The Abominable Dr. Phibes

Movie The Abominable Dr. Phibes
Year 1971
Dr. Phibes: Love means never having to say you're ugly.
Dr. Vesalius: Your wife no, Phibes, but you I will kill!
Dr. Phibes: But you can't, Doctor Vesalius. I am already... dead.
Dr. Phibes: Nine killed her; nine shall die! Eight have died, soon to be nine. Nine eternities in doom!
Dr. Phibes: I will have killed nine times in my life, Dr. Vesalius, how many murders can be attributed to you?
Dr. Vesalius: I didn't kill your wife!
Dr. Anton Phibes: No?
Dr. Vesalius: I tried to save her!
Dr. Phibes: With a knife in your hands?
Dr. Vesalius: For God's sake!
Dr. Anton Phibes: Don't cry upon God, Dr. Vesalius. He is on my side! He led me, showed me the way in my quest for vengeance.
Dr. Anton Phibes: Where can we find two better hemispheres, without sharp north, without declining west? My face in thine eye, thine in mine appears, and true plain hearts do in thee faces rest. Within twenty-four hours, my work will be finished, and then, my precious jewel, I will join you in your setting. We shall be reunited forever in a secluded corner of the great elysian field of the beautiful beyond!
Inspector Trout: But all this would just be myth of course, sir?
Rabbi: Oh, I think not.
Inspector Trout: No?
Rabbi: No. There is little doubt that the plagues did occur, though so distant now as to seem a myth.
Dr. Anton Phibes: Work faster, Doctor! The acid is descending! My wife existed only six minutes on the operating table, and then she was dead. You murdered her!
Dr. Vesalius: No!
Dr. Anton Phibes: Murdered her!
Inspector Trout: One more question, if I might, sir? What did she look like?
Goldsmith: Well, she was a tall, attractive, young lady. She didn't speak much, as I remember, but she was, uh...
Inspector Trout: Smart, sir?
Goldsmith: Fashionable.
Dr. Anton Phibes: Perhaps your hands will shake and he, too, will die under your knife. A few remaining minutes are all you have. Because when the acid reaches him, he will have a face like mine!
Goldsmith: Good day, Inspector Pike.
Inspector Trout: Trout, sir.
Goldsmith: Ah, yes, of course.
Inspector Trout: Uh, these ten curses, would they follow any particular order?
Rabbi: Hm. That is a point that Talmudic scholars have debated for generations.
Rabbi: There is no doubt that the classical tradition is the curse of boils, bats, frogs, the curse of blood, the curse of rats, hail, of beasts, the locust, of course, the death of the first-born, and then, finally, of darkness.
Inspector Trout: Darkness, rabbi?
Rabbi: Yes. The final curse upon the land. To end forever the sleep of man.
Inspector Trout: Oh, don't take him out like that. At least cover his face... what's left of it.
Waverley: A brass unicorn has been catapulted across a London street and impaled an eminent surgeon. Words fail me, gentlemen.
Crow: Anyway, medical men die every day.
Inspector Trout: I'm aware of that sir.
Crow: Good. They're composed of the same flesh and blood as you and I.
Inspector Trout: I'm aware of that too sir. I happen to have seen rather a lot of their flesh and blood in the past few days.
Dr. Vesalius: Human error won't stop him. He's had years to hide, to plot this damnable thing. He's compelling himself to follow exactly the classic death pattern of the G'tach. It's the psychic force that holds the man together, this maniacal precision. If we could just throw it off, interrupt the cycle, then he might be stopped by his own inflexible standards.
Dr. Phibes: Vulnavia, my work is almost complete. Go and destroy all that I have created.
Dr. Phibes: You will see your son, under conditions that may bring back memories to you, Doctor. You need not be alarmed, he's already been anaesthetized.
Dr. Phibes: I have no faith in your profession. After my crash I was told I would never speak again. But as you can see and hear, I have used my knowledge of music and acoustics to recreate my voice!
Dr. Vesalius: You don't need to remind me of your ingenuity Doctor Phibes.
Caretaker: [Vesalius and Trout visit the Phibes vault in Highgate cemetery] Fools. They'll have the worms soon enough.
Sgt. Schenley: Well I have discovered they all have one thing in common.
Inspector Trout: If you say they've all died mysteriously I'll bloody kill you!
Dr. Phibes: My love, precious jewel and noble wife. Severed, too quickly, too cruelly from this life. I alone remain to give delivery of your pain. Nine killed you. Nine shall die. Nine times, nine! Nine killed you! Nine shall die! Nine eternities in DOOM!
Goldsmith: One of a set.
Inspector Trout: A set? You mean there's more than one of them?
Goldsmith: Of course there's more than one of them, that's why it's a set.
Waverley: Most of the people on the force are searching for a man who according to you has been buried once.
Crow: One of Trout's theories sir...
Waverley: I don't know about Trout's theories, but I've had a belly full of Trout's practice!
Inspector Trout: Somebody is using these ancient biblical curses to kill everyone associated with the Phibes' operation. But, I mean: the husband's dead, there's no children, it all happened ages ago - so who the hell are we looking for?
Dr. Vesalius: I'm going alone. Maybe he'll trade my life for my son's.
Inspector Trout: If you think you can reason with him, then you're as mad as he is!
Waverley: Now if we don't handle this with kid gloves, there'll be questions in the House. This whole thing's a political time bomb, do you realize that? We're all of us as vulnerable as hell, especially me.
Inspector Trout: Sorry for taking up your valuable time.
Goldsmith: Reasonably valuable I would like to think.
Inspector Trout: Well you should have driven faster.
Sgt. Schenley: Faster? I got there five minutes before the locals.
Inspector Trout: But two minutes after the plane had crashed!
Goldsmith: There was a lady.
Inspector Trout: Right, this woman...
Goldsmith: No, not a woman. A lady.
Dr. Hargreaves: This mask is jolly tight!




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