Hot Picks

- There's No Such Thing as Zombies 2020

- Ready for My Close Up 2019

- Frankie Freako 2024

- The Texas Witch 2025

- Cannibal Mukbang 2023

- Bleeding 2024

- No Choice 2025

- Nahual 2025

- Bitter Souls 2025

- A Very Long Carriage Ride 2025

- The Matriarch 2024

- Oxy Morons 2025

- Ed Kemper 2025

- Piglet 2025

- Walter, Grace & the Submarine 2024

- Midnight in Phoenix 2025

- Dorothea 2025

- Mauler 2025

- Consecration 2023

- The Death of Snow White 2025

- Franklin 2025

- ApoKalypse 2025

- Live and Die in East LA 2023

- A Season for Love 2025

- The Arkansas Pigman Massacre 2025

- Visceral: Between the Ropes of Madness 2012

- The Darkside of Society 2023

- Jackknife 2024

- Family Property 2: More Blood 2025

- Feral Female 2025

- Amongst the Wolves 2024

- Autumn 2023

- Bob Trevino Likes It 2024

- A Hard Place 2025

- Finding Nicole 2025

- Juliet & Romeo 2025

- Off the Line 2024

- First Moon 2025

- Healing Towers 2025

- Final Recovery 2025

- Greater Than 2014

- Self Driver 2024

- Primal Games 2025

- Grumpy 2023

- Swing Bout 2024

- Dalia and the Red Book 2024

- Project MKGEXE 2025

- Two to One 2024

- Left One Alive 2025

- Burgermen 2020

- Conspiracy of Fear 2025

- The Haunting of Heather Black 2025

- The Caller 2025

- Android Re-Enactment 2011

- Night Call 2024

- Talk of the Dead 2016

- A Killer Conversation 2014

- First Impressions Can Kill 2017

- Star Crash 1979

- Strangler of the Swamp 1946

Il Fantasma dell'Opera

The Phantom of the Opera

Italy 1998
produced by
Giuseppe Colombo, Aron Sipos, Claudio Argento (executive) for Medusa Produzione, Reteitalia
directed by Dario Argento
starring Julian Sands, Asia Argento, Andrea Di Stefano, Nadia Rinaldi, Coralina Cataldi-Tassoni, István Bubik, Lucia Guzzardi, Aldo Massasso, Zoltan Barabas, Gianni Franco, David D'Ingeo, Kitty Kéri, John Pedeferri, Leonardo Treviglio, Massimo Sarchielli, Luis Molteni, Enzo Cardogna, Itala Békés, Claudia Kemones, Csilla Ward, Reka Pozsgay, Ferenc Deák B., Rozso Ludvigh, David Drucker, Gábor Harsai, Balázs Tardy, SAndor Bse, Iván Dengyel, György Szakaly, Ferenc Ratkai, Podporina Ilona, Frigyes Hallósi, Istvan Szöczey, Szabo Bente Robert, Zoltán Rajkai, Tania Nagel, Rodrigo Crespo, Zsolt Anger, Zsolt Derecskei, Tibor Nemes, Lásló Pethö, Deniel Zdroa, Bela Nemeth
screenplay by Gérard Brach, Dario Argento, based on the novel by Gaston Leroux, music by Ennio Morricone, special effects by Sergio Stivaletti

Phantom of the Opera

review by
Mike Haberfelner

Quick Links

Abbott & Costello

The Addams Family

Alice in Wonderland

Arsène Lupin

Batman

Bigfoot

Black Emanuelle

Bomba the Jungle Boy

Bowery Boys

Bulldog Drummond

Captain America

Charlie Chan

Cinderella

Deerslayer

Dick Tracy

Dick Turpin

Dr. Mabuse

Dr. Orloff

Doctor Who

Dracula

Edgar Wallace made in Germany

Elizabeth Bathory

Emmanuelle

Fantomas

Flash Gordon

Frankenstein

Frankie & Annette Beach Party movies

Freddy Krueger

Fu Manchu

Fuzzy

Gamera

Godzilla

Hercules

El Hombre Lobo

Incredible Hulk

Jack the Ripper

James Bond

Jekyll and Hyde

Jerry Cotton

Jungle Jim

Justine

Kamen Rider

Kekko Kamen

King Kong

Laurel and Hardy

Lemmy Caution

Lobo

Lone Wolf and Cub

Lupin III

Maciste

Marx Brothers

Miss Marple

Mr. Moto

Mister Wong

Mothra

The Munsters

Nick Carter

OSS 117

Phantom of the Opera

Philip Marlowe

Philo Vance

Quatermass

Robin Hood

The Saint

Santa Claus

El Santo

Schoolgirl Report

The Shadow

Sherlock Holmes

Spider-Man

Star Trek

Sukeban Deka

Superman

Tarzan

Three Mesquiteers

Three Musketeers

Three Stooges

Three Supermen

Winnetou

Wizard of Oz

Wolf Man

Wonder Woman

Yojimbo

Zatoichi

Zorro

Available on DVD!

