A remake of the 1925 film that was first greenlit after the success of Dracula (1931) and Frankenstein (1931), Universal's second adaptation of the Gaston Leroux potboiler tries to mix the gothic horror of its monster franchises with the pomp and opulence of a Hollywood musical. While financially and critically successful in its day (it's the only classic-era Universal horror movie to get any Oscar attention), movie nerds often consider this film to be one of the lesser cinematic renditions of the story; common complaints include tonal inconsistency, a lack of spookiness, an overemphasis on the musical set pieces, and a muddled screenplay that doesn't quite understand what its priorities are. Infamously, early versions of the story had the Phantom (Claude Rains) be the estranged father of Christine (Susanna Foster), but this plotline was dropped without any writers fleshing out another reason for the Phantom to be so fixated on this one random chorus girl. Ryan is joined by Sylvan and Cheryl for a discussion of this colorful, grandiose, and peculiar time capsule. Topics brought up over the course of this episode include the movie's lengthy journey through development hell, the curious decision to compose arias from nonexistent operas for the movie, the chemistry between Nelson Eddy and Edgar Barrier, and why movie versions of Phantom of the Opera are so radically different from both each other and the source material. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/ryan-valentine3/support