The Phantom of the Opera (1925 film)

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The Phantom of the Opera
Directed by	Rupert Julian Lon Chaney Ernst Laemmle Edward Sedgwick
Produced by	Carl Laemmle
Written by	Gaston Leroux Elliott J. Clawson Raymond L. Schrock Bernard McConville Jasper Spearing Richard Wallace Walter Anthony Tom Reed Frank M. McCormack
Starring	Lon Chaney Mary Philbin Norman Kerry Arthur Edmund Carewe Gibson Gowland
Cinematography	Milton Bridenbecker Virgil Miller Charles Van Enger
Editing by	Edward Curtiss Maurice Pivar Gilmore Walker
Distributed by	Universal Pictures
Release date(s)	6 September 1925
Running time	93 minutes
Country	United States
Language	Silent English intertitles
All Movie Guide profile
IMDb profile

The 1925 silent film version of The Phantom of the Opera, directed by Rupert Julian, is a classic adaptation of Gaston Leroux's novel The Phantom of the Opera, starring Lon Chaney in the title role as the masked and facially disfigured 'Phantom' who haunts the Paris Opera House, causing murder and mayhem in an attempt to force the management to make the woman he loves a star. It is most famous for Lon Chaney's intentionally horrific, self-applied makeup which was kept a studio secret until the film's premier.

In addition to Chaney, the film also stars Mary Philbin, Norman Kerry, Arthur Edmund Carewe, Gibson Gowland, John St. Polis and Snitz Edwards. The only surviving cast member is Carla Laemmle (born in 1909), niece of producer Carl Laemmle, who played a small role as "prima ballerina" in the film when she was about 15.

The movie was adapted by Elliott J. Clawson, Frank M. McCormack (uncredited), Tom Reed (titles) and Raymond L. Schrock. It was directed by Rupert Julian, with supplemental direction by Edward Sedgwick, and Lon Chaney (unconfirmed).

[edit] Plot

The film takes place in 1890s Paris, France. It is a mystery with romantic and horror overtones.

The film opens with the debut of the new season at the Paris Opera House, with a production of Gounod's Faust. Comte Philip de Chagny and his brother, the Vicomte Raoul (Norman Kerry) are in attendance. Raoul attends only in the hope of hearing his sweetheart Christine Daee (Mary Philbin) sing. Christine, under the tuition of an unknown and mysterious coach, has made a sudden rise from the chorus to understudy of the prima donna. Raoul wishes for Christine to resign and marry him, but she refuses their relationship to get into the way of her career.

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.

In the cellars of the Opera House, during a dress rehearsal, the corps de ballet scurry around after having caught a glimpse of the Phantom. Florine Papillon (Snitz Edwards), a stage hand, follows them reluctantly, shuddering at the thought of a ghost.

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.

The ballet girls are disturbed by the sight of a mysterious man (Arthur Edmund Carewe), who dwells in the cellars. Arguing whether or not he is the Phantom, they decide to ask Joseph Bouqet, a stagehand who has actually seen the ghost's face. Bouquet describes a ghastly sight of a living skeleton to the girls, who are then startled by a shadow cast on the wall. Papillon's antics do not amuse Joseph's brother, Simon (Gibson Gowland), who chases him off.

In Christine's dressing room, an angelic voice calls to her from beyond the wall. He announces to her that she will sing Marguerite in Faust and that all of Paris will worship her, but that she must forget all worldly things and think only of her master.

The following day, in a garden near the Opera House, Christine and Raoul meet. Christine explains to Raoul that he must forget her and that her master has told her that she must devote her life to her art. Raoul baffled, Christine explains that the Spirit of Music that her father had promised would visit her has materialized and given her the gift of song, and although she has never seen him, she must obey him. Thinking that it is someone playing a joke on her, Raoul laughs and offends Christine, who runs off.

The following night, Carlotta is taken ill and Christine sings as Marguerite. 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.

