For obvious reasons, that disturbs her boyfriend, theatrical producer Harry Hunter (de Souza), who heads off into the sewers beneath the theatre in search of his missing beloved. But he is seduced by the voice of Christine (Sears), and kidnaps her to teach her the proper delivery of his work.

An accident involving nitric acid at the printers leads to the Phantom’s disfigurement and seclusion in the opera house, from where he sabotages D’Arcy’s attempts to stage the opera. Here, the Phantom (Lom) is actually a disgruntled composer, who sold the publishing rights for his work to Lord D’Arcy (Gough), only to have him claim the compositions as his own and publish them. The story shouldn’t need much description, but there are some interesting differences from other versions.

What? No songs? Yeah, we kept breaking into Music of the Night through this one, but it’s not really the film’s fault that I’m listening to the Lloyd-Webber soundtrack as I write this. Star: Herbert Lom, Heather Sears, Edward de Souza, Michael Gough

1962 phantom of the opera mask