Thirty-One Days O’Horror: The Phantom of the Opera (1962)

“You will be singing only…..for me.”

Gaston Leroux’s world famous novel, The Phantom of the Opera, has been adapted for film, television, musicals, and more over the years. Universal Studios distributed one of the earliest adaptations of the novel that starred the brilliant Lon Chaney as the Phantom. In 1943, Claude Rains would don the mask of the Phantom in yet another Universal release of the film. Universal would release yet another adaptation of the story with Hammer Productions in 1962. This time around the film would star Herbert Lom as a much more sympathetic yet just as twisted Phantom.

The story somewhat follows the events of the 1943 film version although it moves the story to London. The Phantom, whose real name is Professor Petrie in this version, has his musical work bought by the wicked Lord Ambrose who in turn publishes the musical, Saint Joan, under his name instead of Petrie’s name. Enraged, Petrie attempts to destroy all printed versions of the work at the printing office and is scarred by acid while trying to put out a fire that almost destroys the building. He hides in the sewers beneath the London Opera House for years, terrifying the players, stage hands, and guests. He falls for the lovely Christine Charles and tells her that he will teach her to sing so that he can hear her perform his musical before he dies.

The film wasn’t very well received by critics of the time. Many of the cast members were critical of it as well. Personally, I felt that while the film did drag at moments, it gave us a very tragic version of the Phantom that was actually worth cheering on in the story. The true villain of the piece is Lord Ambrose, played with wicked perfection by Michael Gough. Modern audiences will most likely recognize Gough as Alfred Pennyworth in the Batman films released between 1989 and 1997. In this tale he’s the terrible owner of the London Opera House who “dismisses” almost everybody that works for him. Sadly we never really get to see what happens to him in this film, as he runs out of the opera house whenever he rips off the Phantom’s mask and we never see him again.

The film’s cast is extremely good despite being in a film that does have quite a few faults. Lom does a brilliant job as the Phantom. As I already stated, he’s a tragic figure that deserves pity and Lom does an excellent job of portraying that in this film. The striking Heather Sears portrayed the Phantom’s muse, Christine Charles. She was very convincing in the role. Her singing voice was also amazing…..thanks to the dubbed voice of Pat Clark in her place. Edward de Souza portrayed Harry Hunter, a producer at the London Opera House who becomes enchanted by Christine and attempts to determine who or what the Phantom actually is before any more murders occur. He injects a little bit of light humor in the film although humor is severely lacking in this story for the most part. Other significant performers included Thorley Walters, Patrick Troughton, and Ian Wilson.

While this adaptation of the famous Gaston Leroux novel often falls into the cracks of film history, it’s definitely worth checking out. It’s more of a tragedy than a horror but that doesn’t mean that it isn’t a good film. Hammer made a very entertaining film here and I’m glad that I finally watched it.

Thanks for checking out my post about this oft forgotten version of The Phantom of the Opera. I’ll have another horrific Hammer film review for you tomorrow!