The Phantom of the Opera (1990)

This is definitely the most underrated and unique version of Phantom of the Opera I've seen yet! Charles Dance's portrayal as the Phantom is very gentle and kind but debatably more mentally unstable than any other versions of the character. A lot of new plot points and characters were also added. I'll state a few less spoilery ones here: there is only one manager and he and Carlotta are married, there is no Raoul in this version, instead his brother, Philippe is used as Christine's love interest, and the Phantom's unmasked face is never seen by the audience. So as you can tell, the story is very unique, however it's also a bit slow. The entire first part is almost entirely exposition and character development, not that there's anything wrong with any of that, but the story really doesn't get started until the end of part one. So yeah, in my personal opinion, the pacing could be a bit better but it's not awful and both parts are still very engaging. However, my main problem doesn't lie with the pacing, rather the editing. Since this was made for TV, I can assume it had a fairly small budget so take this next bit with a grain of salt. The way this is cut and edited, is honestly quite confusing and weird. One second, it will be focusing on one scene and then the next it cuts to another character in a completely different setting for about five second and then do the same thing again and again for a whole scene. It was very distracting. However, there are a lot of things to still enjoy aside from Charles Dance's fantastic portrayal and how unique the story is. I also must give credit to the romance in this movie. First of all, this version shows Christine and Phillipe's childhood friendship, which makes their romance all the more believable. Well okay, Philippe was a bit shallow at first but he soon became a much more likable character who I feel truly loved Christine. I will also admit that this is one of the only versions where I actually felt that Christine truly loved the Phantom and wanted to be with him because they actually take time out of the story to have the two interact with each other and thus learn more about each other and eventually fall in love. Despite all that though, they do still make the Phantom, well, the Phantom! So that gives true weight to the decision Christine makes, even though most of us who know Phantom of the Opera know who she's going to chose. Another thing I'd like to address is the fact that this is the only Phantom of the Opera movie to date to be filmed on location in Paris, France. That's kind of sad for the other versions but very admirable for this one. I also love the musical style. It was a nice call having classic opera music. I also have to admit that I got really emotional at the end of part two to the point where tears were shed. I won't spoil what happens but when I first watched it, this was the first version I'd seen where that happened so it not only surprised me, but greatly saddened me. Overall, everything about this version is unique and I appreciate it a lot for that. It has some problems but none that keep it from being great.

This was the eleventh film adaptation of Gaston LeRoux's classic to be made and the seventh I have watched myself (the others being the 1925, 1943, 1962, 1974, 1983 and 1998 versions); therefore, the two most significant ones left out there for me to catch up with, I suppose, are those made in 1989 and 2004. Coming so late in the game and so close to the Robert Englund remake – whilst also being accorded the lengthiest running time (185 minutes – although IMDb curiously gives it as 168!) of all – I guess it stands to reason that this was going to be a very different Phantom to the ones we were used to. For starters, it is an adaptation of Arthur Kopit's theatrical rendition of the original source and, in fact, the author himself wrote the teleplay here; the cast (Burt Lancaster, Charles Dance, Jean-Pierre Cassel, Andrea Ferreol and Ian Richardson) and crew (Kopit and Oscar-winning director Tony Richardson and composer John Addison) roped in for the production also lend the whole a classy distinction missing from previous or later versions. 77-year old Lancaster is in fine form in his Golden Globe-nominated portrayal of the former Opera manager with a secret (so much so that one can hardly believe that he would be dead in four years' time!); Dance is quite wonderful in the title role and I am surprised his performance did not earn him more plaudits (even if the fact that his facial features are always hidden behind a variety of masks may have been behind this oversight); Cassel seems somewhat wasted at first as the laid-back investigating Inspector but his role grows in stature in Part II; Richardson is enjoyably hammy as the initially skeptical but increasingly flustered Italian impresario replacing Lancaster and installing his own wife Ferreol (playing La Carlotta) as the primadonna of the Paris Opera. The all-important role of Christine Daae' is well-served by the lovely Teri Polo (who also portrays The Phantom's mother in a series of flashbacks!) but Adam Storke (as the subsequently reformed Count de Chagny) is blandly handsome at best. As usual, the problems with deviations from the familiar original source crop up here but, as I said earlier, these are to be expected in this case (more so than, say, in Hammer's first Dracula picture which was still a fairly fresh property for moviegoers in its day!): Lancaster is fully cognizant of the Phantom's lair underneath his theater because he is his biological father; in fact, Erik was even born there and, besides devoting himself to music, he also dabbled in painting and building a little woods for himself!!; the Phantom's obsessive love for Christine is not merely attributable to her unique voice but also because she is a dead ringer for his own late (and former opera star) mother; Carlotta does not lose her voice in mid-performance due to the Phantom's foul play but instead it's Christine who does so thanks to the machinations of the jealous Carlotta; the Phantom is not a mistreated composer but an accomplished opera singer who (wait for it) joins Christine in a duet from "Faust" from his proverbial Box 5 in full view of the audience and the gendarmes…even though he was virtually at death's door a few moments earlier!; the Phantom subsequently invites death himself on the Opera rooftop at the hands of his own father rather than from Christine's aristocratic lover, etc. The biggest departure, of course, would be that the film (and the play) 'fumbles' the very highlight every spectator is always waiting for in this story: the unmasking scene (which here occurs with the Phantom's back to the camera and we merely see Christine's fainting reaction to it)!! In the end, there may be more opera than horror here but the lavish production values, the fine performances and the evergreen fascination of the story itself win the day.

Beautiful Adaptation of the Phantom of the Opera. This is NOT the musical Broadway version. The only music here is the Italian operas the opera house is performing. This version based on a stage version of the book, by noted playwright Arthur Kopit, is beautiful and well performed. I love this movie because of its character development and lack of individuals breaking into song for absolutely no reason, what so ever. The use of the Phantom's various masks to convey his mood is a very unique approach, in this film. The climatic duet between Christine and Eric and a beautiful scene with Burt Lancaster and Charles Dance (Carriere and Eric) are both very moving.A beautiful, and tragic love story.

I saw this 2 parter on NBC back when Andrew Lloyd Webber was sitting on top of the musical world with his Phantom of the Opera. This is a decent musical story version of the Leroux tale. The year before in 1989 Golan and Globus hired up Robert Englund a.k.a. Freddie Krueger to do a slasher movie version of the story which was a total off the original storyline of the Phantom of the Opera. That movie in all honesty, sucks ! When Yestin and Koppit released this mini series they returned Erik to Paris, France and to his beloved Opera House and once again he is deeply in love with engenue chorus girl and understudy to La Carlotta, Christine Daae, who's beauty and angelic voice reminds him of his dead mother, a nice back story line added to the original storyline with one more family member added in for the first time, the Phantom's friend and father played by venerable veteran actor Burt Lancaster. The soundtrack to this movie is available on RCA C.D. and Tapes under the simple name Phantom. It is the original theatrical stage production that this mini series was based on by Yestin and Koppit.