Christine reaches her triumph during the finale of the performance, and receives a standing ovation from the audience. Exhausted, she faints on stage. When Raoul visits her in her dressing room, she pretends not to recognize him, because unbeknownst to the rest there, the Spirit is also there. Raoul spends the evening outside her door, and after the others have left, just as he is about to enter, he hears a man's 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.

The same day, the mysterious man from the cellars visits the Prefect of Police in an attempt to keep Mlle. Carlotta from singing. "For the present, my identity must remain a secret," he tells the Prefect.

The following evening, in spite of every warning, Carlotta appears as Marguerite. At first, the performance goes well, but soon the Phantom's curse takes its effect, causing the great, glass chandelier to crash down onto the audience. After taking over the leading role from Carlotta, who has now taken ill, Christine is entranced by a mysterious voice through a secret door behind the mirror in her dressing room, descending, in a dream-like sequence, semi-conscious on horseback by a winding staircase into the lower depths of the Opera. She is then taken by gondola over a subterranean lake by the masked Phantom into his lair.

Here, in one of the most famous moments in silent film, she makes the mistake of unmasking the Phantom (Chaney) as he plays on the organ, thus revealing his hideous deformity...

Released from the underground dungeon, Christine makes a rendezvous with Raoul on the Opera roof, observed, however, by an unseen jealous Phantom perching on a statue. A masked-ball at the Opera is then graced with the Phantom in the guise of the 'Red-Death' - from the Edgar Allan Poe tale of the same name. Raoul and inspector Ledoux are then lured into the Phantom's underground death-trap as he kidnaps Christine. However, in the final sequence, he is pursued and killed by a mob on the streets of Paris.

[edit] Production

Production started in late 1924 at Universal Studios and did not go smoothly. According to the Director of Photography, Charles Van Enger, Lon Chaney and director Rupert Julian did not get along at all. The first cut of the film was previewed in Los Angeles on January 7 and 26, 1925. The score was prepared by Joseph Carl Breil. No information survives as to what the score consisted of other than Universal's release, Presented with augmented concert orchstra, playing the score composed by J. Carl Briel, composer of music for "Birth of a Nation". The exact quote from the Opening Day full page ad in the Call Bulletin read: "Universal Weekly claimed a 60-piece orchestra. Moving Picture World reported that "The music from 'Faust' supplied the music [for the picture]." Due to poor reviews and reactions, the January release was pulled, and Julian was told to re-shoot most of the picture. Feeling that perhaps he was too good for the studio after replacing Erich Von Stroheim on The Merry-Go-Round (1924, which also starred Norman Kerry and Mary Philbin) he walked out on the studio.

Edward Sedgwick (later director of Buster Keaton's 1928 film The Cameraman) was then assigned by producer Carl Laemmle to re-shoot and redirect the bulk of the movie. Raymond L. Schrock and original screenwriter Elliot Clawson wrote new scenes at the request of Sedgewick. Most of these scenes depicted added subplots, with Chester Conklin and Vola Vale as comedic relief to the heroes and Ward Crane as the Russian, "Count Ruboff" dueling with Raoul for Christine's affection. This version was previewed in San Franscico on April 26, 1925 and did not do well at all. "The story drags to the point of nauseam", one reviewer stated.

The two people responsible for the salvation of the film were Universal hold-overs Maurice Pivar and Lois Weber, who edited the production down to nine reels. It debuted on September 6, 1925, at the Astor Theater in New York City, and on October 17, 1925 in Hollywood, California. The score for the Astor opening was to be composed by Professor Gustav Hinrichs. Hinrich's score was not prepared in time, so instead, according to Universal Weekly, the premiere featured a score by Eugene Conte, composed mainly of "french airs" and the appropriate Faust cues. No expense was spared at the premiere; Universal even had a full organ installed at the Astor for the event. (As it was a legitimate house, the Astor theater used an orchestra, not an organ, for its music.) For all of the production problems, the film was a success at the box office, grossing over 2,000,000 USD.

