 This film was shot on the lavish sets created for the 1943 version  of THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA, in an attempt to recoup the large  budget of that film. The opera house set which features in both  films, had been originally built in 1925 for the first film of  PHANTOM, starring Lon Chaney, and this extraordinary set still  exists on the Universal Studios lot. It is the oldest surviving  movie set in the world.