General · EdgepediaOctober 3, 20266 min read

Dr. Phibes Rises Again

Dr. Phibes Rises Again is a 1972 British horror comedy directed by Robert Fuest and the sequel to The Abominable Dr. Phibes (1971), in which Vincent Price's Dr. Anton Phibes awakens from suspended animation and journeys to Egypt to resurrect his dead wife using a fabled river of life.¹ It was produced by American International Productions (England), Ltd., runs 88 to 89 minutes, and carries a PG rating.¹

Key fact	Detail
Release	July 1972 (UK classification dated 9 August 1972); working title The Return of Dr. Phibes¹^•²
Director and writers	Robert Fuest; screenplay by Fuest and Robert Blees, from characters created by James Whiton and William Goldstein¹
Principal cast	Vincent Price (Dr. Anton Phibes), Robert Quarry (Darius Biederbeck), Valli Kemp (Vulnavia), Peter Jeffrey (Inspector Trout), Fiona Lewis (Diana)¹^•³
Production	Early December 1971 to late February 1972 at EMI-MGM Elstree Studios, Boreham Wood, Hertfordshire¹
Technical	88-89 minutes, color (Movielab), mono sound, MPAA rating PG¹
Music	Original score by John Gale; the film ends with "Over the Rainbow" by Harold Arlen and E. Y. Harburg¹
Reception	59% on the Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer (22 reviews) and 57% from audiences³

Spoilers

Plot

Three years after the events of the first film, in which Dr. Anton Phibes sealed himself inside a secret underground crypt with his dead wife Victoria and entered suspended animation, the moon comes into conjunction with the planets as depicted on the crypt, and blood flows into Phibes's veins, bringing him back to life.¹ Years earlier he had prepared a shrine in caves leading to a pharaoh's tomb, which sits above the gates to a river containing the elixir of life. Determined to resurrect Victoria by immersing her in those waters, he summons his loyal assistant Vulnavia for the journey to Egypt.¹

On returning to the first floor of his mansion, Phibes finds the building demolished and the papyrus map to the tomb stolen. He suspects Darius Biederbeck, a scientist who is also searching for the elixir of life.¹ Phibes recovers the map after Vulnavia releases snakes on Biederbeck's bodyguard Chen, who is killed by a golden snake-shaped spike hidden in his telephone receiver. Inspector Trout and Superintendent Waverley of Scotland Yard investigate the murder.¹

Phibes and Vulnavia sail for Egypt with Victoria's coffin in the ship's hold, unknowingly sharing the voyage with Biederbeck, his mistress Diana, and the archaeologist Harry Ambrose. After Phibes kills Ambrose and disposes of the body in a giant model gin bottle, Trout begins to suspect Phibes is involved when the shipping agent Lombardo recalls a passenger requesting an organ for his room.¹ In the desert, members of Biederbeck's expedition die in elaborate ways: Shavers is clawed to death and eaten by an eagle, Stewart is left to a nest of scorpions, Baker is crushed in a vice connected to his cot, and Hackett's face is burned by sand blasting from a truck's dashboard.¹

In the climax, Biederbeck finds Diana encased in chicken wire on a rising platform beneath metal snakeheads spears, and Phibes offers Diana's safety for the key hidden in the sarcophagus. Biederbeck, who has sustained his youth for one hundred years on the elixir and has drained his last drops, surrenders the key and begs to join Phibes. Phibes unlocks the gates, and he, Vulnavia, and Victoria float through on a raft while Biederbeck, shut out, degenerates into an old man and dies as Trout and Waverley arrive.¹

Production

The film was shot from early December 1971 to late February 1972 at the EMI-MGM Elstree Studios in Boreham Wood, Hertfordshire, with location work standing in for Egypt.¹^•⁴ Robert Fuest directed and co-wrote the screenplay with Robert Blees; Louis M. Heyward produced, Alex Thomson was the cinematographer, and Tristam Cones edited.¹ Executive producers were Samuel Z. Arkoff and James H. Nicholson, and the original score was composed by John Gale.¹

Casting continuity. Vincent Price, Caroline Munro (Victoria Phibes), Peter Jeffrey, and John Cater reprise their roles from the first film, and Fuest directed both productions. Terry-Thomas and Hugh Griffith appear in both films but play different characters in each; in the sequel Terry-Thomas is Lombardo and Griffith is Ambrose.¹ The role of Vulnavia was recast from Virginia North to Valli Kemp.³ Peter Cushing appears as the ship's Captain and Beryl Reid as Miss Ambrose.¹

Script history. Phibes's original screenwriters, William Goldstein and James Whiton, wrote a first sequel draft titled The Bride of Dr. Phibes in October 1971. AIP handed the writing to Robert Blees, with Fuest making final revisions, though much of the finished film's structure, including Phibes's resurrection scheme and the Biederbeck and Diana characters, derives from the unproduced draft.⁵ The Goldstein and Whiton script later resurfaced as a proposed third film, Phibes Resurrectus, and again at New World Pictures as Phibes Resurrected; Goldstein also developed a television series, The Sinister Dr. Phibes, with designs by comic book artist Jack Kirby.⁵

Censorship and home video

The British Board of Film Classification passed the film for cinema release on 9 August 1972 at 89 minutes, with cuts or alterations as part of the classification process, distributed by Anglo-Emi Dists Ltd.² Later UK video versions ran shorter: 84 minutes 15 seconds for the 1988 Virgin Video release and 87 minutes 43 seconds for the 2003 MGM Home Entertainment release.² The original VHS release replaced Price's singing of "Over the Rainbow" with background music because of copyright difficulties over the song; the song was restored on subsequent DVD releases.⁴ Arrow Video later issued the film on Blu-ray, and Kino Lorber released a two-disc double feature with the first film in April 2022, with commentary tracks by film historians Justin Humphreys and Tim Lucas.⁶^•⁷

Reception and legacy

On Rotten Tomatoes the film holds a 59% Tomatometer from 22 reviews and a 57% audience score.³ Critics have generally ranked it below its predecessor. Kim Newman of Empire gave it 4/5, calling it "a lively, spirited sequel" that still delivers "a succession of gruesome, black comic death scenes," while Vincent Canby of The New York Times wrote that it "makes the usually dumb mistake of aspiring to be camp" though "a lot of it works."³ James Kendrick of the Q Network Film Desk attributed the film's awkward pacing to post-production editing and squabbling that left chunks of the story incoherent without voice-over narration.³ A contemporary account likewise records that budget cuts and heavy re-editing left the film composed of too many short scenes, rendering much of the story and characterization confused.⁵

Although the ending implies the character might return, no additional films featuring Dr. Phibes were made, making this Price's second and final screen appearance in the role.¹^•³ William Goldstein's 1972 tie-in novel, published by Award Books in the United States and Tandem Books in the United Kingdom, expands the story considerably, including flashbacks to Biederbeck's past life in ancient Egypt and a darker portrayal of Inspector Trout's decline after the first case; later attempts to revive the property have drawn on this novel as a blueprint.⁵

References

Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Franchise and series entries as standalone works › Horror and slasher series film entries › 1970s and 1980s releases

Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026

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