THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA, 1925
Classic Movie Review

THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA, 1925
Classic Movie Review
Directed by Rupert Julian
Starring Lon Chaney, Mary Philbin
Review by CJ Brooks

SYNOPSIS:

At the Opera of Paris, a mysterious phantom threatens a famous lyric singer, Carlotta and thus forces her to give up her role (Marguerite in Faust) for unknown Christine Daae. Christine meets this phantom (a masked man) in the catacombs, where he lives. What's his goal ? What's his secret ?

REVIEW:

Lon Chaney was a rather good looking gentleman although one would be forgiven if they were not aware of this fact as many of his most famous roles he hid behind heavy coats of make-up and prosthetics. Chaney was known as “The Man of a Thousand Faces” and certainly the scope of his successful career lends itself to this designation. His background and phenomenal skill with applying his own make-up provided him with many acting opportunities none likely more famous than his outstanding turn as Erik, the Phantom of the Opera.

The Phantom of the Opera, based on Gaston Leroux’s novel (who insists that the story is founded by true events), tells the tale of the Paris Opera House and the ghost that apparently haunts its corridors and chambers. New management has received word that the Phantom requests a special box seat where he may watch the beautiful Christine (Mary Philbin) who understudies for the prima donna and has been selected to go on for her when she is suddenly unable to perform. Christine has risen from obscurity in a short time and has been apparently been receiving secret singing lessons. The Phantom threatens harm to the employees of the opera house and the audience should Christine not perform for all future performances. He draws her to his underground lair, confesses his undying love for her and is forced to reveal the magnificence of his deformities from underneath his face mask. He promises her everything if only she will call off her engagement to her fiancée Raoul (Norman Kerry). Learning later that she has no intention of giving up her betrothal, the Phantom takes her prisoner. Raoul, police officers and members of the cast and crew enter the depths of the opera house and into the viaducts that make up the Phantom’s world to rescue Christine.

The initial success of the film led to a re-release in 1929 that was re-edited both as a silent and talkie version. Unfortunately, the talkie version has been lost but some of its dialogue and music remains. As the film is now in public domain there is an assortment of versions one may find to view. Some include re-tinted or re-colored scenes, other include the dialogue from the 1929 talkie incorporated into the 1929 silent release. Others even still have digitally inserted two-tone coloring for scenes that supposedly once included them (such as the rooftop scene at the Bal Masque). A strange opening sequence known famously as “man with lantern” is included on some versions that, as part of the film, has never been fully understood or explained. All of the versions have their pros and cons so it is to the discretion of the viewer to educate themselves on the differences and decide which suits their taste best.

Regardless of which version one ends up with, all of them include the great performance by Lon Chaney. In fact, the entire cast does a wonderful job (especially the comic relief of Snitz Edwards playing the stage hand) but Chaney takes the cake for his memorable turn as the Phantom. Chaney plays Erik with the overdramatic flair that runs rampant in silent films but, in doing so, brings a realism to the character that none of the other versions seem to attain. Somewhere between the eeriness of Max Schrek’s Count Orlok in Nosferatu and the sympathetic charm of John Hurt’s Merrick in The Elephant Man does Chaney’s Phantom reside.

The most captivating part of Chaney’s Phantom is not necessarily his acting but the phenomenal job he did with his make-up and

prosthetics. What can only be imagined as painful, Chaney used various wires to pull his eyeballs from his socket and lift his nose into a snout-like position. The effect is rather horrifying and even modern audiences might be a little disturbed when his face is finally revealed (allegedly audience members at the original release became so frightened, they fainted). Recent adaptations of Phantom (especially Webber’s musical) turn Erik into a disfigured albeit attractive man whose seductive powers capture the hearts not only of Christine but the audience as well, in part because the character is played so suavely. Chaney’s depiction, however, adhering closer to that of the book’s description, provides no physically attractive qualities. In the novel he seduces Christine with his voice but this translates poorly in a silent film and we are left merely being seduced by the Phantom purely out of pity’s sake. Certainly, Chaney’s Phantom is the most pitiful of all the adaptations and perhaps, on that level, his performance best succeeds.

Chaney died shortly after Phantom’s re-release at the age of 47 from a throat hemorrhage due to his bronchial cancer as compounded from pneumonia. Sadly ironic, as Chaney, though known mostly for his silent film work, had quite the versatile voice which he showcased in the re-make of the silent film The Unholy Three. This happens to be the last surviving film of his career and one of the few examples of what might have been a successful career in voice work had he survived.

As the Phantom haunted the passageways of the Paris Opera House some suspect that Lon Chaney haunts the film’s opera house set which partially remains standing on a soundstage at Universal studios dubbed the “Phantom Stage.” Those who believe in the rumors believe the set has never been taken down because crew members attempting to strike the set have allegedly died. They did manage to take down the expensive chandelier (an exact replica of that which can be found in the Paris Opera House) however it has since gone missing. Perhaps deep beneath Universal studios one might find it among the possessions of Chaney’s ghost, waiting for his Christine to return to him.

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