A lot was obviously put into the operatic scenes, which were probably spectacular back in 1943. However, more effort could have been put into displaying the motives and madness of the phantom. The light hearted comedy attempts of the two courters of Christine Dubois seems out of place and takes the final edge of any suspense in the film.

Poor old Enrique Claudin doesn't have much luck – and what he does have is all bad. An adept but unremarkable violinist with the Paris Opera House, he secretly worships Christine Dubois, the young understudy to the snooty leading songstress, and even goes so far as to anonymously spend all his money on singing lessons for her even though she is barely conscious of his existence. Enrique loses his job when he starts losing the feeling in his fingers. Then he mistakenly believes the musical manuscript he has been working on has been stolen by no less a light than Franz Liszt (Lord only knows how he wandered into this). Gripped by a violent rage, Enrique throttles the bad-tempered music publisher who prevents him from retrieving his manuscript and ends up with a face full of acid courtesy of the publisher's panicky secretary. Evading capture by the police, Enrique hides in the sewers beneath the Opera House and, like a tomato that's rolled under the cooker, grows dark and warped in the darkness.

Gaston Laroux's Phantom of the Opera is one of those stories that filmmakers feel compelled to retell every couple of years, so there's not a great deal to set this apart from all those other versions. Universal's use of colour is uncharacteristically sumptuous, and given that this tale falls nominally into the horror category for which they were famed, it stands by comparison to their other output of the time as something of a prestige production. There's not really much horror to speak of – although, by modern standards, none of the 40s horror films are likely to scare anyone over the age of five, so it's not out of the ordinary there. In fact it would arguably be more accurate to describe it as a musical given the amount of time that's given over to opera numbers that do little other than pause the action.

Claude Rains gives a typically polished performance as the tormented Claudin, although the failure of the script to get under his character's (scorched) skin once he assumes the identity of the Phantom leaves the actor with little to work with once he dons the mask and descends into B-movie madness. Nobody else in the cast really stands out. Susanna Foster makes a rather unmemorable ingénue (who shows worrying indications of following the same path as the prima donna she replaces given the way some of their lines are nearly identical), and leaves you wondering why poor old Claudin got so hot and bothered over her in the first place. Nelson Eddy and Edgar Barrier provide some light relief as the troupe's baritone and the investigating police officer, both of whom also fall under Miss Foster's mysterious spell.

Phantom of the Opera provides a good example of 40s Hollywood expertise (although it looks more like an MGM film than a Universal), and is entertaining enough even though it rarely provides anything that's likely to stick in the mind. Arthur Lubin at least attempts moments of artistry – for example by having the camera repeatedly passing sources of light – candelabras, chandeliers, etc – to suggest the fatal fascination Claudin's object of unrequited love holds for him.

This slow, tedious, dramatically inert version of the famous Gothic tale is heavy on the warbling opera and light on anything else that might have made it interesting. The origin story of the titular phantom goes on forever, making you wonder if he's ever going to make an appearance. Then once he does, we get scene after scene of long opera numbers while he lurks around in the background waiting, like us, for the story to go somewhere. It doesn't.

The film looks sensational, I'll give it that. This is one of those Technicolor extravaganzas that looks ravishing instead of garish. Clearly, the whole film was an excuse to show off sumptuous sets and costumes; it's just a shame that they chose this story to do that with rather than some lighthearted musical.

Claude Rains is always a welcome presence, but he can't save this film.

The film deservedly won Oscars for its color art direction and cinematography and was nominated for its musical scoring and sound recording. Had a costume design category existed in 1943, it would likely have been nominated for that as well.

Grade: D+