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Dr. Phibes Rises Again
(Mad Scientist/Egyptian) 7*******skulls
* Blood * Violent * No Strong Language * No Sexual Situations *
* No Nudity * Not Particularly Gory *
1972/Color/89 Min./Vestron Video & Orion Pictures Corporation & American International Productions (England) Ltd./Rated PG
Director............Robert Fuest ( The Abominable Dr. Phibes, The Devil's Rain)
Screenplay.......Robert Fuest & Robert Blees
Music...............John Gale
Producer..........Louis M. Heyward
Director of Photography..Alex Thomson
Executive Producers......Samuel Z. Arkoff & James H. Nicholson
Make-up by Trevor Crole-Rees
Sets Designed by Brian Entwell
Based on Characters created by James Whiton & William Goldstein
Dramatis Personae
Dr. Phibes..Vincent Price (Edward Scissorhands, The Fly, Madhouse)
Beiderbeck..Robert Quarry (Count Yorga, Vampire, Madhouse, Spirits)
Trout.......Peter Jeffrey (The Horsemen, Romeo and Juliet, Twinsanity)
Diana.......Fiona Lewis (Dracula, The Fury, Strange Behavior)
Ambrose.....Hugh Griffith (Legend of the Werewolf, Lucky Jim, Oliver)
Waverly.....John Cater
Hackett.....Gerald Sim (Dr. Jekyll and Sister Hyde, Long Ago Tomorrow)
Stewart.....Keith Buckley
Baker.......Lewis Fiander
Shavers.....John Thaw (Chaplin, Inspector Morse-TV, Killing Heat)
Captain.....Peter Cushing (The Beast Must Die, The Gorgon, Star Wars)
Lambarda....Terry Thomas (Hogan's Heroes-TV)
Manservant..Milton Reid
Vulnavia....Valli Kemp
Beryl Reid (The Beast in the Cellar, Psychomania)
Critique: Phibes is back and as good as ever. Tongue in cheek atmosphere Beautiful music Phibes' narration Vulnavia never speaks, and hangs around a completely mad scientist. fancy that. Phibes eats through the back of his neck.
Plot Summary: Three years, when the moon cycle was right, Phibes' ingenious devise pumps blood back into him bringing him back. In London's fashionable Mauldine Square Phibes lay in suspended animation like his beautiful wife Victoria. A coming lunar occurrence not seen in 2000 years will signal the opening of a hidden crypt in Egypt. Phibes sits at his organ and narrates his plan for Victoria's resurrection and their eternal life after tricks in Egypt assisted by his trusted assisted Vulnavia. While Phibes slept, the house has been destroyed. The papyrus, the key to eternal life, has been stolen from his safe. Beiderbeck, who has remained alive for over a century by using an elixir that is almost gone, seeks the location of the crypt that will bring him and his beloved Diana eternal life. That night, mechanical boa constrictors are let into the house, but the butler succumbs to more traditional means. The papyrus is returned to Phibes. Beiderbeck is running out of his elixir of life and speeds to Egypt in the hopes of retrieving the stolen papyrus. Ambrose goes down to the hold to fetch a model of the mountain that Beiderbeck had produced and gets a rendition from the clockwork wizards, signaling difficulties. Ambrose washes ashore in a bottle. Phibes and Vulnavia arrive at the crypt where all is in readiness. When the police get wind that there were clockwork musicians on the boat, they know Phibes is at it again. Members of the party begin succumbing to clawing Eagles and scorpions as Phibes waits for a coming lunar coincidence that will bring about a sequence of events (underground waters rising, etc.,) that are to bring Victoria back to life. Beiderbeck and the others come upon the crypt and have Victoria. The archeologists find Stuart's scorpion riddled corpse. Phibes sets up a faked desert storm to cover the sounds as a party member is crushed in a Phibesian device. When Phibes returns to the crypt to recover the sarcophagus with Victoria in it, he finds that the key which will start the mystical events has been taken by Beiderbeck has the key in hand. Hagget gets drawn over a dune by clockwork Scottish soldiers and a phonograph. He returns to the car to find Diana has been kidnapped and his car booby-trapped with his own private sand storm. Beiderbeck returns to the mountain to try to recover Diana. Phibes has set up a small pyramid with Diana in it and water threatening to drown her. Only by using the key can he free her, and he must choose between his own eternal life and the life of Diana.
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