Aristocrat Julian Markham keeps his disfigured brother, Sir Edward, locked in a tower of his house. Sir Edward occasionally escapes and causes havoc around the town.
Director:
Gordon Hessler
Stars:
Vincent Price,
Alister Williamson,
Christopher Lee
A horror movie star returns to his famous role after years in a mental institution. But the character seems to be committing murders independent of his will.
Director:
Jim Clark
Stars:
Vincent Price,
Peter Cushing,
Robert Quarry
Upon entering his fiancée's family mansion, a man discovers a savage family curse and fears that his future brother-in-law has entombed his bride-to-be prematurely.
In 1500s England, a cruel witch-hunting magistrate, who often tortures innocent villagers for his entertainment, runs afoul of a witch who conjures a banshee to kill the magistrate and his family.
The moon rises at a predestined angle and awakens the sleeping Dr. Phibes three years later. To his dismay, he finds his house has been demolished and his papyrus scrolls stolen, the scrolls he needs to find the Pharoah's Tomb in Egypt, where the River of Life flows. After identifying the source of the papyrus theft, he packs and leaves for Egypt with his assistant Vulnavia, still intent upon awakening his dead wife Victoria. The parties responsible for the theft of Phibes' scrolls suffer an attrition problem as Inspector Trout chases him across the world.Written by
Ed Sutton <esutton@mindspring.com>
Phibes originally had less dialogue. New lines were added after a lot of scripted sequences were cut out for budget reasons. See more »
Goofs
(at around 47 mins) Biederbeck says, "Understand that I will give the orders," but his lips do not move. See more »
Quotes
Dr. Phibes:
It is a pity in a way. We have so much in common.
Biederbeck:
You flatter yourself.
Dr. Phibes:
I think not. For years I have had one terrible obsession - to find the river of life once used by the pharaohs of Egypt. It lies beyond those gates, a river that gives new life, again and again and again.
Biederbeck:
Why do you think I came here?
Dr. Phibes:
You have all the life you need.
Biederbeck:
No more, Phibes. The elixir that gave my life for a hundred years is gone. It has suspended time and age, but no more.
Dr. Phibes:
How long? How many years?
Biederbeck:
Too long to ...
See more »
Crazy Credits
Once more the cast credits are split into several sections: the protagonists, the girl, the law, the victims and interested parties. See more »
Alternate Versions
In later prints and in the video version a scene featuring Vincent Price singing "Over the rainbow" is removed, supposedly for copyright reasons. The DVD release of 2001 restores the Vincent Price-sung "Over The Rainbow". See more »
...as the original. Yes, the design is impressive. Yes, Phibes is nearly as good. The Biederbeck sub-plot (Robert Quarry's best performance by far: check his IMDB credits list to see how many turkeys he's been in) is interesting, and makes him a suitable rival for Phibes. Sort of.
And that's kind of where I'm stuck at. Everything in this movie is "sort of." Biederbeck is "sort of" Phibes' rival, but the two never meet until the end. The movie "sort of" carries on the theme of the original. But without a driving force or motivation of vengeance, or a theme like the Plagues, here it's just a matter of seeing how many nifty ways Phibes can (rather implausibly) knock someone off. And some of those (a raven?) aren't even that interesting.
The humor here is also a lot broader, which wasn't really to my taste, either. Watching Phibes chow down on grapes through his neck hole and almost choking struck me as parodying the character itself, which tends to rob Phibes of much of his menace.
Overall, this sequel is enjoyable, but to me, it ultimately fails to rise to level of its predecessor.
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...as the original. Yes, the design is impressive. Yes, Phibes is nearly as good. The Biederbeck sub-plot (Robert Quarry's best performance by far: check his IMDB credits list to see how many turkeys he's been in) is interesting, and makes him a suitable rival for Phibes. Sort of.
And that's kind of where I'm stuck at. Everything in this movie is "sort of." Biederbeck is "sort of" Phibes' rival, but the two never meet until the end. The movie "sort of" carries on the theme of the original. But without a driving force or motivation of vengeance, or a theme like the Plagues, here it's just a matter of seeing how many nifty ways Phibes can (rather implausibly) knock someone off. And some of those (a raven?) aren't even that interesting.
The humor here is also a lot broader, which wasn't really to my taste, either. Watching Phibes chow down on grapes through his neck hole and almost choking struck me as parodying the character itself, which tends to rob Phibes of much of his menace.
Overall, this sequel is enjoyable, but to me, it ultimately fails to rise to level of its predecessor.