Phantom of the Opera (1943)

IMDb plot summary: An acid-scarred composer rises from the Paris sewers to boost his favorite opera understudy's career.

Directed by Arthur Lubin. Starring Nelson Eddy, Susanna Foster, Claude Rains, and Edgar Barrier.

This is an interesting take on the character, in that he seems just like a regular quote-unquote "loser" who happens to be hiding out in the Opera House. He doesn't have money or intelligence or remarkable musical prowess or possible supernatural abilities -- he just managed to steal a master key and a prop mask and can now get in anywhere. And after that descent, he's barely in it, and the story switches to being... well, maybe about Christine, maybe about the police trying to solve the murders, but none of them really seem to be the film's central character either. I would maybe argue that this film's protagonist is... opera itself. We get 5-6 FULL LENGTH opera numbers -- it's got to be about a third of the film's runtime. The tone of the film overall is kind of messy and weird, but it does preserve some of the horror of the character and I guess if you're in the mood to listen to opera for half an hour, here it is.

How it entered my Flickchart:

Phantom of the Opera < Broken Embraces

Phantom of the Opera > Persona

Phantom of the Opera < And Then There Were None

Phantom of the Opera < Thoughtcrimes

Phantom of the Opera > Harold and Maude

Phantom of the Opera < In the Heat of the Night

Phantom of the Opera > Prince Caspian and the Voyage of the Dawn Treader

Phantom of the Opera > Ulysses

Phantom of the Opera > The Third Man

Phantom of the Opera < Take Me Out to the Ball Game

Phantom of the Opera < Apocalypse Now

Phantom of the Opera > Don't Look Now

Final spot: #2283 out of 3241, or 30%.