To buy, click on link(s) below and help keep this site afloat (commissions earned)

Always make sure of DVD-compatibility!!!

In this version of the well-known story, the Phantom was abandoned by his parents as a baby, but adopted by rats who brought the little boy up in the catacombs right beneath the Paris Opera. Now the Phantom's a man (and played by Julian Sands), and he roams the opera-house, killing many a man who have wronged his folks, the rats. Then however, young singer Christine (Asia Argento) catches his attention, and he starts wooing her and communicating with her telepathically.

Christine though is a mere understudy, and the diva of the current production, Carlotta (Nadia Rinaldi) sees to it that the poor girl never gets a chance to prove her talent ... so small accidents start to happen until
Carlotta has to miss a show and Christine is called in for rehearsal ... but she's so nervous that she faints.

The Phantom takes Christine to his underground hideout, which is beyond an underground lake, and their romance blossoms, and soon enough they have sex. The Phantom though has not yet given up his plans to make Christine the star she deserves to be, so at one point, during one of Carlotta's performances, he even has a chandelier crashing onto the stage, and he sees to it that Carlotta is met with a little accident ...

Christine however is far from grateful, she despises him for his barbaric actions, and she ultimately leaves him, but when she's back at the opera she learns that she is already set to take over from Carlotta - and she meets Baron De Chagny (Andrea Di Stefano), who confesses his undying love to her ... and she gives in to his advances on the condition that he saves her from the Phantom.

Christine's debut as a diva though turns into chaos when a beggar identifies her as the Phantom's bride - on stage - and the Phantom snatches her right from the stage to take her back with him, followed by an angry mob, and even the police. Only Baron De Chagny though is able to catch up with the Phantom and Christine, and when she sees the two men fighting over her, she finds herself torn between them ... until the Phantom gives her up in order to save her, and while Christine and the Baron row off in the Phantom's boat, the Phantom himself is killed by an angry mob ...

 

In a way, Gaston Leroux's novel Phantom of the Opera is one of the oldest and the key sources of serial killer cinema, especially the giallo (the distinctively Italian version of serial killer cinema) and the slasher movie - and since Dario Argento was/is one of the key figures of giallo and had a great influence on slasher cinema, it seems only logical that he would eventually adapt the novel. The outcome however is less than satisfying, a diffuse mixture of period piece, romance and fantasy, with a few shocks thrown in but completely devoid of the director's personal style, with Leroux's classic, straightforward source material twisted and turned around until it has become something qutie ridiculous.

A total disappointment actually, which is a double surprise, because in 1989, Argento made another film, the underrated Opera, that, while not being an official adaptation of Phantom of the Opera, stays much closer to the novel and is much more effective. The best thing one can say about Argento's Phantom of the Opera on the other hand is that Asia Argento (the director's daughter) is pretty good in the lead role of the diva torn between two lovers - but not even she can save this mess.

 

PS: I might have to stress that normally I'm a huge fan of Dario Argento, only with this film he has completely let me down.

 

review © by Mike Haberfelner

 

Feeling lucky?
Want to
search
any of my partnershops yourself
for more, better results?
(commissions earned)

The links below
will take you
just there!!!

Find The Phantom of the Opera
at the amazons ...

USA  amazon.com

Great Britain (a.k.a. the United Kingdom)  amazon.co.uk

Germany (East AND West)  amazon.de

Looking for imports?
Find The Phantom of the Opera here ...

Thailand  eThaiCD.com
Your shop for all things Thai


Thanks for watching !!!

 

 

In times of uncertainty of a possible zombie outbreak, a woman has to decide between two men - only one of them's one of the undead.

 

There's No Such Thing as Zombies
starring
Luana Ribeira, Rudy Barrow and Rami Hilmi
special appearances by
Debra Lamb and Lynn Lowry

 

directed by
Eddie Bammeke

written by
Michael Haberfelner

produced by
Michael Haberfelner, Luana Ribeira and Eddie Bammeke

 

now streaming at

Amazon

Amazon UK

Vimeo

 

 

 

Robots and rats,
demons and potholes,
cuddly toys and
shopping mall Santas,
love and death and everything in between,
Tales to Chill
Your Bones to

is all of that.

 

Tales to Chill
Your Bones to
-
a collection of short stories and mini-plays
ranging from the horrific to the darkly humourous,
from the post-apocalyptic
to the weirdly romantic,
tales that will give you a chill and maybe a chuckle, all thought up by
the twisted mind of
screenwriter and film reviewer
Michael Haberfelner.

 

Tales to Chill
Your Bones to

the new anthology by
Michael Haberfelner

 

Out now from
Amazon!!!