The Phantom of the Opera

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Perhaps another example of something that's more of a drama with horror elements, most people I went to school with are familiar with this story. I recall being in elementary school, having the field trip to see the 'Phantom of the Opera' stage play being one of the big highlights of your senior years. If you didn't see it, you weren't cool, and... well, I never did check it out for whatever reason. So, being mostly unfamiliar with things, I figured the '25 version would reach back nice and early, and probably be among the best adaptations to start with.

Plot-wise, the Paris Opera House is knowingly haunted by A disfigured former composer. Several people end up seeing a cloaked figure lurking in the shadows, and call him the Phantom of the Opera (Lon Chaney). This Phantom ends up falling for a young understudy named Christine Daae (Mary Philbin), a stand-in with a beautiful voice.

The Phantom brings Christine into his world, located below the streets of Paris. Here, he confesses he's in love with her. But when she removes his mask, she sees (see picture above). She begs him to leave, and he obliges, but warns her to stay away from Vicomte Raoul de Chagny (Norman Kerry), her current lover. She runs straight to Raoul, scared and in need of protection, which in turn enrages the Phantom, who ends up kidnapping Christine. The police are soon on Christine's trail, figuring the Phantom for an insane criminal. Raoul and Ledoux (Arthur Edmund Carewe), of the secret police, must now tread through the Phantom's underground lair in order to find Christine and rescue her.

'Phantom' has always kinda stuck out in my memory as this big thing that I didn't bother participating in. This was largely lack of interest, and it's one of those things I'd love to be able to redo, knowing what I know now. I wasn't what you'd call very sophisticated as a preteen, or even a teen, so to me this was seen as something that might actually bore me

So, how does this hold up? Actually, not too badly at all. We always must bear in mind that this is the silent film era, so it relies largely on atmosphere. Chaney is great here, allowing us to pity him, but dislike him all at once. There's some great shots in this one that involve the Phantom's shadow, thus giving him even more mystery than whatever lies behind his mask. And as far as that goes, his face probably looks familiar to you, even if you've never seen this before. It has becomes pretty iconic over the years as one of Universal's big classic monster faces.

If you're already a fan of this story, I'd actually urge you to check this out as what I'd imagine to be a pretty close interpretation for its time. The book was only just written about 15 years prior, so one would imagine it was pretty fresh story writing back then to adapt. I'm still not the biggest fan of this story, but I know plenty who are. For them, I say check this out just to add to your history with the story. It's not my favourite, but still perfectly decent, and I'm still glad that I bothered to watch it.

3/5

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