Phantom of the Opera
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:38:01
Lubin said Technicolor was very difficult,
tending to come out red all the time.

:38:05
Not a pleasing process to work with,
and a difficult experience.

:38:08
Art director Alex Golitzen recalls Hal Mohr
as a rather aloof and unsociable man

:38:13
but a very skilled technician. If he were
going to use an amber gel in a scene,

:38:18
Golitzen was very careful to see
the effect of the gel on the flats

:38:22
and then alter the hues of his paints
to accommodate the colour design.

:38:27
Prerecording of the musical numbers
to a click track started in December 1942.

:38:32
"They'd put a little click in
to give you your breath" Susanna says.

:38:36
"Nelson had trouble with synchronisation,
despite all the years he'd done it."

:38:40
"I never had a problem." Her only concern
was an allergy attack during the sessions

:38:45
which she felt compromised her singing.
:38:47
In her opinion, her voice was superior in
a Lux radio broadcast on September 13,

:38:52
with Rathbone as the opera ghost.
:38:55
Jane Farrar is said to have been found by
Waggner in the Universal commissary.

:39:00
She is also said to have been a niece
of opera great Geraldine Farrar.

:39:03
Waggner put her in The Climax in 1944,
following Phantom.

:39:07
She only made two other films
before retiring.

:39:10
She was married to the owner
of the Brock Candy Company.

:39:12
She was not a singer and was dubbed
in Phantom and The Climax

:39:16
by Francia White.
:39:23
Susanna's vocal character
was a dramatic coloratura.

:39:26
Nelson Eddy went on a concert tour
following Phantom

:39:29
and invited Susanna to join him,
but she was too scared.

:39:32
Another offer was sent to her
through singer Lee Sweetman.

:39:35
The Metropolitan Opera wanted her
to play Sophie in Der Rosenkavalier.

:39:39
The offer was circuitous because
the Met wouldn't be caught dead

:39:43
soliciting movie people. Stubborn then
as now, Susanna rejected the hint,

:39:48
which might have been
the springboard to a great career.

:39:59
This set, looking like the grand staircase
mezzanine in Grand Central station,


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