The Abominable Dr. Phibes

Dr. Phibes:
[from the poster] 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: I-AM-AL-REA-DY... DEAD. Your son needs you.

Dr. Phibes:
[to Vesalius, after Phibes has kidnapped Lem] Nine killed her; nine shall die! Eight have died, soon to be nine! Nine eternities in doom! The organ plays till midnight! The large house in Maldene Square. Come alone!

Dr. Phibes:
I will have killed nine times in my life, Dr. Vesalius; how many murders can be attributed to you?

Dr. Vesalius:
None, for I did not kill your wife!

Dr. Phibes:
No?

Dr. Vesalius:
I tried to save her...

Dr. Phibes:
With a knife in your hands? Doctor, I have no faith in your profession! I was told, after my crash that I would never speak again. The doctors were, of course, wrong, for as you see and can hear, I have used my knowledge of music and acoustics to re-create my voice!

Dr. Vesalius:
You don't need to remind me of your ingenuity, Dr. Phibes... WHERE IS MY SON?

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.

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, but 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 locusts, 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.

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, sweet Queen and noble wife. I alone remain to bring delivery of your pain. Severed my darling, too quickly from this life. Of fires drawn and memories met, I shall hold our two hearts again in single time. 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!

[first lines]

Butler - Ross:
Good morning Sir.

Dr. Longstreet:
Mrs. Frawley.

Mrs. Frawley:
Doctor Longstreet, we are naughty, aren't we? We haven't touched our supper, have we? And what is this?

Dr. Longstreet:
This? Well it's a... Oh, I see what you mean, oh yes. It's a... It's a new thing on the market. It keeps out drafts.

Rabbi:
Part of the

Inspector Trout:
The what, Sir?

Rabbi:
The

Inspector Trout:
What form would the curses take Sir?

Rabbi:
There's the curse of boils, of bats...

Inspector Trout:
Frogs?

Rabbi:
Frogs, yes. And the curse of blood.

Inspector Trout:
I see Sir, yes.

Inspector Trout:
The curse of hail in the bloody middle of nowhere.

Sgt. Schenley:
There are a lot of strange men practicing medicine these days.

Dr. Hargreaves:
[to Dr. Phibes] Good God, nobody told me this was a masked affair. For me? How very elegant. But my dear fellow, it's beautiful. I say, jolly fine party, what. I don't think we've met. My name's Hargreaves. Doctor Hargreaves. I'm a psychiatrist actually - headshrinker. I say, would you mind? Some fancy catch. Much obliged, now point me towards the ladies.

Dr. Longstreet:
[to Vulnavia] I'm uh... I'm Dr. Longstreet, you know. Who's this?

[last lines]

Dr. Vesalius:
That still leaves the final curse.

Sgt. Schenley:
Darkness.

Inspector Trout:
Well he'll be working on it wherever he is.

Inspector Trout:
We have got to find Phibes!

Dr. Anton Phibes:
A few remaining minutes are all you have because when the acid reaches him he will have a face like mine!

Sgt. Schenley:
[from trailer] Here, how we gonna get him off this? You take his head and I'll take his feet. Let's unscrew him.

Dr. Phibes:
[from trailer] What lovely music for a murder... or two... or three... or nine.

Dr. Phibes:
[from trailer] Ladies and gentlemen, I want you to meet a dear friend.

Dr. Phibes:
[from trailer] Are you ready for Dr. Phibes? Hmm?

Dr. Phibes:
[from trailer] Dr. Phibes who samples the finer things in life in his own imitable way and experiments with fascinating instruments of death.

Dr. 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. Phibes:
*MURDERED HER*... But *he* will have what *she* did not: a second chance!

Dr. Phibes:
My love, my sweet Queen, my noble wife. Severed, too quickly, too cruelly from this life. I remain and suffer to bring delivery of your pain. Of fires drawn and memories met, soon we shall hold our two precious hearts in single time.

Inspector Trout:
Bats appearing out of nowhere... I don't know, it - it just doesn't make sense.

Inspector Trout:
When you've finished up there, I want you to question the butler again. There may be something he's over-looked.

Crow:
There's some very strange people practising medicine these days.