Phantom of the Opera
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: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.


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