Dr. Phibes Rises Again!

Melt a package of Velveeta, add a can of jalapeno slices and you'll have a good dip for corn chips. The problem with this sequel to The Abominable Dr. Phibes is that this time Phibes ain't got no jalapenos. With Dr. Phibes Rises Again we have Phibes (Vincent Price) in Egypt, along with his preserved wife, Victoria, his silent assistant, the well-built Vulnavia, and his swinging automaton band. Can he find the headwaters of the River of Life, hidden under an ancient mountain within a lavish underground temple built by the now-vanished Egyptian pharaohs, before an obsessive and wealthy dilettante explorer, Darius Biederbeck (Robert Quarry), does? Will Dr. Phibes invent some intricate and painful deaths for those who get is his way...as in deaths by telephone receiver, giant gin bottle, claw, stinger, Henry James and sand particle (lots of them)? Will the bumbling police duo of Inspector Trout and Sir Wayne Waring show up to perform a vaudeville act of silly misunderstandings and pompous posturing? Will there be a number of good actors who seem to have wandered into the movie for a moment or two of cameo immortality, never to be seen again in the movie once they say their sentence or two, such as Peter Cushing, Beryl Reid, Hugh Griffin and Terry-Thomas? Even John Thaw shows up with curly brown hair 15 years before he became Inspector Morse. Is Dr. Phibes clunky and, for long stretches, simply dull? Warning: Spoilers. Yes to all the above.

The Abominable Dr. Phibes was great cheese, and witty in its Bible-based, corpse-producing methods. It also offered us one first-rate, sympathetic actor in a leading role, Joseph Cotten as Dr. Vesalius. If the first Dr. Phibes film was an unctuous slice of liverwurst, this one is simply an under-cooked blood-pudding, stuffed with bits of edible body organs but under-seasoned. Even Vincent Price's hamminess is held in check. He's constrained by the make-believe that he has to use an artificial speaking device (because of an encounter with acid). All his lines have been recorded separately, probably after filming, leaving him on camera to twitch a bit when we hear his voice.

To watch Price in all his hammy glory in witty vehicles of camp, comedy and corpses, try Theater of Blood and The Abominable Dr. Phibes. As for this film, well, it does no real damage except to Harold Arlen and E. Y. Harburg; the last thing we hear is Vincent Price singing "Over the Rainbow."

My Phibes collection is now completed with the second and final installment of the movie series.

Phibes is back with his bag full of curses in search of the river of Styx to hopefully revive his wife who has been embalmed for years. But now Phibes has an arch rival who is also in search of the river of Styx for his own use.

But thanks to the bag full of curses, Phibes has means of protecting what he finds.

We are not so treated with the wonderful score of music as with the first movie, but this features the removed "Over The Rainbow" track sung by Phibes (Vincent Price) at the end. This track was original removed from all US VHS releases due to copyright issues, but has been placed back into this DVD release (and its a creepy sung version at that!).

Great movie for a great... ahem...Price...;)

Based on the popularity of the original film titled The Abominable Dr. Phibes (1971), American International had little choice but to churn out this sequel called Dr. Phibes Rises Again (1972), which was quite a feat given how the first film ended, specifically with regards to the main character...co-written and directed by Robert Fuest (The Abominable Dr. Phibes, The Final Programme, The Devil's Rain), the film stars Vincent Price (The Haunted Palace, The Tomb of Ligeia) reprising his earlier role as the title character, and Robert Quarry, probably best known for his earlier features Count Yorga, Vampire (1970) and The Return of Count Yorga (1971), both of which are available on DVD. Also appearing is Peter Jeffrey (The Abominable Dr. Phibes, The Return of the Pink Panther), Fiona Lewis (Tintorera, Innerspace), John Cater (The Abominable Dr. Phibes), Hugh Griffith (The Final Programme), Valli Kemp (The Great Muppet Caper), Milton Reid (The Spy Who Loved Me), Terry-Thomas (The Vault of Horror), and Peter Cushing (The Revenge of Frankenstein, The Hound of the Baskervilles).

