:34:04
The vogue continued in American films
such as The Uninvited,
:34:08
where Ray Milland is a musician who
plays a Victor Young-written piano work
:34:14
which found popularity
as the hit tune "Stella by Starlight".
:34:17
The vogue peaked in 1945 in
Spellbound and The Enchanted Cottage.
:34:21
Both featured full-blown piano concertos
that achieved great popular currency.
:34:26
1945 also saw A Song to Remember
hit the box-office charts.
:34:31
For reasons unknown, the concerto
for piano and orchestra in Phantom
:34:35
never received
any commercial popularity.
:34:37
The song "Lullaby of the Bells"
didn't have any commercial recordings.
:34:43
It wasn't until 1948,
when the picture was reissued,
:34:46
that Mantovani and his orchestra
recorded a two-sided 78 record,
:34:50
for London Records, of the concerto,
with a studio orchestra and piano.
:34:56
January 20th script changes
on Phantom included a scene
:34:59
that would have followed
this exchange,
:35:02
where Aunt Madeline encouraged
Christine to keep company
:35:06
with a nice policeman like Raoul.
:35:09
And then she would rail against Anatole,
that worthless musician.
:35:12
"Music's poison!" Madeline would yell.
"It destroys people."
:35:16
"Give it up before it destroys you."
:35:18
This is because, again, Madeline
is the aunt who has raised her
:35:22
after salvaging the baby
from her dead sister,
:35:25
after that ridiculous Claudin
had left them all to starve.
:35:28
And this after Madeline's father offered
him a cushy job in the provincial mill.
:35:34
Revisions continued up to
the first day of shooting on January 21,
:35:37
and through shooting-with
more blue pages dated February 4.
:35:41
With 149 pages, the shooting script would
have yielded a two-and-a-half-hour movie.
:35:47
Pages and pages of the Claudin/Christine
family plot, thankfully, were deleted.
:35:53
Shooting in Technicolor, Universal
signed a contract with Hal Mohr.
:35:57
Phantom would be his first picture
for them under this contract.