This is a good movie with a decent performance by Herbert Lom as the Phantom. But, there's a fundamental problem with the movie. It really bears little, if any, resemblance to the actual story written by Gaston Leroux! Instead of a mysterious phantom whose exact origin is clouded in mystery, the writers created an interesting but new back story involving stealing of a great composer's work and driving him to the brink of madness. In fact, in the film, he's actually a pretty nice guy and all the bad behavior usually associated with the Phantom in other films is done by the Phantom's sidekick--and probably without the Phantom's permission.
My feeling is that maybe they should have still made this movie--I liked what they did to the plot. It's just that it should not called it the Phantom of the Opera! It reminds me of the movie STRANGE BREW--while, technically it IS "HAMLET", you really have to be pretty drunk to recognize this! Still, if you ignore the Leroux novel and don't mind that once again Hammer Films has greatly changed a classic (such as placing it in Britain instead of France, among many other differences), then it is a very watchable and interesting film.
By the way, the leading lady sure looks a lot like Joan Plowright, but it really is Heather Sears. Also, I really liked the character played by Michael Gough--he must have had a lot of fun playing such a big jerk!
My feeling is that maybe they should have still made this movie--I liked what they did to the plot. It's just that it should not called it the Phantom of the Opera! It reminds me of the movie STRANGE BREW--while, technically it IS "HAMLET", you really have to be pretty drunk to recognize this! Still, if you ignore the Leroux novel and don't mind that once again Hammer Films has greatly changed a classic (such as placing it in Britain instead of France, among many other differences), then it is a very watchable and interesting film.
By the way, the leading lady sure looks a lot like Joan Plowright, but it really is Heather Sears. Also, I really liked the character played by Michael Gough--he must have had a lot of fun playing such a big jerk!