Sir -- One of your readers questioned a remark that The Phantom of the Opera had not been filmed before (Oxford Mail, December 18)

Surely anyone over 60 will remember the classic 1943 version starring Claude Rains, if not the atmospheric original made in 1925 starring Lon Chaney?

According to Leonard Maltin's Movie and Video Guide 1995, there have been four remakes -- a 1962 British version (Hammer Horror) starring Herbert Lom; a 1983 television version starring a scene-chewing Maximilian schell; an American twaddle starring Robert Englund in 1989; and a British/US version in 1990 starring our own Charles Dance with Burt Lancaster as his father.

This is up to 1995. There may have been dozens made since then.

JOHN BRIGHT

Swinbrook Road

Carterton