The Phantom of the Opera (1925)

The Phantom of the Opera
Directed by Rupert Julian
1925/USA
Universal Pictures
#26 of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die
First Viewing

This is another of the movies from The List that I had never seen before and was available from Netflix streaming.

Erik: Feast your eyes! Glut your soul on my accursed ugliness!

Erik (Lon Chaney), a self-taught musician and disfigured, criminally insane fugitive, has taken refuge in the cavernous cellars of the Paris Opera House. There he has been taken for a phantom that haunts the opera house. He develops a passion for rising opera singer Christine and promotes her career by writing threatening letters to keep the star diva from singing and by killing the audience with a chandelier when that doesn’t work. Eventually, he lures Christine to his realm where she soon learns of the hideous countenance hidden by his mask. He agrees to allow Christine to return to the opera on the condition that she stay away from her lover. Naturally, Christine cannot resist and all hell breaks loose.

The Phantom as the Red Death

I must say that this is much creepier and more gripping than the 1943 Claude Rains version. The print I saw had quite a bit of tinting, two-strip Technicolor sequences, and a specially composed score that heightened the effects. Chaney was spectacular and, while I could have lived without some of Mary Philbin’s posturing, I really enjoyed it.

The unmasking scene