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Phantom of the Opera

Phantom of the Opera

1943
Drama, Suspense/Thriller
1h 32m
Pit violinist Claudin hopelessly loves rising operatic soprano Christine Dubois (as do baritone Anatole and police inspector Raoul) and secretly aids her career. But Claudin loses both his touch and his job, murders a rascally music publisher in a fit of madness, and has his face etched with acid... (imdb)
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Phantom of the Opera

1943
Drama, Suspense/Thriller
1h 32m
Your probable score
Avg Percentile 41.93% from 179 total ratings

Ratings & Reviews

(178)
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Rated 06 Mar 2009
55
18th
I'm torn on this one. Claude Rains is great, the Technicolor photography looks gorgeous, but it's just not very engaging. The songs suck. I think a lot of the problems are shared with the silent film - it's a silly story that is reliant on the lead performance.
Rated 26 Dec 2009
75
54th
While it could have used more Phantom and less Opera, Lubin's gala Technicolor rendering of Gaston Leroux's timeless terror tale boasts its share of highlights, including the chandelier scene and Claude's disastrous encounter with a crass music publisher.
Rated 16 Oct 2011
72
32nd
Entertaining Hollywood grab-bag with music, light comedy, shallow romance and some creepy moments. The elements all undermine each other, but never enough to make it bad, just a bit underwhelming. The three leading men are pretty good, but the leading lady does not match them at all.
Rated 26 Oct 2013
58
7th
Eh. It's very pretty to look at, with the massive opera set and the Technicolor photography, and Claude Rains is quite good whenever he's around, but it's just too plodding and generic. There's not near enough horror and mystery at play here; it focuses too much on bland comic relief and a cute but uninteresting love triangle. The best of the classic Hollywood horror films have a good feel for the Gothic, but this one is ultimately just a generic melodrama.
Rated 28 Jul 2014
48
19th
Every virtue in this film has a downside. Rains is effective, but he has too little screen time, while the Technicolour photography is pretty but ultimately wasted on a mediocre script. There is also no real atmosphere, which is shocking considering the gothic grandeur of the Lon Chaney silent. Overall, it's just far too safe and mannered and generically Hollywood to have any substantial impact.
Rated 14 Dec 2018
60
89th
They went with beauty over chills. Stunning to look at Phantom of the Opera (1943) with all it's splendor and color, but it came at the expense of it's main character. Or just maybe Nelson Eddy didn't want to be over-shadowed by the phantom of Claude Rains, so a lot more time was dedicated to the stage opera than the tortured soul of the masked terror. There's still a uplifting elegance to it all.
Rated 26 Mar 2021
55
53rd
Best taken as a light-hearted romance about a beautiful and talented woman beset by three suitors, one of whom is dangerously obsessed, forcing the other two, who are less dangerously obsessed, to temporarily put their rivalry to one side, only to discover, upon successfully vanquishing the threat, that the woman's true love is her art, after which the rivals establish a good-natured friendship based on their shared admiration for a woman that unfortunately neither of them is able to possess.
Rated 02 Mar 2007
50
35th
Too much opera.
Rated 01 Apr 2007
80
68th
One of the better versions. Claude Rains is good as the title character, the songs are fine, and those two supporting doofuses amuse -- like two dogs after the same bone
Rated 22 Feb 2008
60
28th
It's not as expressive as the silent version, but Claude Raines always delivers a good performance.
Rated 07 Mar 2008
52
45th
Pretty, but not great.
Rated 02 Jul 2009
57
51st
It has some advantages over the 1925 version just because it uses latest (at the time) technologies very successfully. Lots of good opera singing, and Technicolor looks really good. Story, on the other hand, it average at best. They tried to stuff too much romance and comedy, and the result feels very Hollywood-ish, in a bad way. Leading lady wasn't impressive either.
Rated 04 Dec 2009
71
50th
This rendition provides almost as much opera as phantom, with Eddy and Foster warbling away, oblivious to the crazed antics of Rains, who makes a good monster. The film looks superb under the color lighting of Hal Mohr, who was awarded a cinematography Oscar.
Rated 21 Jan 2010
6
53rd
Opera of the Phantom seemed a more likely title for this rendition.
Rated 18 Jul 2010
50
13th
Plodding, but with a few bright moments.
Rated 26 May 2011
46
23rd
Well, talk about guns causing damage.
Rated 20 Apr 2014
72
43rd
72.000
Rated 06 Sep 2015
65
54th
Works best if viewed as a comedy with dark elements, rather than as a straight-up horror. The plot is awful, basically being propelled forward by plot holes and everyone taking turns to be really stupid, but it has a lot of charm and quirkyness. At least it does not go the way of 'stalking as love' that so many other adaptations take. And it boasts one of the most satisfying resolutions of a love triangle I have ever seen.
Rated 11 Sep 2016
72
31st
A good edition to the Universal Monsters canon, but not quite up to the quality of its predecessors. "Phantom of the Opera" has lush visuals and music but this makes up the forefront of the film. It lacks the personal core of the original Lon Chaney version. At the end of the film I had a hard time figuring out who was supposed to be our protagonist? Was it Eric? Was it Christine? Was it the character of Raoul split in half into Inspector Raoul and Anatole? Enjoyable, but muddled.
Rated 31 Mar 2017
30
18th
For Claude Rains fans only. For fans of the story, almost ANY other version is better than this one. The glossy tecnhicolor + ordinary sets = zero atmosphere. And the script is terrible. Rains is the only one involved with any real life, and he's immediately recognizable even with his mask. There are dished-up operas with themes by Chopin and Tchaikovsky (his 4th Symphony). In RUSSIAN, which would never have happened in Paris at that time.
Rated 06 Jun 2021
45
20th
there’s a love triangle, some goofy comedy, and Claude Rains as a violinist who ends up on the run after a vengeful murder, hiding out in the opera house—and everybody knows it. There is no mystery. There is no horror. There is no pathos.
Rated 19 Sep 2022
30
5th
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 06 Apr 2023
70
75th
This was much more of a suspenseful drama than a horror film and for this version, I think it worked remarkably well.

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