I haven't read all the posts on this movie, one of my all-time faves by the way, but I would be surprised if no-one has made a comparison with Theatre Of Blood, an almost identical movie. Again Price is the hard-done-to protagonist disposing of his enemies in varied and bloody clever ways. Anyone got any thoughts on that?
shareThere are similarites, but you can argue the motives are different, Phibes for love of his wife, while Lionheart's is mostly ego driven.
ThE MaStER wOuLd NoT ApPrOvE- Torgo
Quite similar, indeed. Phibes is killing in the order of the deadly Biblical plagues of Egypt. Lionheart is killing in the order of Shakespearean plays, ones he was in, in order.
Both films are campy, with 'Theatre Of Blood' being even more so.
Price has a female assistant in both films.
Both films are British. Both have borderline bumbling detectives.
Personally, I prefer 'Theatre Of Blood'. Mainly because there's more Price! And he has more lines.
Only love, pads the film
And "Theatre of Blood" is where Vincent Price met his third and final wife, Coral Brown. I love watching their scenes together -- despite the horrible way Lionhart dispatches the poor woman. :D
shareI just finally saw Phibes, and this was one of the first things I noticed! Both are about passion-driven proffesionals (Doctor/Actor) who rise from beyond the grave (Lionheart was assumed dead) to cleverly plot revenge by using classical works (Shakespeare/Bible) as their "calling cards". And both have murder-mystery plots with slow-minded detectives trying to catch Vincent Price in time, eventually being led to his 'lair' for the climax in which the victims are placed in a "death game" scenario. ....VERY similar movies, but unique and original and very enjoyable in their own respective ways! ..I think I like Phibes just a bit more...
shareThere's also Madhouse (1974), Price's last film for American International Pictures, which was shot in England (the same as the Phibes movies and Theatre of Blood). Price plays Paul Toombes, an actor famous for appearing in a series of horror films as 'Dr. Death', an evil genius who kills his enemies in elaborate ways, aided by a glamourous female assistant. Toombes marries his beautiful co-star, but she is gruesomely murdered on their wedding night, causing Toombes to have a complete mental breakdown. He spends several years in an asylum before being released. The police consider him the prime suspect in his wife's murder, but have no evidence to enable them to charge him, and due to his confused mental state, even Toombes himself isn't 100% certain that he didn't do it.
He travels to England to reprise the role of Dr. Death in a new TV series that is reviving the character, whereupon members of the cast and crew start being murdered in suitably bizarre ways by a mysterious figure dressed as Dr Death...
Sounds great, doesn't it? Like a meta-homage to the Phibes movies. In addition to Price, Peter Cushing, Robert Quarry and '70s British horror starlet Linda Hayden are in the cast. But sadly, I have to report that (in my humble opinion) it isn't very good. It looks shoddy and cheap, with production values way below those found on the Phibes films. It's also marred by an out-of-left-field WTF ending.
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Another similarity is that the killings are done in order in both films. Phibes uses the 10 curses of the pharaohs. While Lionheart his season of Shakespeare.
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