#83: THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA (1925)

 

THRILL SCALE 1-10

5.5

HAVE I SEEN IT BEFORE?

Never. In fact, this is the first filmed version of The Phantom of the Opera that I've seen (but I did see the musical on Broadway)

BEST SEQUENCE

It would have to be the famous unmasking scene, but when the chandelier falls it's also pretty cool.

BEST LINE

"..." - Everyone

ROTTEN TOMATOES SCORE

90%

ROTTEN TOMATOES CRITICS CONSENSUS

"Decades later, it still retains its ability to scare -- and Lon Chaney's performance remains one of the benchmarks of the horror genre."

IMDB SYNOPSIS

"A mad, disfigured composer seeks love with a lovely young opera singer."

THOUGHTS

• This movie is best remembered for the physical appearance of Lon Chaney's face as the Phantom, which the actor designed himself with makeup effects. As most people probably know about The Phantom of the Opera, the titular character wears a mask for a large part of the story and we don't see the Phantom's face until exactly halfway through the movie at minute 45. Now, apparently in 1925 when moviegoers first saw the Phantom's face, there was much screaming and fainting. But come on, that was 1925, and we've seen some pretty intense movies since then. I knew about this scene, and I was prepared to be underwhelmed and scoff at the weak stomachs of those people from 1925. But you know what, in the context of the movie it worked pretty well. I didn't scream or faint, of course, but it was quite effective, especially with Lon Chaney staring directly into the camera. If you want to see just this clip, you can find it very easily on Youtube. Just look for the unmasking scene
• Speaking of which, as has happened with a few of these movies so far, at some point The Phantom of the Opera's copyright lapsed, so it's now in the public domain and you can find several versions of the whole movie on Youtube
• And in addition to his physical appearance, I thought Lon Chaney was great as the Phantom. Considering he spent half the movie behind a (still quite creepy) mask and the other half behind a full face of makeup, and the fact that this is a silent movie, his physical acting was really quite expressive and engrossing. He especially stood out compared to some of the other actors who were more hammy and exaggerated (we're talking giant stage winks and nudges to show us when someone's being sneaky)
• There have been a few different releases of this movie, including various versions of colouring effects and different musical scores. The version I saw used tinting on the black and white, and some scenes even appeared to be in full colour, which was quite striking visually. This version also used a score which was composed by Gabriel Thibaudeau in 1990, which I thought was absolutely fantastic
• The sets and scenery were also magnificent
• I'm pretty sure this is the last silent movie on the list, so I made my dumb "..." silent movie joke again, but if I did pick a favourite line it would actually be the Phantom saying, "Feast your eyes - glut your soul on my accursed ugliness!" Big mood

Up next: The Day the Earth Stood Still from 1951