The Phantom of the Opera (1925)

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

Directors:

Rupert Julian, Lon Chaney (uncredited)

Writer:

Gaston Leroux (from the 1910 celebrated novel by)

Stars:

Lon Chaney, Mary Philbin, Norman Kerry

2 wins & 1 nomination.

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Lon Chaney	...	The Phantom
Mary Philbin	...	Christine Daae
Norman Kerry	...	Vicomte Raoul de Chagny
Arthur Edmund Carewe	...	Ledoux
Gibson Gowland	...	Simon Buquet
John St. Polis	...	Comte Philip de Chagny (as John Sainpolis)
Snitz Edwards	...	Florine Papillon
Mary Fabian	...	Carlotta
Virginia Pearson	...	Carlotta / Carlotta's Mother

Storyline

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 ?

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Plot Keywords:

opera | singer | underground | opera house | mask | 

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Taglines:

The greatest horror film of modern cinema!

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Genres:

Horror

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Certificate:

Passed

Did You Know?

Trivia

The Universal Studios' stage 28 floor-foot print, built for the 1925 B&W Lon Chaney "Phantom of the Opera" feature film, is enormous. The European horseshoe Paris Opera Theatre's three tiered box audience seating area surrounds the floor audience ramped area. The master wide-shot from the top rear box seat area encompasses the stage proscenium, orchestra pit, and the chandelier. The top of the interior theatre ceiling master shot is completed with a matte painting. The audience area is one third of the stage's foot print. The North end of stage 28 encompasses the raised stage area. What really makes this stage unique is that in 1925, an elaborate 30'-0" diameter mechanical turntable sits in the center of the front stage area, allowing forty (40) feet from the back edge of the turntable to the rear stage back-wall. The basement of stage 28 houses the original turntable mechanical mechanism to turn the 30' diameter turntable. All of the mechanics for the turntable have remained intact, sitting in their original structural position. The turntable centers on a center cylindrical shaft, with triangular inverted bracing branches, welded to the center shaft, similar to an inverted umbrella brace. The entire weight of the turntable is thrust upon this center turning spindle. After the original film was completed, the turntable area of the stage floor was covered with three layers of 3/4" thick plywood 4'-0" x 10'-0" sheets, which allowed future film sets to be built upon the turntable stage area for feature filming. When a camera crane is used on the stage, allowances have to be considered with the turntable's floor position, related to the film set requirements. The original stage had a theatre pin rail system with hanging pipe arbors for electrical lights, existing on the stage right area. The raised stage area was utilized for feature film "process photography" because of the depth required for a film projector onto a rear screen, enough room for a camera and crew, with an acting/performance area in front of the screen. The projector camera has to be in direct center of the filming camera's lens point of view position, with a depth of field allowance. The 1943 Universal Studios Technicolor remake of "Phantom of the Opera" starring Nelson Eddy, Susanna Foster and Claude Rains stripped the plywood floor covering in order to utilize the turntable for the film's stage production numbers. The turntable mechanism was tuned up and used in the film. After the 1943 Technicolor film was completed, the stage flooring was installed, re-covering the turntable. The turntable has never been used since the 1943 feature film. The interior Opera House theatre has been filmed, and the production stage area of stage 28 has been host to many feature and television films.

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Goofs

When the front page of the newspaper "Le Matin" is shown, its higher part is written in French, while its bottom part is written in English. Although main titles make sense, in both languages, it appears that lines hardly form a consistent text and are closer to gibberish.

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Quotes

The Phantom: [title card]
[at the Bal Masque as "The Red Death"]
The Phantom: Beneath your dancing feet are the tombs of tortured men! Thus does The Red Death rebuke your merriment!

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Crazy Credits

None of the technical staff of this film receives screen credit.

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Alternate Versions

In 2012 it was determined that an "accidental 3-D" version of the film existed. From an examination of various prints of the film, it was discovered that most - if not all - of the original film was shot using two cameras placed side-by-side. This was most likely done to create simultaneous master and safety/domestic and foreign negatives of the film. However, when synched together and anaglyph color-tinted, the spatial distance between the two simultaneous film strips translates into an effective 3-D film. Under the working title of LA FANTOME 3D, a fund-raising effort is under way to locate and restore (create) a full "accidental 3-D" version of the film.

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Connections

Referenced in The Frankenstein Files: How Hollywood Made a Monster (2002)

User Reviews

The pathos of Lon Chaney gave the Phantom its dimension...

Lon Chaney was the first of the long line of Phantoms and the one against whom all his successors had to be measured…

The story, despite all its alternatives, is the familiar one of the musician avoiding the world because of his disfigurement and retreating to a hideout beneath the Opera House, from where he emerges to terrorize singers and audience alike…

He kidnaps a young girl singer – perhaps to teach her to become a great star; certainly because, in his grotesque and pathetic way, he loves her – and carries her off to a boudoir he has prepared far underground…

There was melodrama in plenty: in the first version, for example, two would-be rescuers found themselves trapped in an uncomfortable mirrored room the Phantom had prepared, where they first got a heat treatment and then were flooded…

But, beyond all the heightened effects, it was the pathos of the Phantom underscoring his lonely menace which gave the character a dimension, and the isolation of the captor and his captive, imprisoned to a literal underworld, which gave the suspense of the whole film its power…

Details

Official Sites:

Official Facebook

Country:

USA

Release Date:

15 November 1925 (USA)

Also Known As:

Phantom of the Opera

Filming Locations:

Stage 28, Universal Studios - 100 Universal City Plaza, Universal City, California, USA

Box Office

Gross USA:

$3,751,476

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$4,360,000

Company Credits

Production Co:

Universal Pictures

Technical Specs

Runtime:

93 min 101 min (original) 92 min (1995) 107 min (DVD) 106 min (Ontario) 95 min (1929 re-release)

Sound Mix:

Mono (talking sequences, musical score and sound effects) (1929 re-release) Silent

Color:

Black and White Color (2-strip Technicolor) (some sequences)

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1