:12:01
when the Lux Radio Theater broadcast
a one-hour dramatisation of the film
:12:05
in September 1943, with Susanna Foster
and Nelson Eddy reprising their roles.
:12:10
Miss Foster recalls Rathbone keeping
an oxygen tank in his dressing room
:12:14
and charging up before the performance.
:12:18
Rains completed Casablanca
just prior to Phantom.
:12:20
His contract was up at Warners
when he took Phantom as a freelance.
:12:24
March 15, 1943,
the day after shooting wrapped,
:12:27
he signed a new two-year four-picture
deal with Warner Brothers.
:12:31
When Phantom became a money machine
for Universal, they wanted a sequel.
:12:35
But Rains said no. He much preferred
Mr Skeffington and Passage to Marseille
:12:39
than more horror films.
:12:41
Rains, according to Arthur Lubin,
spent one month in preproduction
:12:45
learning to play piano and violin
so that he would be technically correct.
:12:52
Rains loathed the Hollywood life
:12:54
and lived in Pennsylvania farm country,
and later New Hampshire.
:12:58
He endured Hollywood
for the time it took to make a picture,
:13:01
then raced home to the farm back East.
:13:04
His daughter Jessica recalls a childhood
milking cows and gathering eggs.
:13:08
For more insights into Rains, I
recommend Rudy Behlmer's commentary
:13:12
on the DVD of The Invisible Man, available
from Universal Studios Home Video.
:13:17
There were casting difficulties,
getting this picture started.
:13:21
Susanna Foster, 17 years old,
was a late addition to the cast.
:13:24
She turned 18 just as production began.
:13:27
She attracted attention in Paramount's
The Great Victor Herbert in 1940,
:13:31
but they failed to groom her talent
and she left.
:13:34
Her entrée to the Phantom cast
was felicitous.
:13:36
Lubin, hearing Susanna sing
at a dinner party
:13:39
at the home of Hollywood
reporter-writer Ed Brestray,
:13:42
asked her to audition
for his music director, Edward Ward.
:13:45
Susanna told me "Eddie played the piano
for me. I sang an aria from La Traviata,
:13:50
and 'Ah! Sweet Mystery of Life',
the usual stuff."
:13:53
"Eddie wanted me for the picture,
so Arthur did a screen test."
:13:56
"He was ahead of his time.
Instead of having me act,
:13:59
he had contract player
David Bruce interview me,