The film begins by relating some highlights from the first film (amazing how they can sum up a movie in the space of three minutes) to which we learn it's now three years later, and as the planets align themselves, Phibes (Price), who has since been in a state of suspended animation, rises like the phoenix from the ashes as he has a new quest, one that involves resurrecting his long dead wife Victoria along with ensuring eternal life for both him and his beloved...good luck with all that...also returning is Phibes faithful and fashionable mute assistant Vulnavia (Kemp), which is a pretty neat trick given that whole acid incident from the last film. Turns out Phibes has a line on an underground river in Egypt, one supposedly used by the pharaohs back in the day that has some kind of special spiritual properties, and has been making plans to one day take his deceased wife to a special underground mountain lair he's constructed so that he may achieve his ultimate goal of returning her to life, or something along those lines...only problem is there's another, named Darius Biederbeck (Quarry), who's interested in the restorative properties of the waters for himself and his girlfriend Diana (Lewis), and has since mounted an archeological expedition at the very mountain wherein Phibes has set up his elaborate operation. As Biederbeck and his crew crash the party, the flamboyant and theatrical Phibes sets out to eliminate all those he sees as a threat through a series of diabolical and highly lethal traps, each more insidious than the last...

Dr. Phibes Rises Again, in my opinion, does exactly what a sequel should do in remaining faithful to the original while upping the ante suitably. One of the aspects I really liked about the film was here Phibes didn't constrict himself in terms of the methods in which he brought about the deaths of those he saw interfering with his machinations. In the first film the means of death were tied to the ten curses wrought upon the pharaohs as spelled out in the Old Testament, which was fine for the first, but no sense in revisiting that which we've already seen...subsequently, the sky is the limit here (most do involve a desert theme, but that's not surprising given the locale in which they occur). I won't go into specific details about the methods Phibes employs, but I will say they're just as maniacal and convoluted as in the first. There's The Scorpion's Embrace, The Eagle's Caress, and my favorite The Sausage Machine, just to name a few. The actual body count may not be as high as in the first, but the methods utilized are just as imaginative and entertaining to watch if you're into that sort of thing. Price, looking a lot like pallid Pagliacci through much of the movie given his garish garb, really comes into his own here, presenting an even more flamboyant (if possible) character than before, taking it to the theatrical hilt. While this is Price's film, Robert Quarry gives a most excellent and entertaining turn as Biederbeck, Phibes' cold and calculating would be nemesis. The story does take an interesting turn from the first as in the original Phibes motives were strictly that of revenge, but here the character does not seek out to kill out of retribution, but more so only to do away with those who would interfere with his carefully laid plans (vengeance does come into play once his deceased wife is unwittingly stolen). It's sort of like two super villains battling each other, except here Biederbeck is way out of his league as Phibes will not be denied of his prize (Biederbeck does supply a healthy reservoir of potential victims). Peter Jeffrey and John Cater return from the first film as the hapless Scotland Yard detectives Trout and Waverly (Waverly is Trout's supervisor) on the trail of a fiend they thought long since gone, providing some comical moments, especially when coming across some of Phibes' handiwork. Seemed to me once they were in Egypt they were out of their jurisdiction, but given Phibes previous crimes they may have gotten some leeway given their past experience with the mastermind criminal. The oddest aspect to me as far as the casting was Peter Cushing in a bit part as a ship's captain, as he was only had a minute or two of screen time...strange seeing such a recognizable performer in such an inconsequential role, but, as they say, there are no small roles, only small actors. The story itself does possess some loose threads (the movie was rushed to capitalize on the popularity of the first), but you're better off going with the flow and enjoying the ride rather than getting hung up on some of these minor elements. I thought the production values were solid (something not always present in American International features), especially in regards to Phibes underground mountain dwelling. I was curious how Phibes kept his wife's corpse, played by Caroline Munro, so well preserved. Given how long she'd been deceased I would have thought some signs of rot would have settled in by now but I guess if she was kept in hermetically sealed containers, she could retain her appearance indefinitely. All in all if you enjoyed the first film, then you'll most likely dig on this gruesome follow up.

The picture quality, presented in widescreen (1.85:1), enhanced for 16 X 9 TVs, looks very clean and clear, and the Dolby Digital mono audio, available in English, Spanish, and French, comes through very well. The only extra included is an original theatrical trailer.

