The Phantom Of The Opera (1925)

One thing that always strikes me about silent horror classic The Phantom of the Opera (1925) is how much Twenties moviegoers remembered it. Out of all the hundreds of releases in that glorious decade, that is the one film that everyone seemed to talk about the most.

The Phantom of the Opera (1925)

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The film brings the world of the Paris Opera to life through spectacular set pieces. Ben Carré, a former backstage worker at the actual Paris Opera, designed the backstage and dungeon areas of the set. The ballroom and opera were meticulous, with Universal preserving the set despite tearing down the famous Sound Stage 28 on Universal property in 2014.

At the height of the most prosperous season in the Opera's history, the management suddenly resigns. As they leave, they tell the new managers of the Opera Ghost, a phantom who asks for opera box #5, among other things. The new managers laugh it off as a joke, but the old management leave troubled.

According to Universal Studios, part of the set from the 1925 film has never been torn down and still stands. Inside soundstage 28, part of the opera house set continues to stand to the side where it was filmed some eight decades ago. Though it remains impressive, time has taken its toll and it is very rarely used. Urban legends claim the set remains because when workers have attempted to take it down in the past there have been fatal accidents, said to be caused by the ghost of Lon Chaney Sr.

According to the Harrison's Report, a trade journal, when the film was originally released, it contained 17 minutes of color footage. Judging from trade journals and reviews, all of the opera scenes of Faust, as well as the "Bal Masque" scene were in an early, two-color form of Technicolor. Only the latter survives in color. In one scene, the Phantom's cape on the rooftop of the opera was colored red using the Handschiegl color process. This effect has been replicated in Photoplay Production/Kevin Brownlow's 1996 restoration by computer colorization.

Meanwhile, a nobleman named Raoul comes to see his old girlfriend, Christine, the understudy to prima donna Carlotta. Raoul wants Christine to leave the theater world and marry him, but she's reluctant. Part of the reason she's reluctant is the mysterious voice, coming from behind the walls, telling her that she will be the greatest opera singer ever. Soon after the new owners of the theater get a letter from the Phantom himself, saying that if they don't let Christine sing in the next production instead of Carlotta, they'll regret it...

The 1929 sound version begins with a post-main-titles sequence that is obviously a new synchronized scene. A character with a lantern in the tunnels under the opera house (who is seen only briefly in the 1925 version) is speaking a prologue for the audience, but the footage is now mute. The soundtrack to this section has not yet been recovered, but the script for this scene does survive and is now vocalized in synchronization by an actor at some live presentations of the film.

The Phantom of the Opera (1925) 1929 silent rerelease version, color-toned black & white and color, 92 minutes, not rated, and The Phantom of the Opera (1925) 1929 silent rerelease version, color-toned black & white and color, 78 minutes, not rated, with The Phantom of the Opera (1925), color-tinted black & white, 114 minutes, not rated.

The 1929 version is presented in a new high-definition transfer at 20 frames per second, with an orchestral music score by Gabriel Thibaudeau (commissioned by La Cinemateque Quebecoise), recorded in 1992 by I Musici de Montreal, conducted by Yuri Turovsky, with pipe organ and opera soprano Claudine Coté. This presentation is supplemented by full-length audio commentary by Chaney expert Jon C. Mirsalis.

The Phantom of the Opera (1925) 1929 silent rerelease version, color-toned black & white and color, 92 minutes, not rated, and The Phantom of the Opera (1925) 1929 silent rerelease version, color-toned black & white and color, 78 minutes, not rated, with The Phantom of the Opera (1925), color-tinted black & white, ? minutes, not rated.

This DVD edition of The Phantom of the Opera features an orchestral music score, with pipe organ and opera soprano Claudine Coté, commissioned by La Cinemateque Quebecoise and composed by Gabriel Thibaudoux in 1992. While the music is entertaining and quite welcome in this 1995 edition, the treble frequencies in the recording are slightly topped off, giving the music a moderately compressed and muffled sound. And while the synchronization is slightly out of sync with the picture in places, the music helps a film that can be tough going without a strong musical accompaniment. The music is appropriately eerie as Christine is taken by Erik into the catacombs.

