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''Phantom of the Opera'' is a 1943 Universal musical horror film starring Nelson Eddy, Susanna Foster and Claude Rains, directed by Arthur Lubin, and filmed in Technicolor. The original music score was composed by Edward Ward, loosely based on the novel ''The Phantom of the Opera'' by Gaston Leroux. The movie is a remake of the 1925 film starring Lon Chaney. The auditorium set, a replica of the Opéra Garnier interior, created for the 1925 film ''The Phantom of the Opera'' was reused. Other than the sets, this remake had little in common with the earlier film. The original storyline was completely revised and there was no attempt to film the masked ball sequence, although the famous falling of the chandelier was re-enacted on an epic scale, using elaborate camera set-ups. The cinematographers were Hal Mohr and W. Howard Greene. It is also the only Universal Monster movie to win an Oscar. Rains's portrayal of the Phantom, although overshadowed by Chaney's Phantom, is now considered to be one of the main Universal Monsters and is often listed with the likes of Dracula, Frankenstein's Monster, The Mummy, The Invisible Man, The Bride of Frankenstein, The Wolf Man and Gill Man. The film included choreography by Lester Horton. ==Plot== Erique Claudin (Claude Rains) had been a violinist at the Paris Opera House for twenty years. However he has been losing the use of the fingers of his left hand, which affects his violin-playing. He is dismissed because of this, the conductor of the opera house assuming that he has enough money to support himself. This is not the case however, for Claudin has spent it all by anonymously funding the music lessons of Christine Dubois (Susanna Foster), a young soprano whom Claudin has secretly fallen in love with. In a desperate attempt to gain money, Claudin tries to get a concerto he has written published. After submitting it and not hearing a response, he becomes worried and returns to the publishers, Maurice Pleyel & Georgette Desjardins, to ask about it. No one there knows what happened to it, and do not seem to care. Claudin persists, but Pleyel rudely tells him to leave and goes back to the etchings he was working on. Finally giving up, Claudin stands there for a moment and hangs his head sadly. Someone begins to play music in the next room, and he looks up in shock when he hears it. It is his concerto that is merely being endorsed and praised by Franz Liszt. Convinced that Pleyel is trying to steal his concerto, Claudin leaps up and begins to strangle him. Just as he tosses the body of Pleyel to the floor, Georgette, the publisher's assistant, throws etching acid at Claudin. Screeching and wailing, he dashes out the door clutching his face. Now being hunted down by the police for murder, he flees to the sewers of the Opera. Claudin steals a prop mask from the costume department to cover his now-disfigured face and becomes obsessed with Christine. Meanwhile, Inspector Raoul Dubert (Edgar Barrier) wants Christine to quit the Opera and marry him. But famed opera baritone Anatole Garron (Nelson Eddy) hopes to win Christine's heart. Christine considers them both good friends but doesn't openly express if she loves them. Christine is the understudy for the Opera’s female diva Mme. Biancarolli (Jane Farrar), who will do anything to stay in the limelight. But during a performance of the opera ''Amore et Gloire'', Claudin drugs a glass of wine which Biancarolli drinks and makes her collapse and unable to perform. The director puts Christine in her place and she dazzles both the audience and everyone else. But Mme. Biancarolli who suspects that Garron and Christine are guilty. She orders Raoul to arrest them but he says he can't because there is no evidence to prove that her statement true. So Biancarolli sets a condition. She will forget the whole affair only if Christine's performance is not mentioned in the papers. And that it will be forgotten about completely by everyone. Her conditions are reluctantly accepted, much to Christine and Anatole's dismay. The next night Claudin enters Biancarolli's dressing room and kills her and her maid. The opera is subsequently closed. After some time, the opera's owners receive a note demanding that Christine replace Biancarolli. To catch Claudin, Raoul comes up with a plan: not let Christine sing during a performance of the opera ''La Prince Masque du Caucasus'' so as to lure Claudin out into the open, while Garron plans to have Liszt play the concerto after the performance. But Claudin strangles one of Dubert's men and heads to the domed ceiling of the auditorium. He then brings down the large chandelier on the audience and cause chaos to spread. As the audience and the crew flee, Claudin takes Christine down underground. He tells Christine that he loves her and that she will now sing all she wants, but only for him. And that they will remain together. But Christine doesn't recognize Claudin and is afraid of him. Raoul, Anatole and the police begin pursuing them underground. Just as Claudin and Christine arrive in his lair they hear Liszt and the whole orchestra playing Claudin's concerto. Claudin plays along with it on his Piano as Christine watches, realizing the concerto was written around the melody of a lullaby she had known since childhood. Raoul and Anatole hear Claudin playing and follow the sound. Overjoyed, Claudin urges Christine to sing, which she does. While Claudin is distracted by the music, Christine sneaks up and pulls off his mask and sees his burnt disfigured face caused by the acid. At that same moment Raoul and Anatole break in. Claudin grabs a sword to fight them with. Raoul fires his gun at Claudin, but Anatole knocks Raoul's arm and the shot hits the ceiling causing a cave in. Anatole and Raoul escape with Christine but Claudin gets crushed to death by the falling rocks. Anatole then tells Christine that she and Claudin had come from the same town district, which explains why they both knew the lullaby. She responds by saying while Claudin had seemed a bit like a stranger to her she had somehow "always felt drawn to him". Anatole finishes by saying that Claudin's suffering will be forgotten and his concerto will live on. Back at the Phantom's lair, in memory, one of the final scenes shows Claudin's mask propped up against his violin. Later, Anatole and Raoul demand that Christine finally chooses between the two men. She surprises them by choosing to marry neither one of them and pursue her singing career, because she now understands how much Claudin loved her and how much he was devoted to her singing career. She leaves the room and joins her adoring fans outside. The film ends with Anatole and Raoul go off to commiserate together. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Phantom of the Opera (1943 film)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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