The Phantom of the Opera (1943)
Now I remember why it's been over 20 years since I've seen this one: I don't really like it. Easily my least favorite of the golden age of Universal Monsters, it's a case of way too much opera and way too little Phantom.
The lush technicolor looks gorgeous on the blu-ray, but it just doesn't feel like a horror movie, especially taken alongside masterpieces like Dracula & Frankenstein. Claude Rains is great (as always) as the Phantom, but he's offscreen so often that instead of building tension it just leaves the viewer feeling bored waiting for him to return and inject a little life into the movie. The reveal of his deformity, what should be an iconic and terrifying moment, lays there inert on the screen, much like any other "big" moment in this version it's missing an element of true horror or pathos or anything to make it memorable.
It's difficult not to compare this to other versions, and it doesn't hold a candle to Lon Chaney's take from 1925, a movie that still holds the power to shock and horrify. If I'm being embarrassingly honest, I even prefer the Dwight H. Little joint from 1989 with Robert Englund and (dreamy sigh) Jill Schoelen. It's crazy, but at least it's FUN crazy, this version is, sadly, a drag.
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