In 1929, after the successful introduction of sound pictures, Universal dubbed and re-shot a new cut of The Phantom of the Opera with the new Western Electric sound-on-disc process. Ernst Laemmle re-shot a little less than half of the picture in sound, while the remainder contained music and sound effects, with stock cues and original pieces by Sam A. Perry and David Broekman. Lon Chaney was at MGM, and Universal could not dub his voice, so "third person" dialogue by the Phantom was looped over shots of his shadow (the voice-overs are uncredited, but are probably Universal regular, Phillips Smalley). Posters exclaimed, "Lon Chaney's portrayal is a silent one!" The sound Phantom grossed another million dollars, and was stored away for future use, but has since vanished and is presently considered to be a lost film, although the soundtrack discs survive.

[edit] Urban legend

Universal Studios' soundstage #28, where the movie was filmed, is said to be haunted. Some people believe that Lon Chaney's ghost haunts the soundstage.

• A long standing urban legend has that the Opera House set from the 1925 film has never been torn down and still stands, and is used today. This is partially true. On Set 28 part of the opera house set continues to stand to the side where it was used some 8 decades ago, although time has taken its toll so it is no longer used. Another urban legend says that 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. [1]

The Opera House set from 1925 has never been torn down and still stands today. Since then, it has been used in numerous films, including the 1943 remake, and is still used today.

[edit] Preservation

The famous unmasking scene which was said to have made theater patrons scream and faint in 1925. The 1929 version is on the left, the original 1925 version on the right.

The finest quality print of the film existing was struck from an original camera negative for George Eastman House in the early 1950s by Universal Pictures. The original 1925 version only survives in 16 mm "Show-At-Home" prints created by Universal for home movie use in the 1930s. There are several versions of these prints, but none are complete. All are off of the original, domestic camera negative.

Because of the better quality of the Eastman House print, many home video releases have opted to use this as the basis of their transfers. This version has singer Mary Fabian in the role of "Carlotta". In the re-edited version, Virginia Pearson, who played "Carlotta" in the 1925 film, is credited and referred to as "Carlotta's Mother" instead. The majority of silent footage in the 1929 version is actually from a second camera, used to photograph the film for foreign markets and second negatives- careful examination of the two versions shows similar shots are slightly askew in composition.

In a recent DVD issue the surviving soundtrack has been re-edited in an attempt to fit the Eastman House print as best as possible. However, there are some problems with this attempt: There is no corresponding "man with lantern" sequence on the sound discs. While the purely silent "music and effect" reels seem to follow the discs fairly closely, the scenes with speech (which at one point constituted about 60% of the film) are generally shorter than their corresponding sequences on the discs. Also, since the sound discs were meant for a projection speed of 24 frames per second (the established speed for sound film), and the film on the DVD is presented at approximately 18 frames per second, the soundtrack runs painfully slowly. A sound reissue trailer included for the first time on the DVD is run at sound speed with the audio running at the correct pitch.

[edit] Eastman House Print Mystery

No one knows for sure what the negative used to strike the Eastman House print was produced for, due to footage from the 1929 re-issue placed in it and its lack of wear or damage.

To add to the confusion, an opening prologue of a man with a lantern has been added, but there are no title cards or dialogue to substantiate it. It would seem that this shot was a talking sequence, but it shows up in the original 1925 version, this time truncated and with a different, close-up shot of the man with the lantern. To further confuse the issue of the 1929 re-issue, the opening title sequence, the lantern man, and the footage of Mary Fabian performing as Carlotta are photographed at 24 frames per second (sound speed). The lantern man sequence for the re-issue is therefore a re-shoot.

Several possibilities regarding the negative's origins are:

1. It is an international version for foreign markets.
2. It is a silent version for theaters not yet equipped with sound in 1929.
3. it is a negative for Universal's reference in case a print needed to be made.

