There are many filmed and staged versions of Gaston Leroux’s masterpiece of horror, the novel Phantom of the Opera. The original film version with Lon Chaney remains a classic of the silent era; I’ll never forget seeing it in college with a live pipe organ accompaniment. There was a TV version with Charles Dance as the Phantom. Without question, though, my favorite is the 1943 film with Claude Rains as the Phantom, Nelson Eddy, Suzanne Foster as Christine, Hume Cronyn as the second detective, and Gladys Blake, who also shows up in The Women and in These Glamour Girls as the cashier at the dance hall.
Why my favorite? Well, not because of Claude Rains (much as I love him), and not because of the traditional Hollywood liberties taken with the plot. Nelson Eddy is fantastic; the trailer says that it is his “most vigorous performance.” I adore Suzanne Foster, one of the birdlike sopranos of the period. Jane Farrar as the wicked soprano Biancarolli scintillates with evil. (“Why, I was drugged! And you ALL know by who. Anatole Garron DID IT . . . to make room for that . . . for that BAGGAGE!”) And it seems so incongruous to see Hume Cronyn cast in such a meaningless throwaway part when he went on to achieve such fame (and had already started to do so on the Broadway stage . . . ) The costumes are magnificent.
Mostly, it’s the music. This movie begins with the Paris Opera performing Martha, now little known but at one time such a standard part of the repertoire that it had to be performed annually. “Mag der himmel euch vergeben,” which I think is the finale of Act III, comes near the beginning of the film, and for awhile it was one of my musical obsessions. It’s sung in French here. I just love it.
But far and above that is the opera the filmmakers cobbled together from the music of Chopin, Amour et Gloire. Because of WWII, for some reason they couldn’t secure copyright from all the traditional operas they wanted, so they had to improvise. You definitely recognize all the tunes! (Go to 03:42 on this clip for the start.) During the opera, Biancarolli is directed to drink something from a goblet (the words “creme de menthe” are audible in her lyrics). The Phantom, knowing this, has already added poison to it. When Biancarolli leaves the stage, she is taken ill, collapses, and is taken to her dressing room. Christine, her understudy, has to be made ready to go in in her place - and fast! Nelson Eddy, on stage, and the conductor in the pit have no idea anything is wrong.
Suddenly, during the ball, Nelson Eddy receives a message from Napoleon that the troops are required in battle. He calls out to the assembly “Comrades! L’Empereur nous appelle!” The sound then comes of what is supposed to be Biancarolli’s character singing offstage. The voice, we know, is Christine’s. We see Nelson, and then the conductor, look up expectantly, and then . . . and then . . . and then Christine makes her entrance at the top of a grand staircase, singing her big aria. Nelson Eddy falls back, dazzled by the dream of performing at last with the lady he loves on the stage of the Paris Opera.
And that’s all well and good, but what is exciting about this is the music! When they were cobbling together this Chopin opera for the movie, the music they chose for this was his famous nocturne opus 9, No. 2 - which my gramma played, which Mother played, and which I was learning to play at the time I first saw this movie. The thrill remains with me every time I see this, even erty-farf years later. And it is thrilling! “MOM, C’MERE!”
Oddly enough I started thinking about this ‘cause I was watching Charlie Chan at the Opera with Boris Karloff (and William Demarest as the racist police sergeant) - go figure!