DR. PHIBES RISES AGAIN

Oh it's Phibes all right, sir... and he always comes back. 
Sure at the end of the first film he embalmed himself, sealed himself up in a sarcophagus and then his house burned down on top of him, but, guess who's baaaack.   If you guessed the Phibes, you guessed right.  This movie was decidedly less awesome than the first one, but there are still a lot of things to like.  This movie came out a year after and seems pretty rushed and disjointed.  I would love to see the stuff that wound up on the cutting room floor. I believe these two films should be seen back to back.  Gather some friends and get to it.


BIEDERBECK  What kind of fiend are you?
PHIBES  The kind that wins, my friend.  
The film picks up three years after the events of the first.  The moon is in the proper place and for NO REASON WHATSOVER that wakes Dr. Phibes.  He de-balms(?) himself and his assistant Vulnavia (face mysteriously un-burnt from acid) reappears and the duo plan to set of for Egypt.  Why Egypt you ask? Why not?  Actually (apparently),  Phibes had been planning this all along.  When Phibes awakes he searches the ruins of his house for a map.  The map reveals the secret location of The Waters of Life, which flow beneath the pyramids (just go with it).  He plans on taking his beloved, Victoria to those waters to resurrect her but GASP...the map has been stolen.  An Egyptologist named Biederbeck is the culprit, and he is planning his own trip to Egypt as well.  See turns out Biederbeck has a a secret.  Dr. Phibes manages to steal the map back with the help of a real snake, a mechanical snake, and a needle air-compressor-phone (JUST GO WITH IT) and he, Vulnavia, Victoria, and his clockwork band set off for the land of the pharaohs.  Biederbeck and his crew go after him.  Murder ensues big time.  Phibes uses Egyptian themes this go round.  Biederbeck's crew gets stung to death by scorpions, sandblasted, crushed, and one gets EATEN BY AN EAGLE.  Yup.  All interested parties converge beneath the pyramids in a room that looks EXACTLY like the set from the first film.

This movie, just like the first, needs to be seen to be believed.  Vincent Price is once again, THE MAN.  This movie also had a sense of humor, especially in the form of Inspector Morse, the bumbling detective from the first film, who somehow bumbles his way into this film too.  The end of the movie features a man decaying rapidly like Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade while Vincent Price floats away on a coffin singing "Somewhere Over the Rainbow."  This movie, like the first, had a great soundtrack.  Plus this film has the ABSOLUTE BEST END CREDITS.  They go a little something like this:

THE PROTAGONISTS

THE GIRL

THE VICTIMS

THE LAW

INTERESTED PARTIES   

What I Liked
I liked that Peter Cushing shows up as the boat captain.  He's like a British Vincent Price.
I like that sometimes Phibes voice is mechanical and sometimes it's not.
I like that Phibes brought his damn robo-band with him again.
I like that sequels at one time in the works included Dr. Phibes in the Holy Land, The Brides of Phibes, and 7 Fates of Doctor Phibes.  
If you are in the mood for a strange film, gives these two films a shot and you won't be disappointed.