Horrorfest 2020: Hammerfest - The Phantom of the Opera

Starring Herbert Lom, Heather Sears, Edward de Souza and Michael Gough

Written by John Elder, based on the novel by Gaston Leroux

Directed by Terence Fisher

I've always avoided this movie because the PHANTOM just seems too big and fancy for a studio known for its modest budgets like Hammer. The design of the Phantom's mask and makeup I've seen in stills in horror movie books didn't do much to convince me otherwise, and there's no big name in the role -- Herbert Lom. Who's he? I dunno!

Well, I'm glad I finally got around to it because the Hammer version of THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA is actually better than I imagined it to be and a lot of the reason for that rests on the shoulders of Herbert Lom, who manages to inject the exact right amount of humanity and empathy into the Phantom, factors I feared would be missing in a production from a studio well-known for gore and cleavage. After all, they focus on the evil of characters like Dracula and Frankenstein, and that evil gets more and more maniacal as the sequels pile up, so what hope does the Phantom have? Apparently, plenty. Who knew?

This is a very loose adaptation of the original source material, but doesn't really suffer for it -- it wisely scales the story back a little, and they're still able to do a lot with the sets and the costumes to bring the right amount of gravitas to the production. There are also a couple little satisfying narrative twists for those of us familiar with famous sequences, like the crashing chandelier.

This adaptation isn't a straight up copy of the 40s attempt with Claude Rains, but it has more in common with that than Lon Chaney's version. I still feel the ultimate Phantom adaptation has yet to be made. The Schumacher movie a while back lacked star power (I mean I love Gerard Butler and all but he's no Phantom), what survives of the Lon Chaney version has great moments but lots of pacing issues, and the Claude Rains version just seems like such a wasted opportunity with its narrative choices.

But between all those we've got this Hammer version which is humble in its approach and nails the Phantom character, which is more than can be said for most productions. The greatest moments of the Chaney classic still eclipse this one, but it's worth a look and I'm sorry I dismissed it all these years.