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121. Dr. Anton Phibes
Anton Phibes, famous organist and a doctor of Music and Theology, thought to have been killed in a car crash, was in fact only horribly disfigured. Phibes is convinced that his lovely wife, Victoria, who died during a surgical operation, was a victim of incapable doctors. Several years after the operation, Phibes begins to put his vendetta into effect, killing the doctors that operated on his wife. Inspector Trout from Scotland Yard suspects Phibes, but it is difficult to prove when he is believed dead, not helped by the incompetence of the force. Trout eventually discovers that Phibes has been taking his inspiration from the Bible, specifically the the ten plagues of Egypt, which is part of the psychic force that drives him. Helped by his mute assistant Vulnavia, Phibes kills seven doctors and the head nurse, one by one and more brutally each time, using the first eight plagues as themes. Phibes reserves the worst punishment for the head of the team of doctors, Dr. Vesalius. He kidnaps the doctor's son and places him on a table on which a container full of acid is waiting to disfigure the boy's face. A small key implanted near the boy's heart will free him. Versalius will need all his skill to operate and free his son. As Vesalius arrives, he learns he has only six minutes to operate on his son and to save him from the acid. The operation succeeds and the acid instead strikes Vulnavia (either killing her or otherwise incapacitating her). Convinced he has completed his vendetta, Phibes lies beside the embalmed corpse of his wife and, as his blood drains out, with the police and Inspector Trout closing in, the chamber under his house in Muldean Square sinks into darkness. As the stone sarcophagus sinks, we hear Phibes singing Somewhere over the Rainbow, one of the most bizarre endings ever given to a horror film.

Anton Phibes, famous organist and a doctor of Music and Theology, thought to have been killed in a car crash, was in fact only horribly disfigured. Phibes is convinced that his lovely wife, Victoria, who died during a surgical operation, was a victim of incapable doctors. Several years after the operation, Phibes begins to put his vendetta into effect, killing the doctors that operated on his wife. Inspector Trout from Scotland Yard suspects Phibes, but it is difficult to prove when he is believed dead, not helped by the incompetence of the force. Trout eventually discovers that Phibes has been taking his inspiration from the Bible, specifically the the ten plagues of Egypt, which is part of the psychic force that drives him. Helped by his mute assistant Vulnavia, Phibes kills seven doctors and the head nurse, one by one and more brutally each time, using the first eight plagues as themes. Phibes reserves the worst punishment for the head of the team of doctors, Dr. Vesalius. He kidnaps the doctor's son and places him on a table on which a container full of acid is waiting to disfigure the boy's face. A small key implanted near the boy's heart will free him. Versalius will need all his skill to operate and free his son. As Vesalius arrives, he learns he has only six minutes to operate on his son and to save him from the acid. The operation succeeds and the acid instead strikes Vulnavia (either killing her or otherwise incapacitating her). Convinced he has completed his vendetta, Phibes lies beside the embalmed corpse of his wife and, as his blood drains out, with the police and Inspector Trout closing in, the chamber under his house in Muldean Square sinks into darkness. As the stone sarcophagus sinks, we hear Phibes singing Somewhere over the Rainbow, one of the most bizarre endings ever given to a horror film.
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