Director: Arthur Lubin
Writers: Eric Taylor, Samuel Hoffenstein
Stars: Nelson Eddy, Susanna Foster, Claude Rains
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1 Hour, 32 Minutes
Wait for it…. It’s a Universal Horror film… in COLOR!
We start out at a showing of an opera, and the cast is quite large. As the show progresses Inspector Raoul wanders around observing. He’s here for Christine. Lead singer Anatole notices and doesn’t like it a bit.
The boss calls Christine in and says she’s nearing the point where she’ll need to decide between her career and a more normal life with her man.
Christine talks to Claudin in the hallway, and he’s obviously infatuated with her, and shy as well. The boss next calls Claudin in, and he makes Claudin play for him. He doesn’t like the way Claudin plays anymore. He’s losing his abilities, as his hands are having a problem. He’s forced to retire, but at least the Maestro arranges for him to have a season ticket. Claudin leaves, depressed and unemployed.
The landlady claims he’s rich, but he still owes her money. He says he hasn’t any money. He goes to see Frezetti, who tutors Christine on how to sing. He’s been paying Frezetti for Christine’s lessons, and now that Claudin is without a job, the lessons must stop.
He goes to the music publisher to sell the music he’s written. The publisher gets rude, and he’s lost the only copy of the concerto. He hears his music playing in the next room and attacks the publisher. The assistant throws acid in his face. The publisher is dead and Claudin did it.
The police search the streets, but Claudin hides in the sewers. The next day the opera finds a costume and two masks have been stolen. The stage manager blames a ghost, the phantom of the opera. The owner’s master key has gone missing as well.
Later, Christine sings to Anatole, and it’s the same little local song that Claudin had played for the Maestro. They’re both from the same little town. The inspector interrupts the duet. He asks Christine about Claudin, but she didn’t know him well. The inspector finds a bust of Christine in Claudin’s home. Anatole made it for a gift and it was stolen from his dressing room. Anatole and Raoul are shaping up to be rivals for Christine.
We then get a rather long “opera break” which cuts away to the Phantom doing something with a prop drink. The leading female singer then grabs the cup and drinks it. The star then immediately gets sick and needs to be replaced. Her stand-in, Christine, has to replace her.
Christine comes back out on stage after the break and blows everyone away. The star recovers and blames Anatole for poisoning her. There’s a police investigation, but the opera owners tell her to forget the whole thing for her own sake. She makes an ultimatum, which then brings the Phantom out of hiding. He kills both the madame and her maid. Anatole and Raoul chase him through the stage workings, but he escapes.
A note is found demanding that the opera re-open with Christine in the lead role. Inspector Raoul says not to let her sing, which should draw the Phantom out of hiding. They get a different singer, and they decide to also use Claudin’s music after the opera.
The opera begins. All the characters in the opera wear masks, so the inspector can’t tell who’s who. This time, the Phantom doesn’t mess with the actors, instead, he climbs up and saws through the chains holding up the huge chandelier above the crowd.
In the confusion, Claudin grabs Christine and pulls her into the tunnels beneath the opera house. He professes his love and intends to lock her up in the dungeon.
As Franz Liszt himself begins to play Claudin’s concerto, Raoul and Anatole head into he dungeons to look for her. Claudin hears it and plays along down in the dungeon, as the good guys home in on the music. Christine pulls his mask off and he’s got a fairly realistic looking burn scar. The inspector’s gun goes off, which brings down the roof. The heroes run for the exit, leaving the Phantom behind.
Some time later, Christine comes in after another hit show. Anatole and Raoul end up going out together as Christine doesn’t have time for either of them.
Commentary
Claude Rains is great, but not so much here. He’s just so little, timid, and innovensive in the first part. He’s like a hobbit, kindly and innocent. It’s not really believable that he’d do all the bad stuff later. Nelson Eddy gets lots of chances to sing, and he and the inspector make an entertaining pair. The production values were high, and you can see this in the background stage production alone. Those operas had casts of dozens of actors and singers.
This was originally planned as an Abbott and Costello movie (you can kind of see that in the interactions between Anatole and Raoul), and there was talk of a black-and-white version starring Charles Laughton, but obviously. Both of those fell through and we got this mostly serious retelling of the story.