Rating: NR
Genre: Drama
Release Date: 04/12/2005
SubTitles: English/French
Dubbed: English
Sound: 5.1/1
Run Time: 93 Minutes
Flags: Suitable for Children
Distributor/Studio: Universal Studios

This Technicolor retelling of the Gaston Leroux "grand guignol" classic The Phantom of the Opera has a little more opera than phantom, but that's because the stars are soprano Susannah Foster and tenor Nelson Eddy. Claude Rains carries the acting honors on his shoulders, playing a pathetic orchestra violinist who worships aspiring opera-singer Foster from afar. The girl is unaware that Rains has secretly been financing her music lessons with instructor Leo Carrillo. When he runs out of money, Rains attempts to sell the concerto that he's been working on all his life. Mistakenly believing that his precious concerto has been stolen from him, Rains attacks and kills the music publisher he holds responsible. Terrified, the publisher's mistress throws a pan full of acid into Rains' face. Rains runs screaming into the night, and is not heard from for the next reel or so. Soon afterward, the Paris Opera house is plagued by a series of mysterious accidents. The managers are informed via letter that the "accidents" will continue if Foster is not immediately promoted to leading roles. Only after reigning diva Jane Farrar is drugged into incapacitation is Foster given her big break. Farrar accuses Foster's boyfriend, police inspector Nelson Eddy, of doping her in order to advance Foster's career. Farrar is later strangled, and Eddy is accused of the crime. The culprit is, of course, Rains, who now poses as the masked-and-caped "phantom". Maniacally determined that no one will impede Foster's success, Rains causes a huge chandelier to crash down on the opera audience when Foster fails to appear onstage (she'd been kept from performing by police-chief Edgar Barrier, who hoped in this manner to flush The Phantom out of hiding). A chase through the catacombs below the opera house ensues, with Rains holding Foster prisoner. When Rains briefly lets down his guard, the tremulous Foster removes his mask. It's "yecccch," all right, but nowhere near as frightening as the unmasking scene in the silent Lon Chaney version of Phantom of the Opera. The same can be said for the rest of this 1943 remake, though in fairness it appears as though the film wasn't really designed to scare anyone, but instead to serve as a suspense yarn with musical interludes. Hume Cronyn makes his second film appearance in Phantom in a microscopic role. The huge sets designed for this picture were hastily reused for the 1944 Universal melodrama The Climax, starring Boris Karloff and (again) Susannah Foster.

~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

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Cast:
Nelson Eddy - Anatole Garron
Susanna Foster - Christine DuBois
Claude Rains - Enrique Claudin
Jane Farrar - Biancarolli
Edgar Barrier - Raoul D'Aubert
Leo Carrillo - Signor Feretti
Hume Cronyn - Gerard
Barbara Everest - Aunt
Fritz Leiber - Franz Liszt
J. Edward Bromberg - Amiot
Steven Geray - Vercheres
Frank Puglia - Villeneuve
Hans Herbert - Marcel
Fritz Feld - Lecours
Gladys Blake - Jennie

Production:
Arthur Lubin - Director
George Waggner - Producer
George Waggner Edward Ward - Composer
Russell Schoengarth - Editor
Samuel Hoffenstein John Jacolby Eric Taylor Hans Jacoby - Screen Writer
Russell A. Gausman Ira S. Webb - Set Designer
Alexander Golitzen - Art Director
John B. Goodman - Art Director
Hal Mohr - Cinematographer
Howard Greene - Cinematographer
W. Howard Greene - Cinematographer
Vera West - Costume Designer
Jack Pierce - Makeup
Edward Ward - Musical Direction/Supervision
Gaston Leroux - Book Author

Paul Leni's The Man Who Laughs
    Conrad Veidt / 1927
The Phantom of the Opera
    Burt Lancaster / NR / 1990

1943 Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Scie