Posts Tagged ‘CLASSICS’

Three Phantoms

Richard Chatten looks at three film interpretations of the famous 1910 novel by Gaston Leroux

Phantom of the Opera (1925)

Dir: Robert Julian | Cast: Lon Chaney, Mary Philbin, Norman Kerry

Although serving as both the visual and thematic template for most subsequent horror films, along with Lon Chaney’s extraordinary makeup in the title role – in later films The Phantom always spends more time in a mask – its unfortunate that Chaney was saddled with a journeyman like Rupert Julian to direct; with the result that although Chaney’s best-remembered film, it’s far from his best.

Despite the lavishness of the production – which went on to be a huge box office hit – it lacked the sheer single-minded morbidity of many of Chaney’s other films; particularly those he made with Tod Browning.

Best Picture Awards | Best Picture/Performance of the Month 1925

Phantom of the Opera (1943)

Dir: Arthur Lubin | Cast: Nelson Eddy, Susanna Foster, Claude Rains

In this 1943 edition of the American romantic horror film jobless violinist Enrique spend money anonymously to subsidise the musical lessons of a soprano who he secretly loves.

It’s a measure of the increasing status of Universal’s horrors that Oscar-winning Technicolor photography was lavished upon their remake of the 1925 classic; although the end result recalled Maria Montez rather than Boris Karloff.

Casting Claude Rains as The Phantom was an indication that the character was being softened, the acid in the face rather than deformity necessitating a mask making its first appearance. But the fact that Rains receives third billing after Nelson Eddy and Susannah Foster serves as warning that there’s going to be plenty of opera but not much Phantom.

Academy Award winner 1944 Best Cinematography | Art Direction

Phantom of the Opera (1962) 

Dir: Terence Fisher | Cast: Herbert Lom, Heather Sears, Edward de Souza

Christopher Lee having received operatic training and being possessed of an excellent singing voice particularly regretted failing to secure the lead in Hammer’s version of Gaston Leroux’s novel, the role instead going to Herbert Lom, after Cary Grant’s initial enthusiasm for making a film for Hammer waned.

The fact that the script was written with Grant in mind accounts for the toning down both of the Phantom’s madness and his capacity for violence – which why the dirty work is left to Ian Wilson’s hunchbacked dwarf – and when The Phantom finally rips off his mask, the makeup is grisly but anticlimactic.

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It’s a Wonderful Life (1946) **** Restoration

Dir.: Frank Capra; Cast: James Stewart, Donna Reed, Lionel Barrymore, Henry Travers; USA 1946; 130 min.

Director/co-writer Frank Capra wanted foremost “to combat atheism” when he filmed Philip Van Doren’s 1939 novella The Greatest Gift in 1946. Later he acknowledged “the feature developed a life of its own”, becoming everyone’s favourite Christmas movie since about 1976. But on its release, critics were rather unkind – on top of it, RKO lost half a million dollars at the box office. Bosley Crowther of the NYT wrote: “the weakness of this picture is the sentimentality of it—its illusory concept of life. Mr. Capra’s nice people are charming, his smalltown is a beguiling place, and his pattern for solving problems is most optimistic and facile. But somehow, they all resemble theatrical attitudes, rather than average realities.”

Nevertheless Frank Capra’s films always have a basis in reality and a moral tale to tell and despite the schmaltz, the reason this film is so universally popular, especially during the holiday season it that it endorses the important facts of life that we know are worth remembering: Don’t give up; Appreciate what you have – you could lose it, and loved-ones are more important that material riches (yes, this is a difficult one!)

In the small town of Bedford Falls George Baily (Stewart) lives with his wife Mary (Reed) and their three children. George not only saved his brother Harry from drowning as a child, he also worked hard for the community and has spent his entire life sacrifices himself for others in a job he’s never enjoyed doing. But it’s only when he nearly loses his life, that he really learns to appreciate again.

As usual, the eventual cast was a long way from the original proposals: Before Stewart, Henry Fonda and Cary Grant where considered to play George, whilst Jean Arthur and Ginger Rogers were also in the running before Donna Reed got the part. In her autobiography Rogers wrote her refusal of the Mary role might be “foolish, you say?”

On the 89 acre set of the RKO ranch in Encino, dogs, cats and pigeons roamed freely. The Main Street was 300 yards long, the equivalent of three city blocks. At the Oscars in 1946, William Whyler’s The Best Years of Our Lives swept the board, winning Best Picture (Samuel Goldwyn), Best Director for Whyler, Best Actor for Fredrick March and Best Editor for William Hornbeck. 

It’s a Wonderful Life won in the technical category, due to the success of Russell Shearman. who invented a new method to produce artificial snow. Until then, this ‘snow’ consisted of cornflakes, coloured in white. But the crunching noise of the actors walking on the flakes, made re-dubbing of these scenes necessary. Shearman used water, soap flakes, foamite and sugar, to save the re-dubbing. DoPs were Capra regular Joseph Walker and the (then) very young Joseph Biroc, who finished his long and outstanding career for Wim Wenders’ Hammett in 1982.

The last word should go to the FBI who wrote a memo after the premiere along these lines: “With regard to the picture It’s a Wonderful Life, the film represented rather obvious attempts to discredit bankers by casting Lionel Barrymore as a ‘scrooge-type’ so that he would be the most hated man in the picture. This, according to sources, is a common trick used by Communists”. Indeed. AS

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