The 1989 Film (Robert Englund / Jill Schoelen)

Just screened this again today. Is anyone else slightly offended that the opening credits refer to the title of the film as "Gaston Leroux's The Phantom of the Opera" when very little of the story remains intact from the book? I say reserve that title for a more faithful adaptation.

TAFKaR

I do agree - but I would probably also be first in line to yell if they DIDN'T credit him...

operafantomet wrote:I do agree - but I would probably also be first in line to yell if they DIDN'T credit him...

I agree with you there but I also see the error in calling it based on the novel but it doesn't hold closely to the book. There's really no easy way when making a version based off a book but is loosely based on it. Maybe they could put "loosely based on the novel by..." hehe

Raphael wrote:Just screened this again today. Is anyone else slightly offended that the opening credits refer to the title of the film as "Gaston Leroux's The Phantom of the Opera" when very little of the story remains intact from the book? I say reserve that title for a more faithful adaptation.

TAFKaR

This is one of the reasons why I suspect the screenplay started life as a more faithful adaptation of Leroux, before some Hollywood types got their hands on it and said "Hey, why don't we turn this into a slasher movie? We can get that Freddy Krueger guy!" It seems odd to put the original author's name so prominently above the title, when the result has so little to do with what he actually wrote. Ah well...

~LCD

Hmm, you know I think I recall seeing Leroux's name tacked on but I never gave it much thought until now. Consider 'Bram Stoker's Dracula' and 'Mary Shelley's Frankenstein', two other ca 1990 big Hollywood Studio horror flicks that had little to do with fidelity to the original work and yet retained the authors' names as part of the marketing scheme.

So, perhaps the use of 'Gaston Leroux' was more a blatant way to give credit to the original creator of the work, not really as an endorsement of authenticity.

That being said, despite its flaws, the Englund Phantom remains one of my favorites because of its beautiful score and production design.

~Madame~