Rent The Phantom of the Opera (1962)

Michael Gough has never been fruitier! (Spoilers follow) - The Phantom of the Opera review by NP

After tackling such horror luminaries as Dracula, Frankenstein, the Werewolf and the Mummy, Hammer films turned their attentions to poor old disfigured Erik, the opera ghost.

Except in this version, he’s not a ghost, and much of his mystery has been explained by a back-story. Told in flashback, it tells of how the character, Professor Petrie as he is named here, was a down-on-his-luck composer mercilessly robbed by the true villain of the piece, Lord Ambrose D'Arcy (Michael Gough). Petrie’s deformity – much like his eventual death – is the result of pure bad luck.

This was not a huge success for Hammer back in 1962, at least in the UK, where – true to form – censors had insisted much of the gore be removed (it fared much better in the US, who got to see the unbutchered version). Unfairly, director Terence Fisher seemed to have been temporarily black-listed by Hammer as a result.

I really enjoyed this. Hammer tinker with the original story in much the same way they tinkered with the source of their earlier horror pictures – budgetary considerations causing them to rethink various locations and developments. Their condensed version of the tale works well, mostly. Where it falls down is perhaps in the pacing: the famous unmasking scene, together with the equally well-known ‘falling chandelier’ spectacle all take place in the last couple of minutes, after we viewers have sat through a fairly lengthy operatic performance. Although pivotal to the story, giving Petrie the chance to see his work performed at last, these scenes slow the scenes following his back-story considerably.

For a film that has been criticised for making its titular character too human, there are no reasons to be sympathetic to the Phantom in the first half. There is no love between him and Heather Sears’ endearing Christine, and he treats her very badly indeed. His love is reserved entirely for his music, for so long denied him. It is only when we learn this that Petrie becomes a truly tragic figure.

Also, the nasty deeds are mainly left to ‘the dwarf’, played by Ian Wilson. His murderous sprees are dismissed as little more than mischief by Petrie. After all, it was the dwarf that saved his life and allows him to live undetected in his underground lair. This is an interesting development, but it does threaten to make the Phantom seem a little redundant in his own film. Lom’s performance, hidden behind Hammer’s last-minute mask and his voice robot-ised by distortion, doesn’t get the chance to come to life until late on. Film legend Cary Grant expressed an interest in working for Hammer, and the role here was cautiously written with him in mind, which might make sense of the fact that most of the Phantom’s nefarious activities were given to another.

For Hammer, this is an expensive looking production. Everyone is on great form here – and there are some amusing cameos from a heavily made-up Michael Ripper and Miles Malleson – but the greatest performance belongs to Michael Gough. Never has he been fruitier and so lip-smackingly vile than as D’Arcy – and the fact that he gets no real send off, certainly no comeuppance for his nastiness, is one of this otherwise terrific film’s biggest flaws. My score is 8 out of 10.