15 Doctors Crazier Than Hannibal Lecter

5. Dr Anton Phibes - The Abominable Dr Phibes

Hannibal NBC
MGM - EMI

Dr Phibes is played by Vincent Price, so he has a taste for droll humour, camp theatrics and exaggerated schemes, one of which he uses to take revenge on the surgeons who were unable to save his wife’s life.

Taking inspiration from the plagues of Egypt, Phibes kills those responsible with bees (representing the plague of boils), an ice machine (the plague of hail) and, representing the plague of pestilence, killer rats. In order to enact the plague of the first born, he kidnaps a surgeon’s son and leaves him tied up beneath a vat of acid, the key to the restraints surgically implanted in the boy’s body.

Phibes returned a year later in Dr Phibes Rises Again, this time travelling to Egypt in order to locate the Scrolls Of Life, with which he could resurrect his wife. 

Contributor

Ian Watson is the author of 'Midnight Movie Madness', a 600+ page guide to "bad" movies from 'Reefer Madness' to 'Poultrygeist: Night of the Chicken Dead.'