LeeMunsick

1990 two-part Brit film, made for TV to take advantage of the interest in the then hit Broadway musical. This one is not a musical, but has numerous excellent operatic scenes. A young Comte, patron of the opera, hears a beautiful singer at a country fair, sends her to the impresario of the opera house to arrange for singing lessons. That manager has just been dismissed, succeeded by a scurrilous couple played by jealous, demanding soprano Andréa Ferréol and her husband, fawning Ian Richardson. He's in a very different role for him, which couldn't keep out his usual officious nature behind a very strange semi-Italian accent! I imagine he relished every second of it. Ferréol demands the leading roles in every opera, refuses to give lovely ingenue Teri Polo lessons, but lets her stay on as her costume girl and dresser to lesser players. Veteran character actor Charles Dance does a fine job as Erik, the Phantom, as does Burt Lancaster as the ousted manager. Unlike that famous organ scene in the Lon Chaney 1925 silent, we never see Erik's face. When he is unmasked, his back remains to the camera. I've seen most if not all of the film "Phantoms" and deem this the finest of all. Direction, sets, locations are all absolutely outstanding. The TV film originally ran on two different nights, with complete, long opening titles and closing credits run both times. The first installment ends suddenly with the huge chandelier crashing down on opera patrons. Tres abrupt! Viewers must fiddle around with controls to jump to the "next scene", the film's concluding half, and sit through those titles again. Should have been re-edited for home viewers. But the performance itself is well worth it, after one figures all this out. A very strange trailer is included as the third CD "scene".

This delightful film won numerous awards. Still relatively unknown to the public, it was introduced in the 1950s to many more viewers on the Sunday morning CBS Television program "Omnibus" (would it were still with us!). Omnibus devotees loved it, and enjoyed several repeats.

The small cast is excellent, including the movie debut of outstanding British stage-TV-film character actor Alan Badel, who went on to many choice roles. Photography is choice. Direction superb, music wonderful!

The soundtrack made famous the "Swedish Rhapsody" by Hugo Alfven. Its popularity encouraged Alfven to compose "Swedish Rhapsody No. 2", which never garnered the acceptance of its bigger brother.

The plot is deliciously clever. I wouldn't want to spoil it for viewers, except to ask the cliff-hanging question, "Did he get away with it?" Hard to find, but well worth the fight. I sought it for years before a kindly classical music DJ sent me a VHS copy.

A gem, truly a gem.

Verrrrry strange, eerie film which may have one riveted but totally perplexed for the first half or 2/3, and some may never catch on. Totally wastes one of our time's finest actors, Ian Richardson, as so many of his films have done (see him--or perhaps miss him--in "102 Dalmatians" as another example). Afterthought leaves many questions unanswered. Watch this only if you are deeply into film noir or totally weird scifi. At the least, rent before you buy.