Cookieman108

A note for those interesting in picking up this film up on DVD...both The Abominable Dr. Phibes and Dr. Phibes Rises Again were originally released onto DVD individually, but then later re-released paired together as a DVD double feature, so if you're interested in owning both, try to locate the dual release, as it might be a better value (depending on availability, or course).

Despite the return of the director Robert Fuest and star Vincent Price, plus a handful of supporting players from "The Abominable Dr. Phibes" (including Hugh Griffith and Terry-Thomas in different roles), this Phibes go-around threatens to spin out of control at every turn. In the first one, the camp had a kind of magnificence to it -- Phibes' graceful dance with Vulnavia, for instance -- while here it comes perilously close to descending to the level of a "Carry On" film. That is not to say it isn't fun to watch, you just have to overlook the indulgences, not to mention a fair amount of absurdity.

Price, in modified makeup and wig, actually cuts a rather handsome, dashing figure here, though his character is weakened somewhat by his murdering people in ghastly ways chiefly for the sake of killing them, and not out of revenge, as in the first film. Some of the death traps are wonderful (Hugh Griffith washing ashore in an enormous bottle, for instance), while others are so ridiculous as to make the cliffhangers in "Batman" look subtle by comparison. Granted, in this sort of movie it is usually best not to worry about logic, but even so, some of the bits are so over-the-top that they negate the effect. Another problem is that Price's voice over narration (Phibes can only speak artifically)tends to be repetitious and banal exposition, as though nobody could think of anything for him to say except constant recaps of the plot.

Robert Quarry, then enjoying a brief starring career as a road-company Christopher Lee, is effective as the antagonist and appears to be the only one taking things seriously, the down side of which is that he comes off as the only one not in on the joke. Fiona Lewis is decorative as the nondescript heroine, and the bungling policemen played by Peter Jeffrey and John Cater are amusing. John Thaw -- later TV's "Morse" -- shows up mid-way through for the sole purpose of meeting a particularly nasty end. However, Valli Kemp as Vulnavia looks like a plump young deer caught in the headlights. Her only stab at expression comes in trying desperately not to laugh out loud at Price, who is playing in broad comedy mode. Meanwhile, Peter Cushing has never been more wasted.

All in all, it's amusing, but it can't touch the first "Phibes." And for the record, Price's rendition of "Over the Rainbow" at the end WAS in the original theatrical version, but removed from the film when it went to video.

After three years in necromantic hibernation, Dr, Anton Phibes resurrects to the next step with a passion to actually revive his belovedVictoria, and with the aid of the silently enchantingVulnavia, sets off for Egypt to bring her to life by using the mysteries of the ancient pharaohs, and finding the fabled river of eternal life. He awakes to discover his total environment demolished and a crucial piece of papyrus stolen by one "Darius Biederbeck", who also seeks immortality, yet Phibes' incisive ingenuity always regains what is his, removing all obstacles unfortunate enough to stand in the way of his plans, always in delighfful and amusingly poetic, creative methods.

He takes the most important elements of his Lair with him - his precious organ and musical articifial human companions, through which he works the Greater Magic of the-is-to-be, which are briefly found by a snooping passenger, who is dealt with in an expedient and rather 'artistic' manner... placed in a bottle and set afloat!

Phibes had previously prepared a place within a mountain to conduct his occultic endeavors, and begins unlocking the secrets of this hidden chambre, complete with sarchophagus and an ingeniously conceled key. Serpents seem to play a consistent role in the film, from a mechanical snake, which was a mere distraction for a real one to be rid of a brute and regain the papyrus, to the actual handle on the sarcophagus, to cleverly snake-shaped spikes with bident tongues. Reminds this writer of Set the whole way through - the archeypal manifestation of Satan in Egyptian culture.

Biederbeck's obsessions lead him to Phibes, as well as the impressively calculated abduction of his own beloved Diana - for it seems he was preserving himself with an immortality potion, yet fails in his goal as Phibes gleefully rows into the eternal Grotto singing quite a memorably recognizable tune...

Dr, Phibes Rises Again is a most worthy subsequent chapter to The Abominable Dr. Phibes, who displays consistently de-facto Satanic inclinations, to those who know.