Literary Techniques  Several reviewers have pointed out what
they believe to be the novel's major flaw: Almost any reader is
going to solve the mystery of the undead Arbuthnot before
getting half way through the novel. A much greater flaw than the
easily-solved mystery is the use of the Beast as a kind of
phantom-of-the-opera figure lurking about the back lots of
Maximus Films. The idea of transplanting the classic figure from
the cellars of an opera house to the dark old sets of an aging
motion-picture studio is a cliché; it has been the central plot
of some uninspired made-for-television movies.  The transparency
of the mystery is not a major obstacle to enjoying the novel.
Instead, it provides a structure which Bradbury uses to
establish the central aspect of the novel — its blending of
fantasy and reality. Maximus Films, like other Hollywood
studios, has been manufacturing fantasies for film audiences for
decades. The novel takes the fantastic images of motion pictures
and blends them into the real world,