In this sequel, Fiona Lewis plays Diana the wife of a man named Biederbeck who has challenged the murderous wrath of the newly-risen Dr. Anton Phibes for access to the legendary River of Life, which can grant immortality to Phibes' beloved Victoria. Phibes has captured her and placed her in an ingenious death trap, where she has been sealed behind a wire mesh onto a tethered raft, and as the waters under her begins to rise, several metal-tongued cobras lower from the ceiling above, promising a gruesome death when the two meet- unless Biederbeck surrenders the key to unlock the gates to the river.
Trivia(From the IMDB)
- Just before being crushed in a giant press-screw, Baker can be seen reading "The Turn of the Screw".
- When the pregnant Virginia North was unable to reprise her role as Vulnavia for the sequel, Valli Kemp was cast instead.
- Many of the characters were named after famous jazz bandleaders, (Biederbeck and Lombardo being the most obvious).
- The desert sequences were filmed in Spain.
- There was a lot of hostility between Vincent Price and Robert Quarry, particularly when Price discovered that AI was planning on replacing him with Quarry as their major horror film star.
- Phibes originally had less dialogue. However, new lines were added after a lot of scripted sequences were cut out for budget reasons.
- Frankie Howerd was asked to be in this project.
- The Bach Singers, a volunteer group, worked for free, agreeing only to a donation to charitable purposes.
- In the original script Beiderbeck's first name was Jonathan.
- Shavers was originally meant to be impaled by a golden eagle, a la The Abominable Dr. Phibes (1971).
- The Scottish fusiliers, who are mentioned in the finished film, were originally meant to have an on-screen role.
- Vulnavia was originally going to be a new character, but the studios insisted on keeping her name. This explains why the character returns despite having been killed in The Abominable Dr. Phibes (1971).
- The Pyramid which features in the climax was intended to consist of levels filled with traps and have boiling oil filling into it. It was changed for budget reasons.
- The second of a planned trilogy. The third would have either featured Phibes fighting a group of Nazis, or him searching for the key to Olympus. A film treatment still exists for the latter. The title would have been "Phibes Resurrectus," "The Seven Fates of Dr. Phibes" or "The Brides of Dr. Phibes".
- American International Pictures had planned at one stage to revive the character Count Yorga from the film Count Yorga, Vampire (1970) as an adversary for the abominable Dr. Phibes in this sequel. This plan was eventually dropped, however actor Robert Quarry (who plays Count Yorga) did appear in this film as Darius Biederbeck.
- Peter Cushing was originally cast in the Joseph Cotten role in the original film but was forced to withdraw due to his wife's ailing health.
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