The Phantom of the Opera
About The Phantom of the Opera
At the Paris Opera, a voice coaches Christine Daaé (Mary Philbin) and demands she replace Carlotta. The Phantom (Lon Chaney) drops the chandelier when Carlotta sings anyway, then leads Christine through a mirror to his rooms under the house and forbids her to touch his mask. She pulls it off while he plays the organ. Raoul de Chagny (Norman Kerry) and the policeman Ledoux follow her below. Christine bargains for their lives. A mob led by Simon Buquet drives the Phantom into the Seine. Raoul and Christine leave for Viroflay.
Cast & crew
More about The Phantom of the Opera
Carl Laemmle produced. Rupert Julian is the credited director; Lon Chaney, Ernst Laemmle, and Edward Sedgwick also directed without credit. After a bad San Francisco preview on 26 April 1925, Maurice Pivar and Lois Weber cut most of Sedgwick's added comedy. The first cut ran nearly four hours. About 350,000 feet of negative was exposed. A Los Angeles preview of an early cut was held on 26 January 1925. The New York premiere was 6 September 1925 at the Astor Theatre, with general release on 15 November. A sound reissue opened 15 December 1929.
Themes
In film history
Chaney's unmasking, kept secret until the premiere, fixed the Phantom's face for later stage and film versions more than any other silent horror image.
Making
Julian's cut was rejected. Sedgwick reshot large parts with comedy players, including Chester Conklin. Previews killed that version, and Weber and Pivar put back a shorter horror film, with a mob ending instead of the Phantom dying at the organ.
Reviews
Mordaunt Hall in The New York Times called it an ultra-fantastic melodrama with scenic effects that would strike the popular fancy. Variety said it was not bad technically but made a Welsh rarebit look foolish as a sleep-destroyer. Time's notice was 'only pretty good.'
Audiences
The original release is credited with a $2,000,000 gross on a $632,357 budget. Audiences were reported to scream and faint at the unmasking.
Look
Charles Van Enger shot the film and, when Julian wanted a black screen after the chandelier fell, lit the wrecked auditorium instead. Milton Bridenbecker and Virgil Miller did uncredited camera work.
Technique
Two-color Technicolor covers the Faust performance and the masked ball. The Bal Masqué and a ballet scene survive in that color. The rooftop cape was colored red by the Handschiegl process.
Music
Gustav Hinrichs wrote the original score. The 1929 reissue added a recorded track. Later home editions, including the 2003 Photoplay/Image DVD, use new scores.
Preservation
The 1925 picture entered the public domain in 1953. Eastman House holds a high-quality print. Color ballet footage turned up at the EYE Film Institute in the Netherlands in 2020. The 1929 sound picture is believed lost, though the discs remain.
Notes
- Chaney built the skull face himself from André Castaigne's illustrations: a skullcap, ears glued flat, blackened sockets, prongs on rotten false teeth, and wires in the nostrils. The wires made him bleed.
- He and Julian stopped speaking. Cameraman Charles Van Enger carried messages. One line Chaney sent was 'Tell him to go to hell.'
- The 1929 sound version is given as 94 minutes. An Eastman House print is timed at 92 minutes at 20 frames per second and 78 at 24.
- About 17 minutes were originally in color: two-color Technicolor for the Faust scenes and the Bal Masqué, Prizmacolor for a soldiers' introduction, and a Handschiegl red on the rooftop cape.
- The 1929 soundtrack discs survived a 1948 fire that is said to have destroyed the sound-version picture reels. The 1925 version was not renewed and fell into the public domain in 1953.
- Carla Laemmle, Carl Laemmle's niece, plays a ballet girl. She was about 15. She died in 2014, the last credited survivor.
- The Paris Opera set, Stage 28, stood until it was demolished on 23 September 2014. Pieces were stored.
- The 1929 gross is listed separately at $1,000,000.
Scenes
- The chandelier drops into the audience after Carlotta refuses to yield the stage.
- Christine pulls the mask off while the Phantom plays the organ.
- The mob throws him into the Seine.
Influenced by
- The Phantom of the Opera (novel by Gaston Leroux, 1910)
Also available
- Wikimedia Commons (The Phantom of the Opera (1925).webm)
- Image Entertainment / Photoplay Productions DVD (2003)
- Film Preservation Associates Blu-ray (2011)
