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nessie665 · 9 hours

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The Prophecy by Taylor Swift (2024) / Phantom of The Opera at the Royal Albert Hall (2011) / Phantom of the Opera (1990) / Takarazuka Y&K's Phantom (2004) / The Phantom of the Opera (1962) / The Phantom of the Opera (1989) / The Phantom of the Opera (2004) / Phantom Of The Paradise (1974) / Phantom Of The Opera (1943) / Love Never Dies (2012) / The Phantom of the Opera (1925)

And I sound like an infant Feeling like the very last drops of an ink pen A greater woman stays cool But I howl like a wolf at the moon A greater woman has faith But even statues crumble if they're made to wait I'm so afraid I sealed my fate No sign of soulmates

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weirdlookindog · 2 months

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Herbert Lom in The Phantom of the Opera (1962)

#the phantom of the opera 1962 #herbert lom #1960s horror #1960s movies #terence fisher #hammer films #hammer horror

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ensalada-de-lengua-de-pajaritos · 2 months

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#The Pink Panther Strikes Again #Herbert Lom #gif

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coolthingsguyslike · 8 months

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#Christopher Walken #David Cronenberg #Herbert Lom #The Dead Zone #movies

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anhed-nia · 3 months

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So I'm in the middle of this research project centered on Dario Argento's OPERA, for which I have required myself to watch as many screen adaptations of the Gaston Leroux novel The Phantom of the Opera as I can take. What I have determined so far is that the Phantom of the Opera is a story everyone wants to tell, but not very many people are sure of how to tell it. In fact, it's not that easy to say what it is about archetypally. You know, Wolfman stories are typically about "the beast in man" (with femininity positioned as some sort of cure for this personality split), Frankenstein stories are usually about human nature (i.e. an uncanny creature can have more humanity than vain and bigoted humans), Dracula-type vampire stories are most generally about the problems of being an outsider (queer, foreign, etc). But Phantom of the Opera is like...well, everyone likes the love story part of it, which is more or less modeled on Dracula, with a woman torn between seductive darkness and the safety of square society. But then there are all these other parts that seem to flummox people in the retelling.

I haven't read the Leroux novel YET but the first round of movies have been interesting, and also sort of perplexing. The iteration from 1925 holds up, largely due to Chaney's creation of the Phantom which remains a top tier monster. People don't often talk about the mask though! Which looks like a cross between Peter Lorre and the Devo Boogie Boy, it's disturbing and I like it.

This Phantom was born in the dungeons during a revolutionary bloodbath and is disfigured from birth, drawing on the antique idea that a mother's trauma is translated in the deformity of her children; also, compellingly, these dungeons lie fathoms beneath the opera house where the bourgeoisie are witlessly dancing on the graves of martyrs and criminals embodied in the Phantom. The ingenue Christine is an interesting figure who breaks up with her boyfriend at the beginning because she wants to give her whole self to her career; when the Phantom starts murmuring to her through the walls it's as if the spirit of opera itself has chosen her to be its avatar, which she seems to find totally rational. It's sort of cool, what other movie of this era has a likeable heroine choosing her potential for greatness over love? This is the element of the story that is the most interesting, but I'll expand on that in a minute.

The Chaney edition benefits a lot from keeping things simple. The 1943 version with Claude Raines has a little bit too much going on and the story doesn't get a lot of time to congeal between so many long opera sequences; this movie really takes the opera part of the title seriously! Actually they're the best thing about it, mostly because of Nelson Eddy who is extremely beautiful and a real opera singer, and who projects this blazing desire for Susanna Foster that is incredibly convincing. Like I'd normally say they have great chemistry, but I think it's just a lot of power radiating from him specifically.

Ahem.

Uh anyway. This movie picks up the reoccurring (but not universal) idea that the Phantom is a genteel and sophisticated composer who has just fallen on hard times, who goes mad when his latest concerto is stolen. He is disfigured while struggling with the plagiarist and installs himself under the opera house where he can haunt his former protege Christine, who is already torn between dreamy Nelson Eddy and her stuffy cop boyfriend. One of my favorite things here is that even though this film is extremely quaint and old fashioned, everybody hates cops; this Christine is less a self-determined careerist than someone who is under pressure from her artist friends who find it profoundly repulsive that she is dating a policeman. Meanwhile the Phantom is just way too gentle and sappy, which is extra disappointing because Claude Rains's Invisible Man is so fabulously chaotic and sadistic, it made me really aware of the Phantom that could have been. This one doesn't properly represent the high society vs. underworld dichotomy that Christine should be torn between. So what is this movie about? There's so many guys in it and a few different themes flapping in the breeze. Is it about love? Is it about self-actualizing through art? Is it about the cutthroat world of showbusiness? It doesn't have that much to say, ultimately, and it just seems really unmotivated. Also I don't like this mask, sue me.

The Hammer edition is even more disappointing, considering the studio's previous successes with Universal Monster remakes. Here Christine is torn between a suave opera producer, the lecherous composer who has plagiarized the Phantom, and yeah the Phantom. Too many guys, it confuses whatever the dynamic and themes are supposed to be. Michael Gough as the plagiarist is so much more evil and threatening than poor Herbert Lom's Phantom that it's hard to stay focused on the main point here. Curiously the Hammer version is rather unromantic, with the Phantom just slapping Christine around until she sings his tunes right; that is kind of refreshing in a way, although it also means that the film lacks tension, which contributes to its being surprisingly anticlimactic. The best guy in the movie is actually Thorley Walters whose character serves almost no narrative purpose at all, he just hulks around with this WTF? look on his face and it is kind of adorable. I guess I like the gross mask in this one, too.

