The Phantom of the Opera (1925 film)
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The 1925 film version of The Phantom of the Opera, starring Lon Chaney, Sr., and directed by Rupert Julian, is one of the more influential adaptations of Gaston Leroux's novel The Phantom of the Opera, in which a disfigured phantom haunts the Paris Opera House, trying to force the people who run it 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).
Production
Production started in late 1924 at Universal Studios and did not go over 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. 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 a bulk of the movie. Raymond L. Schrock and original screenwriter Elliot Clawson re-wrote new scenes at the request of Sedgewick. Most of these scenes were 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. After all of the trouble put into it, the film was a success at the box office, grossing in over 2,000,000 USD. The two years of hard work had finally paid off.
In 1929, after the success 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 and the remainder contained music and sound effects. Lon Chaney was at MGM, and Universal could not dub his voice, so the effect of a "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). The sound Phantom grossed another million, 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.
Urban legend
Universal Studios' soundstage #23, where the movie was filmed, is said to be haunted. Some people believe that Lon Chaney, Sr.'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. [link]
Preservation
The finest quality print of the film existing was struck from the original camera negative for George Eastman House in the early 1950s by Universal Pictures. This print was in actuality, however, a silent version of the 1929 re-issue prepared for theaters not yet transitioned to sound equipment. Unfortunately, when the print was struck, the full-frame silent aspect ratio was not kept in mind, and was instead printed through an academy ratio printing machine, cutting off the left edge of the picture. In a recent DVD issue the surviving soundtrack has been re-edited to fit the surviving footage. Talking sequences shot for this version are still missing, but audio selections are available- the quality is extremely stilted and it is no surprise that the careers of Mary Philbin and Norman Kerry did not survive the transition to sound. The original 1925 version only survives in 16 mm "Show-At-Home" prints created for home movie use in the 1920s and 1930s. Because of the better quality of the Eastman House print, many home video releases opt 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 common footage in the 1929 version is actually from a second camera, used to photograph the film for foreign markets - careful examination of the two versions shows similar shots are slightly askew in composition.
When the film was originally released, 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. Contrary to the popular rumor instigated by Phillip J. Riley's 1999 book, "MagicImage: The Phantom of the Opera" (Magic Image, 1999), the famous unmasking scene was not shot in Technicolor (Riley's book is a good picture reference, but is riddled with errors). 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. As with most films of the time, black and white footage was tinted various colors to give moods. These included amber for interiors, blue for night scenes, green for mysterious moods, red for fire and sunshine (yellow) for daylight exteriors.
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.
External links
- [The Phantom's Opera] - Phantom of the Opera Role Playing and Discussion Forum
- [The Phantom of the Opera] at Google Video
- [Free download at the Internet Archive]
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