:38:04
They were masterpieces. I think it was the
first time that Boris had a chance to play
:38:09
an elegant man.
:38:11
And when he came dressed in his tails
and his wonderful hat, he was beautiful.
:38:17
Once again, audiences
were treated to the Phantom stage
:38:21
and Hal Mohr's Technicolor camera work.
:38:33
But Universal's hope to repeat
Phantom's success went up in flames.
:38:38
The Climax didn't have the name
"Phantom of the Opera".
:38:41
With that name alone you were safe.
:38:44
The Climax proved more
of an anticlimax at the box office.
:38:51
Following World War Il,
the Phantom lurked quietly at Universal,
:38:56
unmasked again for a cameo
in William Castle's 1951 Hollywood Story.
:39:02
In 1955, another
Phantom script was prepared,
:39:06
again set in the gaslight era.
:39:08
But the new face of fear at Universal
was the Creature from the Black Lagoon
:39:14
and other modern horrors
of the fabulous Fifties.
:39:17
Lon Chaney now was
the stuff of old-fashioned melodrama,
:39:21
which the film story of his life became.
:39:24
Damn you!
:39:25
Damn you! Damn you!
:39:29
Man of a Thousand Faces was a sanitised
retelling of Chaney's Hollywood story.
:39:35
They love him, don't they?
:39:37
The authorised version
of a very private life,
:39:40
which some felt dropped the curtain
on the true backstage drama.
:39:45
The son of deaf-mutes, Lon Chaney was
sensitively portrayed by James Cagney.
:39:51
The film explained
Chaney's craft and fame,
:39:55
but weak facsimiles of Chaney's triumphs
:39:58
failed to convey
his power of accomplishment.