The Phantom of the Opera (1925), black & white, 110 minutes, not rated, and The Phantom of the Opera (1925) [1929 silent rerelease version], color-tinted black & white and color, 98 minutes, not rated.

The DVD supplementary section includes audio commentary by Scott McQueen (to the 1929 version), personal recollections by Laemmle niece and Phantom bit player Carla Laemmle (6 min.), theatrical trailers for the 1925 and 1930 versions of the film, nine audio-only dialogue sequences from the 1929 domestic sound version, a 1973 audio interview with cinematographer Charles Van Enger by historian Richard Koszarski (9 min.), a stills gallery of missing and deleted scenes, and a Faust opera excerpt from Midstream (1929), a Tiffany sound feature (10 min.).

The Phantom of the Opera (1925), black & white and color, 109 minutes, not rated, and The Phantom of the Opera (1925) 1929 silent rerelease version, black & white and color, 76 minutes, not rated, The Phantom of the Opera (1925) 1929 silent rerelease version, black & white, 76 minutes, not rated, with The Light in the Dark (1922) abridged The Light of faith version, color-toned black & white, 32 minutes, not rated.

Triple Feature Horror Classics, Volume 1 (1922-1927), black & white and color, 306 minutes total, not rated, including The Phantom of the Opera (1925) [1929 silent rerelease version], black & white and color, 107 minutes, not rated.

The Phantom of the Opera (1925) 1929 silent rerelease version, black & white, 79 minutes, not rated, with Nosferatu (1922), black & white, 63 minutes, not rated.

The Phantom of the Opera (1925) 1929 silent rerelease version, black & white, 79 minutes, not rated, with The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1923), black & white, 101 minutes, not rated, The Mechanical Cow (1927), color-tinted black & white, 6 minutes, not rated, Felix Minds the Kid (1922), black & white, 8 minutes, not rated, Gertie on Tour (c. 1918-1921), black & white, 2 minutes, not rated.

The Phantom of the Opera (1925) 1929 silent rerelease version, black & white, 106 minutes, not rated, with The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1923), black & white, 101 minutes, not rated.

Silent Horror Classics (1922-1949), black & white and color, ? minutes total, not rated, including The Phantom of the Opera (1925) 1929 silent rerelease version, black & white, 106 minutes, not rated.

After the performance, the ballet girls are disturbed by the sight of a mysterious man in a fez (Arthur Edmund Carewe), who dwells in the cellars. Arguing whether or not he is the Phantom, they decide to ask Joseph Buquet, a stagehand who has actually seen the ghost's face. Buquet describes a ghastly sight of a living skeleton to the girls, who are then startled by a shadow cast on the wall. The antics of stagehand Florine Papillon (Snitz Edwards) do not amuse Joseph's brother, Simon (Gibson Gowland), who chases him off. Meanwhile, Mme. Carlotta (Virginia Pearson), the prima donna of the Paris Grand Opera, barges into the managers office enraged. She has received a letter from "The Phantom," demanding that Christine sing the role of Marguerite the following night, threatening dire consequences if his demands are not met. Christine is in her dressing room at that moment, speaking to a phantom voice (which the audience sees as a shadow on a wall behind the dressing room.) The voice warns her that she will take Carlotta's place on Wednesday and that she is to think only of her career and her master.

Wednesday evening, Carlotta is ill and Christine takes her place in the opera. During the performance, the managers go to Box 5 to see exactly who has taken it. The keeper of the box does not know who it is, as she has never seen his face. The two managers enter the box and are startled to see a shadowy figure seated. They run out of the box and compose themselves, but when they enter the box again, the person is gone. In her next performance, Christine reaches her triumph during the finale and receives a standing ovation from the audience. When Raoul visits her in her dressing room, she pretends not to recognize him, because unbeknownst to those in the room, the phantom voice is present. Raoul spends the evening outside her door, and after the others have left, just as he is about to enter, he hears the voice within the room. He overhears the voice make his intentions to Christine: "Soon, Christine, this spirit will take form and will demand your love!" When Christine leaves her room alone, Raoul breaks in to find it empty. Carlotta receives another discordant note from the Phantom. Once again, it demands that she take ill and let Christine have her part. The managers also get a note, reiterating that if Christine does not sing, they will present "Faust" in a house with a curse on it. 041b061a72