Pre-viewed for quality and both features played great, as they should, because both were bought brand new and still look that way. Both are Out Of Print (OOP) in all formats and no longer being produced.
ABOMINABLE DR. PHIBES: Inspector Trout of Scotland Yard is summoned to investigate the death of a prominent London doctor attacked in his bedroom by a large number of bats. This bizarre death follows closely that of another doctor, killed by bees. A pattern begins to emerge when another doctor, attending a masquerade ball, has his head crushed inside a shrinking frog mask, and another is literally drained of his blood in his own living room.
A medallion left at the scene of this latest murder contains a Hebrew symbol, which a Rabbi uses to deduce the common thread; namely, the 10 curses against Pharoah found in the Old Testament--the curses of boils, bats, frogs, blood, hail, beasts, rats, locusts, the first born, and darkness. With the help of Dr. Vesalius (Joseph Cotten), chief surgeon at the hospital where the dead doctors were employed, it is learned they all collaborated on a single case:
A failed operation to save the life of Victoria Phibes (Caroline Munro), wife of concert organist Dr. Anton Phibes (Vincent Price), who was reportedly burned to death in an automobile accident while rushing to her bedside. Unknown to authorities, Phibes survived the accident, used his knowlege of mechanics and acoustics to re-construct his body, and is methodically exacting revenge against the surgical team he holds responsible for his wife's death.
DR. PHIBES RISES AGAIN picks up exactly three years later as Phibes zodiac-sensitive alarm clock replaces his embalming fluid with warm blood. This time, Phibes plans for a happy eternity with Victoria are thwarted by millionaire Darius Biederbeck (Robert Quarry), who has aquired an ancient Egyptian map--Phibes' former property--that will lead him to a fountain of youth somewhere along the Nile.
Biederbeck has been artificially sustaining his youth for at least a century, but is running low, and is determined to preserve his youth for the sake of newfound love, Diana. The format of the previous film is followed precisely, with Phibes and his new Vulnavia creatively engineering the deaths of Bierderbeck's confederates; there is no theme or method applied to the murders, apart from one fellow whose body is crushed between the screw-driven head and foot-boards of a trick bed.
The format is followed so closely, in fact, that both films climax with a race against time involving a key.