BY HARRY RINGEL

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1965. Young Tito Scaffone loves old horror movies more than life itself–especially Lon Chaney’s 1925 The Phantom of the opera. Tito stumbles into a chance to manage the Dreamland, a shuttered movie house in Philadelphia’s Skid Row section. He is joined in his efforts by Lois Koff, daughter of an aging theater manager. Together, Tito and Lois bring life to the Dreamland; together, they explore the charm and mystery of theater with its own secrets. The Phantom of Skid Row is a ghost story, of sorts. It is also a love letter to the magic of classic and non-classic movies; to the eccentric charms of film exhibition in the days before theaters became homogenized; to the mystery of love sheltered in young hearts.