1:04:04
who brought down the chandelier.
1:04:06
Nicki was never seen again
after Phantom.
1:04:08
Cronyn was cast in substantial parts
by Alfred Hitchcock
1:04:11
in Shadow of a Doubt and Lifeboat,
1:04:14
ending his Universal contract
with a breathtaking performance
1:04:17
as the sadistic prison boss who achieves
ecstasy with whippings and Wagner
1:04:22
in Brute Force.
1:04:33
Phantom of the Opera is often criticised
for containing too much opera.
1:04:37
Producer George Waggner in 1943
1:04:40
justified his bloodless opera ghost
to the Los Angeles Daily News
1:04:44
by downsizing the Lon Chaney original:
1:04:47
"I thought I'd better see
the original picture."
1:04:50
"It was a real surprise" said Waggner.
"There wasn't any plot,
1:04:54
only a horrible-Iooking old boy swinging
around the chandelier, scaring kiddies."
1:04:59
At that point the producer confided to
the reporter that the new phantom was
1:05:03
"really the father of the prima donna".
1:05:06
Arthur Lubin made it a point of honour
not to screen the silent film,
1:05:10
and he never saw the Lon Chaney picture.
1:05:13
Art director Alex Golitzen
did screen the Chaney film
1:05:16
several times during preproduction.
1:05:32
While the chandelier
at the Paris Opera has never fallen,
1:05:35
there was historic precedent
for this incident -
1:05:37
one which hovered over audiences
1:05:39
in the years preceding
electrification of public buildings.
1:05:43
One event in the musical world,
possibly apocryphal,
1:05:46
concerns the premiere of Haydn's
Symphony No 96 in London in 1794.
1:05:52
The chandelier is said to have given way,
1:05:54
but with the audience seated toward the
front of the orchestra, no one was hurt.
1:05:59
Hence the name the "Miracle" Symphony
that's attached to the work ever since.