[edit] International Version

Two comparative frames of narrative titles from the 1929 sound reissue. The title on the left is from the Technicolor sequence, which survives in 35mm. On the right, a lost title card from a 16mm printdown, not sourced from the Eastman House version.

International versions were cheap sound versions of films which the producing company did not feel were worth the expense of re-shooting in a foreign language. They were meant to cash in on the talkie craze; by 1929 anything with sound did well at the box-office while silent films were largely ignored by the public. These "international sound versions" were basically part-talkies and were largely silent except for musical sequences. Since the film included a synchronized music and a sound effect track, it could be advertised as a sound picture and could therefore capitalize on the talkie craze in foreign markets (instead of the more expensive method of actually re-filming talking sequences in foreign languages). To make an international version, the studio would simply insert (on the soundtrack) music over any dialogue in the film and splice in some title cards (which were meant to be replaced with the appropriate language of the country). Singing sequences were left intact as well as any sound sequences that did not involve speaking. The surviving sound disks belong to the domestic sound version of the film and therefore do not synchronize with the dialogue portions of the film which have been abbreviated on the existing print. There is no record to substantiate what the "international version" of The Phantom was, nor is there any reference that it was even available. Furthermore, one negative was made for all of Europe and sent overseas. The negative was generally left there and the version that is now seen shows no signs of negative wear that would be consistent with that of a negative printed for a number of countries.

[edit] Silent Version

During the transition to sound in 1929, it was not uncommon to see a silent and a sound version of a picture playing simultaneously (particularly from Universal, who kept a silent/sound policy longer than most studios). One speculation is that the Eastman House print is actually a silent version of the film made for theaters not yet equipped with sound.

However, according to trade journals of the time, only the sound version was available. The possibility is that Universal made a silent version, but decided not to do anything with it. It seems strange, however, that Universal would go through that needless expense when they already had the 1925 silent version. Furthermore, by 1929 audiences were staying away from completely silent films and this had forced all the major studios to add soundtracks and dialogue sequences to all of their major releases which had previously been intended for release as a silent picture. Studios did not spend much time or money in making silent versions, which were meant to be played in rural areas whose theaters could not yet afford the conversion to sound. The film would usually be accompanied by organ music as they could not afford orchestras. Nevertheless, if the extant print is a silent version, it would explain why Universal still had it and also the lack of wear on the negative.

[edit] Studio print

Another possibility is that the print is a reference print for Universal's personal use. It would explain why outtakes from both the 1925 and 1929 version were used, would also explain the lack of wear on the negative itself, and would also explain why it was Universal's last surviving negative of the film. It is entirely possible that with the film re-classified as a "sound" film, it escaped Universal's purging of its silent film library.

[edit] Color preservation

Handschiegl color process, as recreated in Photoplay Production's restoration of the film.

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.

The Bal Masque scene was highlighted by its use of the Technicolor process.

As with many films of the time, black and white footage was tinted various colors to provide mood. These included amber for interiors, blue for night scenes, green for mysterious moods, red for fire and sunshine (yellow) for daylight exteriors.

While a good picture reference, Phillip J. Riley's 1999 book MagicImage: The Phantom of the Opera (Magic Image, 1999) is riddled with errors, including the statement that the famous unmasking scene was shot in color. However, in the same book, the script is printed and is marked "Chaney says no color". Furthermore, no mention of color is listed in the continuities for the films.

[edit] Further information

The film has been deemed "culturally significant" by the Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry. In the United States, the film is in the public domain, and can be freely downloaded from the Internet Archive.

[edit] Trivia

• This film was #52 on Bravo's 100 Scariest Movie Moments.

[edit] External links

• The Phantom's Opera - Phantom of the Opera Role Playing and Discussion Forum
• The Phantom of the Opera at the Internet Movie Database
• The Phantom of the Opera at Google Video
• Free download at the Internet Archive