But the Hammer version has one interesting strength, which is that Christine is singing the lead in a new opera about Joan of Arc. Just like Joan, Christine hears a disembodied voice prophesizing her ascent to power. The best thing about the Phantom lore is the idea that the woman has this latent power that can either be activated by the Phantom, or suppressed by her square boyfriend (the relationship being mutually exclusive with opera stardom in many iterations). She isn't just a love object to be possessed, she herself possesses of some kind of devastating energy that needs to be awakened and channeled--or contained and forgotten, if she decides to get married and stay home or something. This is pretty cool, and it is interestingly realized in Dario Argento's OPERA, in which (spoiler alert I guess) a killer stalks an opera singer with the aim of catalyzing her own latent psychopathy. This idea is at the center of my thesis and I'm looking forward to fleshing it out, although I'm kind of dreading all the other PHANTOMs that I have committed myself to watching. I really don't want to deal with Andrew LLoyd Webber at all, but after I get through at least the Joel Schumacher one of the those I'm going to reward myself with a rewatch of PHANTOM OF THE PARADISE which I'm going to guess right now is the best retelling of this story after the Chaney one. I'm counting on Paul Williams' music to be catchier than Webber's.

I'm whining about my own decisions, I know, but really the main hardship of this project is that now I keep getting the Vandals' punk theme song from PHANTOM OF THE MALL: ERIC'S REVENGE stuck in my head, and let me tell you that is very unwelcome. Here it is, if you've decided you're done being happy and sane:

youtube

#is this when i finally watch KISS MEETS THE PHANTOM OF THE PARK?#is this project going to destroy me #phantom of the opera #claude rains #lon chaney #herbert lom #dario argento #opera #Youtube

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frankendavis · 6 months

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Number six of seven of my Rockwell parodies.

#the phantom of the opera #lon chaney sr #lon chaney #claude rains #herbert lom #Phantom of the paradise #night gallery

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silveragelovechild · 5 months

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I’ve just rewatched “The Mysterious Island” (1961), based on a novel by French author Jules Verne. It’s set in the 1860s and tells the story of several Union soldiers who escape a Confederate prison via a hot air balloon. A fierce storm transports them to a remote and “mysterious” island in the South Pacific. There they help rescue two women, passengers of a boat that sunk in the same storm.

Things get interesting when they encounter several giant animals on the island - crabs, chickens, and even bees. All of them were achieved via the amazing effects created by Ray Harryhausen and his team. They holdup surprising well for a movie released over 60 years ago. Today, in a similar movie, the effects would be done via CGI. But Harryhausen’s stop motion effect feel so much more fresh and visceral.

The music for the film was done by Bernard Herrmann, Harryhausen’s frequent collaborator. The music is appropriately adventurous and dramatic.

The only effect that doesn’t stand the rest of time is the volcanic eruption at the climax of the film. It’s clearly a model and the lava doesn’t have the “weight” of liquid rocks.

Outdoor scenes were filmed on the Catalan coast in Spain, with indoor filming occurring in England. The overall design is pretty good, especially Captain Nemo’s ship the Nautilus.

The cast is mostly English, with three exceptions. Nemo was played by Czech actor Herbert Lom (best know for playing Inspector Dreyfus in the Pink Panther films); Gary Merrill (who divorced Bette Davis only a year earlier); and Michael Callen, a young actor popular on Broadway and films in the 1960s.

Callen is a prime example of how the perception of men has changed over the years. Callen plays the heart throb and is shirtless in most of the movie. But by today’s standard he looks incredible skinny with no muscle tone.

I particularly like Michael Craig who played the castaways leader. I thought I’d seen him in some old TV westerns but nearly all of his credits are British.

The two women are played by Joan Greenwood as Lady Fairchild and Beth Rogan as her niece Elena. Greenwood has a very artificial sounding voice and I thought her dialogue may have been dubbed over by another actress (it wasn’t). About half way into the movie, Rogan switches from a long dress with petticoats into a very small and revealing leather tunic. It’s so short that her underpants are frequently revealed as she runs across the beach.

I saw “The Mysterious Island” via TUBI, a free streaming service. There were occasional commercial but not as intrusive as broadcast TV.

#Jules Verne #mysterious island #Captain nemo #Herbert lom #micharl callen #gary merrill #giant chicken #ray Harryhausen #stop motion effects #Bernard Herrmann

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brokehorrorfan · 7 months

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The Dead Zone will be released on 4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray on December 19 via Scream Factory. The 1983 science fiction-horror-thriller is based on Stephen King’s 1979 novel.

David Cronenberg (The Fly, Videodrome) directs from a script by Jeffrey Boam (Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade). Christopher Walken, Brooke Adams, Tom Skerritt, Herbert Lom, Anthony Zerbe, Colleen Dewhurst, and Martin Sheen star.

Special features are in progress and will be announced at a later date.

School teacher Johnny Smith (Chistopher Walken) had a beautiful fiancée, a rewarding career and a fortunate life… until one tragic accident changed everything. After slamming into an 18-wheeler, Johnny is plunged into a five-year coma. When he awakens, he finds his true collision was with destiny – he now has the remarkable gift (or curse) of seeing into the future. From horror master Stephen King and Director David Cronenberg (Scanners, Dead Ringers), this supernatural thriller turns an everyday guy into a reluctant hero… saving children in danger, helping the police and finding a serial killer. But Johnny’s next vision may be his most terrifying yet.

Pre-order The Dead Zone.

#the dead zone #stephen king #horror #david cronenberg #christopher walken #dead zone #80s horror #1980s horror #scream factory #dvd #gift #tom sker #martin sheen #brooke adams #herbert lom

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addictivecontradiction · 8 months

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