Dr Phibes Rises Again

The huge success of The Abominable Dr Phibes, not to mention that film’s decidedly open-ended conclusion, made a sequel inevitable. Vincent Price’s insanely busy schedule resulted in a two year gap before Dr Phibes Rises Again was launched upon a not especially appreciative public. The relative commercial disappointment of the sequel led to plans for a third instalment being abandoned. It’s hard not to be rather pleased about that since the second Phibes movie already shows distinct signs of strain but there are still some definite pleasures to be had from this movie.

The first film’s schematic plot was perhaps one reason for its popular success. The “Ten Plagues” scenario gave the narrative a momentum which it would otherwise have lacked and, more importantly, gave plenty of opportunities for bizarre death scenes which became the raison d’etre of the piece. It has to be said that the sequel is fatally flawed by the lack of such a structure and needlessly complicates the task of bringing back Phibes by using a plot which is both too busy and too diffuse for its own good. Awaking after three years in suspended animation, Dr Anton Phibes (Price) decides to take his unconscious wife to Egypt to a 2000 year old ‘River of Life’ where she will be resurrected and the couple can enjoy immortality together. But the destruction of Phibes’ house and the theft of the map from his safe lead the mad doctor into a confrontation with Beiderbecke (Quarry), an archaeologist who has already extended his life considerably but needs the sacred elixir in order to stay in the land of the living. A sea voyage to Egypt leads the rivals to the appointed place but Phibes must use all his diabolical cunning to stop Beiderbecke, and a party of eager students, getting to the River of Life first.

The film begins very well, moving at a fair old lick and offering some effective set-pieces; notably an attack by a mechanical snake and a wonderfully witty fate meted out to the marvellous Hugh Griffith. It’s also a pleasure to be reacquainted with Peter Jeffrey’s droll Inspector Trout. But doubts begin to set in with Robert Quarry’s performance. He’s not particularly bad but he is incredibly bland and is a long way from being a fit antagonist to face the indomitable Vincent Price. Quarry was a one-trick pony and that trick was played out in the two Count Yorga movies. Here, he barely registers and it unbalances the film. In the first one, the overwhelming sense of camp was given some grounding by the excellent performance of Joseph Cotton, who played his role seriously and consequently created some tension between him and Price. Quarry is simply dull. What makes this all the more galling is that Peter Cushing appears briefly and, in one short scene, blasts Quarry off the screen. It’s hard not to speculate how much better the film might have been if Cushing had played Phibes’ opponent. Cushing isn’t the only star wasted. Terry-Thomas livens things up but vanishes all too soon and Beryl Reid’s amusing turn is over in a couple of minutes. The rest of the cast don’t make much of an impression. John Thaw, playing one of the students who meets a sticky end, doesn’t have a single line of dialogue and Lewis Fiander plays his role with the deeply irritating smugness which made him such a pain in Doctor Jekyll and Sister Hyde.

One of the defining features of the first film is the overpowering production design which recreates the 1920s in a manner which never stops screaming 1970. The sequel makes a half-hearted effort at this but doesn’t go in for the same colour coding or sedulously furbished sets. This is, in some respects, an improvement and does a little bit to lower the campometer. Brian Eatwell’s art direction is still impressive however, although there is sometimes a sense that large sets are somehow underpopulated and the tomb sets do tend to look a little bit like an ancient carpet warehouse. The scenes in Egypt are obviously filmed in the studio but this is carefully masked by some good location shots – I’m not sure where they were filmed but I’m fairly sure that the continent of Africa wasn’t an option. Generally, the film looks very nice, partly thanks to Alex Thomson’s rich colour cinematography.

However, the major flaw of the first movie is compounded here. The Abominable Dr Phibes was an entertaining black comedy and a nice vehicle for Vincent Price but it wasn’t remotely scary. The same goes for Dr Phibes Rises Again, except that it’s not really very funny either. The scenes between Peter Jeffrey and John Cater have a certain comic value and the moment in which they meet Terry-Thomas is sheer joy, but otherwise it’s all a bit stodgy. Worse, the minor horror value of the death scenes in the original film is almost totally missing here. The death scenes are occasionally ingenious but only one of them – a clever and nasty murder by scorpions – is actually horrifying. That set-piece is the most effective moment in the film and nothing else quite matches it. In particular, the climax is a very damp squib indeed. Robert Fuest’s direction is fine when it sticks to knowing camp but he can’t create suspense. Consequently, the film dribbles away and never builds to a convincing climax.

Still, Dr Phibes Rises Again manages to be diverting entertainment, largely because of Vincent Price. The device by which his voice was distorted in the first film has been moderated somewhat and he sounds a lot more like the Price we know and love. Most of his lines don’t make a great deal of sense but he brings immense style to them and almost manages to make them sound convincing. I can’t say that I’m entirely disappointed that the third Phibes film never appeared but it’s still a joy to see Vincent Price dominating all before him, even in relatively weak material such as this.

The Disc

Most of the comments I made about the MGM release of The Abominable Dr Phibes apply to their release of the sequel. You can read that review here.

Suffice to say that the film is presented in its original 1.85:1 aspect ratio and has been anamorphically enhanced. It's not a bad transfer at all with strong colours and a fair level of detail. But there is a very grainy appearance to the image and artifacts appear quite frequently. All in all, however, this is the best version of the film I've seen and is considerably superior to the washed-out TV print.

The soundtrack is Dolby Digital Mono and absolutely fine. Not much point in remixing this film into 5.1 to be honest and this mono track does the job very efficiently.

The only extra is the original theatrical trailer. This gives away vast swathes of the plot and shouldn't be watched before you see the film.

There are the usual 16 chapter stops and a range of subtitles.

Dr Phibes Rises Again is considerably inferior to its predecessor but it is generally enjoyable to watch. To be fair, some people consider it to be the better of the two films. This MGM DVD release is adequate and worth considering if you're a fan of this kind of thing.