Somewhere Over the Rainbow

[moon_custafer]

Andrew got a copy of Dr. Phibes Rises Again (1972), which neither of us had ever seen, as part of a Vincent Price collection. Weird even for American International, it’s sort of like a Ken Russell movie with fewer phalli. About halfway through, I started saying “Steven Sommers must have watched this.” Between the 1920s pulp-egyptology setting and the elaborate death traps, I believe this influenced The Mummy (1999) almost as much as The Mummy (1932). Price’s character is supposed to have some kind of artificial larynx— he voiceover-narrates himself; but he never phones in the performance, even though the character almost literally does. In closeups you can see his adam’s apple moving, even though his lips don’t. He must have been conscientiously thinking his dialogue and moving his palate and vocal cords even though he wasn’t actually speaking.