With Halloween done and dusted, i’m left to sift through the remnants of the post ‘spooky season’ Bluray and DVD hangover pile. and given that this year I decided to revisit my ‘Universal Monsters: Essentials Collection’ set as part of the festivities, I’ve found that, by November 1st, the only film left in the set that I havent actively reviewed on here is their 1943 take on ‘The Phantom of the Opera’…and much like a trick or treaters sack. By the end of the day on November 1st, the good candy is gone, and im left with the unwrapped salt water taffy and a leaking sticky can of V8 from the one house that didnt get any candy in and had to scramble the cupboards to find ANYTHING to give out…I dont like Universals 1943 adaptation of ‘The Phantom of the Opera’

Now, dont get me WRONG. its nothing that this film PERSONALLY does wrong that puts me off it. If anything this is a very lavish production. A rich and sumptuous offering with grand sets, clear and semi creative direction. distinct cine and a stunning turn by Claude Rains as the titular Phantom.

My issue is purely around the pacing, and more importantly, the filling. Im still honestly a little confused as to why they included this film in the ‘Universal monsters essential collection’ set, given that the only real ties it has to the series is that this is a romance/tragedy with some darker elements… and ‘The Mummy’ and ‘Dracula’ are also romance/tragedies with more pronounced horror elements. but thats about it. All the other films in this boxset are presented in B&W, this is the only one presented in colour, while it *could* be said that this has horror elements. I’d really rather disagree, it doesnt have the vibe of any of the other universal horror movies either before or after it. It feels really more like they just wanted to put this film out, knew it probably wouldnt sell well as a standalone release, so they just shoved it onto this Universal monsters boxset because it has a creepy guy in a mask stalking a singer…thats seemingly the only tie…well…other than Claude Rains being in it.

Like I say, Direction? stunning. Cine? rich, colourful, well composed. the soundtrack is distinct the performances, more than suitable. Its the script that puts me off this.

Its not so much the plot, thats fine, the tone is VERY stuffy and overly dry with only a few moments of comedy help progress things, the problem I have is this film clocks in at 91 minutes (easily the longest ‘monster’ movie of this era) and it just seems to go on and on and on and on. WAY too many elongated operatic numbers, WAY too many scenes of people just idely talking in luxurious penthouses.

I lost track of the characters fairly early on because they keep introducing people who maybe get a line or two and then vanish. By the hour mark I was clockwatching. by an hour and a quarter i’d actively given up on thinking this film was going to turn it around, and I rounded up the 90 minutes BEGGING for it to finish sooner.

The characters (outside of Rains performance) are all overly dry and simplistic, the drama isnt nearly enough to hold me as an audience member. its just a slow death march to the inevitability we all know is coming with these characters from about 10 minutes in. And whereas the other universal monster movies have that same problem, the OTHER universal monster movies at least have the fortune of interesting characters, eccentric performances or unique stories to tell to help get the audience to their end point. This had no such luck.

I cant even really say ‘Well, it was in a horror boxset, but im sure if I was in the mood for this kind of film, i’d probably enjoy it more.’ Because films like ‘House of Wax’ or ‘The Mad Magician’ came out roughly around the same time as that (give or take a year or 5) and THEY offer a similar tale, but utilise the time in much more interesting and distinctive ways.

The majority of my score here is going purely on the technical aspects of the production, which for the time are very impressive…But its rare I find a film so against my own interests as a film goer that I feel almost repelled from it. This really wasnt my rodeo. I cant recommend it. There are other films that do this kind of thing significantly better.

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/phantom-of-the-opera/