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Phantom of the Opera

Play trailer Poster for Phantom of the Opera Released Aug 27, 1943 1h 32m Horror Play Trailer Watchlist
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77% Tomatometer 22 Reviews 77% Popcornmeter 25,000+ Ratings
Talented Christine (Susanna Foster) is unaware that her singing lessons are being funded by a secret admirer, Enrique (Claude Rains), a mysterious violinist with a disfigured face. Christine's colleagues become suspicious when mysterious accidents start occurring at the Paris Opera House, as the deaths coincide with her meteoric rise to stardom. Christine's suitors, Raoul (Edgar Barrier) and Anatole (Nelson Eddy), brave the dark recesses of the opera house to find the true culprit.
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Phantom of the Opera

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Critics Consensus

Though it lives beneath the 1925 version, Claude Rains plays title character well in this landmark color version of the classic tragedy.

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Critics Reviews

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Boston Globe Rated: 4/4 Oct 29, 2005 Full Review Detroit Free Press Rated: 3/4 Dec 27, 2004 Full Review Christy Lemire Journal News (Westchester, NY) Rated: A Dec 27, 2004 Full Review Matt Brunson Film Frenzy While Lon Chaney Sr. remains the best (and most frightening) Phantom, Claude Rains lands in the place position for his more sympathetic handling of the role. Rated: 3/4 Oct 28, 2023 Full Review Alan French 1428 Elm The cinematography remains gorgeous to this day, and the sets are pretty. It is a picture of opulence. On that front, the film remains a success Rated: 2.5/4 Oct 12, 2018 Full Review Dan Jardine All Movie Guide Lon Chaney created such an empathetic villain that it was nearly impossible not to root for him Nov 13, 2015 Full Review Read all reviews

Audience Reviews

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Jay W "The Phantom of the Opera" exists in a special gray area of classic Universal Monsters. The 1925 silent film stars Lon Chaney, the father of "the Wolfman". This one from 1943 stars Claude Rains, who also starred as "The Invisible Man". In a way the Phantom can be seen as both the first of the classic monsters and one of the last of their kind. I admire the fact that, even though is a "remake" of the 1925 film it feels like a completely different film. It would have been so easy for producers to just take the same story, put in color and sound and call it a day. But instead they went above and beyond and crafted a more fleshed out story for the Phantom. And when the story focuses on the backstory of the phantom, it is really good. When the film does the opera parts, it is a real drag. Of course, that will all vary depending on how much you like watching people sing boldly in Italian. Those scenes were just too many and too long. Changing the origin of the phantom does present its own problems, for example his relation to that of Christine suffers due to the change. Claude Raines does a good job as the Phantom. But, knowing how well he can laugh maniacally, I was hoping for a bit more of his over the top villainous performance. There is a running gag about a love triangle for Christine that gets a good number of laughs. Overall, it is admiral how much new they bring to the Phantom story. The movie just suffers from pacing problems, spending too much time focusing on the wrong things. Enough so, that the movie feels like it ends just when the story gets going. But it is good enough that you could call me a fan of the Phantom. Rated 3 out of 5 stars 11/21/24 Full Review Andrew L The first half hour of the film gives an origin of The Phantom and how he came to be. How the police couldn't figure out that Claude Rains's character of Enrique Claudin was The Phantom from the very beginning is the biggest mystery of this movie. Rated 2 out of 5 stars 07/04/24 Full Review Valerii Ege D Worldwide's third, second English adaptation. Captive Wild Woman was the boring movie in Universal Horror, but I am changing my mind; this movie, is hard to finish. Even worse, the process of the story changed. Rated 1 out of 5 stars 09/19/23 Full Review Liam D The most forgotten member of the universal monsters has one of the best movies all down to the beautiful Oscar winning Cinematography, great writing and symphonic performance by Claude Reins (The Greatest Story Ever Told, The Lost World) Rated 5 out of 5 stars 01/08/23 Full Review Audience Member The novel's 1943 adaptation holds zero thrills or surprises and simply plays like a romantic drama with overstretched musical numbers, out-of-place comic reliefs and very little interplay between Erique and Christine. The creation of an origin story for the Phantom wasn't a bad idea, so it's a shame that the result is uninspired and unconvincing. As for the second half, it has no menace or suspense and leads to an anemic climax. In short, all the mystique is gone and everything is watered down. Rated 1.5 out of 5 stars 02/11/23 Full Review Audience Member i personally loved this movie the acid effects were awesome and the story line was perfect Rated 5 out of 5 stars 02/25/23 Full Review Read all reviews
Phantom of the Opera

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Movie Info

Synopsis Talented Christine (Susanna Foster) is unaware that her singing lessons are being funded by a secret admirer, Enrique (Claude Rains), a mysterious violinist with a disfigured face. Christine's colleagues become suspicious when mysterious accidents start occurring at the Paris Opera House, as the deaths coincide with her meteoric rise to stardom. Christine's suitors, Raoul (Edgar Barrier) and Anatole (Nelson Eddy), brave the dark recesses of the opera house to find the true culprit.
Director
Arthur Lubin
Producer
George Waggner
Screenwriter
Samuel Hoffenstein, John Jacoby, Gaston Leroux, Eric Taylor
Distributor
Universal Home Entertainment, MCA/Universal Home Video, MCA, Universal Pictures
Production Co
Universal Pictures
Genre
Horror
Original Language
English
Release Date (Theaters)
Aug 27, 1943, Wide
Release Date (Streaming)
Aug 19, 2014
Runtime
1h 32m
Sound Mix
Mono
Aspect Ratio
Academy (1.33:1)
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