Phantom of the Opera

A horror romance that I love very much. True, this film is not good for arousing fear, but the story of the mutilated phantom of the Paris Opera still has its constant charm, supported in this film by both the excellent stylization of the environment and the acting performances. He's such a cutely naïve Hollywood son who doesn't dispel his naivety. (29/01/2004)

The show must go on. Eighteen years after its famous adaptation of the Phantom of the Opera, Universal tried again. This time with sound and in a full palette of colors. Lubin doesn’t stick very close to Leroux’s novel. The movie has that naive magic of old Hollywood. The main reason for this movie working is the cast. And when you’ve got Rains, who seems to enjoy playing dark characters with a tragic perspective, playing the Phantom, then there can’t be any problems. Or so you would have thought. For some strange reason, after he was disfigured, somebody decided to sideline Claude’s character far off into the background, away from any of the action. So, Rains doesn’t have the slightest chance to bring his ingeniously initiated role to perfection. The Paris Opera House scenery was the same as was used in the 1925 adaptation. And it still looks monumental. A fairly interesting segment of the movie is in Claude’s garret apartment which was again probably scenery borrowed from another movie, because they reminded me strongly of the best of German expressionist movies. But that means that it doesn’t really fit with the rest of the movie. However, she is a joy to behold. Which applies to the rest of the movie, too. (24/03/2008)

The king of Universal's monster movies of the 1940s. Beautiful Technicolor, great music and even better design, Susanna Foster's perfect face, comic interactions between two suitors, one of whom is Nelson Eddy... need I say more?. And it's also got the great Claude Rains. I have to also finally let myself enjoy the almost identical The Climax (1944), in which Boris Karloff drools over Susanna. (28/07/2015)