Phantom of the Opera (1943)

This version boasts Claude Rains as a violinist secretly paying for the voice lessons of aspiring opera singer Susanna Foster, that is until he gets acid thrown in his face and becomes The Phantom. Policeman Edgar Barrier and opera star Nelson Eddy compete for Fosters attention, Hume Cronyn and Fritz Feld have bit parts. Very nice cinematography and set design (for which the film won Oscars); the refurbished opera house set from the original 1925 version looks amazing. Film also contains sequences of two 'operas' created for the film to get around a difficult copyright situation because of the Second World War (opera copyright holders in Europe could not be contacted). Solid rendering of oft repeated story. Grade: B-