Starring a who's who of Brit-film character actors at the time, from Terry Thomas ("Vault of Horror") to Virginia North ("On Her Majesty's Secret Service"). Cotten, an American, also showed up in "Lady Frankenstein."

Director Fuest brings an enormous sense of art-deco style and grand guingol humor to the affair, and this film truly set the stage for what many consider Price's finest work -- including Price himself -- "Theater of Blood," a movie clearly inspired by "Phibes," but which actually succeeds in outdoing it.

After a series of bizarre, freak accident-style murders of doctors baffles Scotland Yard, an investigator (Peter Trout) learns that the killings are all seem to be based on the 10 Biblical plagues that befell Egypt. With the help of an American doctor (Cotten) who seems linked to the killings, investigators realize the murders are related to the death of a Virginia Phibes. All the doctor victims happened to work on her case -- and failed to save her.

Her late husband, Dr. Phibes (Price), it turns out is actually alive, or at least appears to be. He can only communicate verbally when a wire is plugged into his vocal chords. He also eats through a tube in his neck. HIs only companion is his mute, beautiful, ultra-sexy and super fashionably dressed assistant Vulvana (North). As it turns out, Phibes is dead, but has managed to resurrect himself to exttract revenge on the doctors who negligenly failed to save the life of his wife.

No matter what the police do to try to stop Phibes, he seems to get through their defenses, killing the doctors one by one, until finally Cotten is the only one left.