A composer, Erique Claudin is fired after twenty years in the opera's orchestra. He's short on rent and can't continue the lessons he's been paying for his favorite understudy, Christine DuBois. His new concerto is his only way to get back on his feet so he offers his work to music publisher. He becomes enraged once he finds out that the publisher has stolen his work. He strangles him to death, then his face is permanently scarred after the assistant throws acid in his face. Guilty of murder, he hides in the sewers beneath the opera house and continue his intention to make DuBois a star. I'm not a fan of musicals so this is not for me. I can't deny that it looks gorgeous and is competently made with beautiful, colourful sets and costumes. But as a universal horror film, it doesn't deliver the horror. It's the least horrifying than what I've seen so far. This reminds me of The Great Gabbo where it's mostly singing and dancing. The comedic bits thrown in here don't really work. Many of the scenes drag on for way too long. I can't connect to most characters beside Claude Rains.