to his past and better films.

Witchfinder General (aka Conqueror Worm): In 17th-century England during the struggle between Cromwell and the Crown, Matthew Hopkins (Vincent Price) and his associates seek out and persecute those thought to practice sorcery as well as anyone else who incurs their wrath. When Hopkins executes the priest of a small town for being a warlock, he and his partner find themselves the target of a young soldier who leaves his post in Cromwell's army to hunt down and kill the pair. The movie captures this period in English history very well for a low-budget production. Price is at his menacing, sadistic best without the intentional camp that he injects in so many of his other horror films.

An extras disc will contain a documentary ("Vincent Price: Renaissance Man") and two featurettes ("The Art of Fear" and "Working with Vincent Price"). The set will be available on September 11th.

Only one new transfer!!
For those Price fans who already own his prior DVD film releases, note that only Witchfinder General is a new transfer to DVD. The other film transfers are from previously released editions. And as such, Twice Told Tales, Theater of Blood, and Madhouse are in letterbox format, not anamorphic. So if you already have these films, Dr. Phibes and Tales of Terror on DVD you only need to buy Witchfinder General separately, you'll get nothing else new here. Fox cleverly fails to disclose the format of its DVDs by calling everything "widescreen" whether or not the films were processed in letterbox or anamorphic formats. Its a huge difference for those of us with HDTVs. What an opportunity lost for remastering these horror classics.

4 1/2 stars for the dark humoured "Dr Phibes" movies
You can never keep a good villan down much less kill him. Dr Phibes has started taking revenge against an odd assortment of people. He plays his organ and has his "mechanical men" play an assortment of oldies before retiring for the evening and then coming out again to kill. It seems that he holds these men responsible for the death ofhis wife and when he does payback its in the key of murder.

The first film was a witty horror surprise with sharp direction by Robert Fuest ("The Avengers")and sharp acting. Peter Cushing was originally set to play in the film but withdrew when his wife passed away. Price gives a great performance that's perfect for the film.

The second film on the flipside of this dual sided disc is the sequel "Dr Phibes Rises Again". Fuest had a hand in the screenplay and it's just as much fun as the first film. Robert Quarry (who Price would come to resent when he found out that American Internation Pictures was planning to replace him with Quarry for many future releases). Sadly, there weren't any more films in the series but then again they went out on a high note.

Picture quality is worth screaming about and the DVDs look very good. We only get the original theatrical trailers as extras which is too bad as director Fuest is still (at this moment) around and could given a couple of insightful commentary tracks. Because these were released by AIP people tend to look down on them but their stellar films made with wit, charm and intelligence. They're also ghoulish fun.