Dr. Hohner (Boris Karloff) is Physician at the Vienna Royal Theatre, who in a fit of obsession and jealousy murders his fiancée. Ten years later, he hears another young singer (Susanna Foster) who reminds him of his slain fiancée, and he's determined to make her sing only for him, even if it means silencing her forever.
Karloff's first movie in glorious Technicolor is beautiful to look at, but ultimately a so so movie not offering much for the big man to do. Using the same sets that were used for the Claude Rains led Phantom Of The Opera the previous year, this appears to be Universal's attempt to give Karloff a slice of demented operatic pie. Why then is he given so little to do? So much time is spent with Foster and the hopelessly miscast Turhan Bey, that Karloff's warped Doctor almost feels like an intrusion on some Gothic melodramatic romance. A shame since what screen time Karloff gets shows potential for a memorable horror character to rank up with his better ones. Some good support comes from Gale Sondergaard & Thomas Gomez, and without doubt the operatic scenes are great, even if they take up so much time the flow of the movie is never at one with the creepy undercurrents of the tale. But really it's like opening a gorgeously wrapped birthday present only to find that within is a used gum ball without any flavour. 4.5/10
Karloff's first movie in glorious Technicolor is beautiful to look at, but ultimately a so so movie not offering much for the big man to do. Using the same sets that were used for the Claude Rains led Phantom Of The Opera the previous year, this appears to be Universal's attempt to give Karloff a slice of demented operatic pie. Why then is he given so little to do? So much time is spent with Foster and the hopelessly miscast Turhan Bey, that Karloff's warped Doctor almost feels like an intrusion on some Gothic melodramatic romance. A shame since what screen time Karloff gets shows potential for a memorable horror character to rank up with his better ones. Some good support comes from Gale Sondergaard & Thomas Gomez, and without doubt the operatic scenes are great, even if they take up so much time the flow of the movie is never at one with the creepy undercurrents of the tale. But really it's like opening a gorgeously wrapped birthday present only to find that within is a used gum ball without any flavour. 4.5/10