114) The Phantom of the Opera

[00:00:03] Step right up ladies and gents, a show for the ages, a spectacle of silent silver, gather around folks, don't be shy, a real humdinger of a picture of eight, thrills, chills, and plenty of laughs

[00:00:24] From the golden days of flickering reels and grand Nickelodeons comes a program most extraordinary, a real corker of a show, a top-notch talkie about a world with no talk at all, it's Casabloga, Silent Treatment Before there was Dracula, Frankenstein, The Wolfman, or The Mummy, Universal Studios found its first great movie monster hiding beneath the Paris Opera House

[00:00:53] The Phantom of the Opera was released in 1925, six years before Universal officially entered its famous monster era But almost everything audience would eventually associate with those films is already here The enormous gothic sets, the shadows, the tragic figure whose appearance separates him from the rest of humanity And, of course, the unforgettable face of Lon Chaney

[00:01:21] The story takes place at the Paris Opera House, where strange rumors have circulated for years Performers whisper about a mysterious figure who appears in the shadows Stagehands claim they've seen a man with the face of a skull The owners receive letters from someone identifying himself as the Phantom of the Opera Demanding money and insisting that Box 5 remain empty for his personal use The new managers naturally assume this is some kind of elaborate joke

[00:01:50] It is not The Phantom's attention is focused on Christine Daae A young understudy who has suddenly developed an extraordinary singing voice Christine claims she has been receiving lessons from someone she calls the Spirit of Music A mysterious teacher who speaks to her through the wall of her dressing room Christine believes this voice may have been sent by her late father Her teacher is Eric, the Phantom

[00:02:18] Who has been secretly guiding her career while watching from hidden rooms and passageways throughout the Opera House Eric orders the managers to replace their leading soprano, Carlotta, with Christine When they refuse, he begins sabotaging the performance At first, his revenge almost seems playful Carlotta attempts to sing and begins croaking like a frog It's humiliating, but relatively harmless

[00:02:46] Then, an enormous chandelier crashes into the audience The Phantom of the Opera moves between those extremes throughout the film Eric can be theatrical, mischievous, romantic, and even strangely vulnerable Oh, and he is also a murderer That combination is what makes him so fascinating Christine eventually follows the mysterious voice through a hidden passage behind her dressing room mirror

[00:03:12] She is placed on horseback and carried deeper beneath the Opera House Eventually crossing an underground lake to Eric's hidden home The sets in these sequences are incredible This doesn't feel like a small room disguised with shadows and clever camera angles It feels like an entire world exists beneath the Opera House There are stone corridors, trapdoors, dungeons, torture chambers, and a vast underground lake Illuminated by flickering lights

[00:03:43] Universal constructed an enormous recreation of the Paris Opera House for the production The studio promoted it as one of the largest sets ever built And claimed its designers used architectural plans and historical illustrations to recreate the building Thousands of extras were reportedly used during the opera and masquerade sequences This scale gives the film an atmosphere that would be difficult to recreate today Modern films can create entire cities through visual effects

[00:04:12] But there is something different about seeing actors physically moving through these enormous environments The rooms feel heavy The staircases feel endless The underground passages feel as though they've been sitting beneath Paris for centuries And at the center of all of it is Eric When Christine first meets him, he wears a mask and formal clothing He speaks to her gently and plays music for her on an enormous organ

[00:04:39] And asks only that she never remove his mask Naturally, she removes his mask The unmasking is probably the most famous moment in the film, if not the entire silent film era And is still remarkably effective Christine slowly approaches Eric while he is playing the organ She reaches forward, pulls away the mask, and reveals a face that looks almost skeletal His nose appears to be missing

[00:05:08] His eyes bulge from their sockets His teeth are exposed beneath thin, distorted lips Then Eric turns around There's no elaborate camera movement or rapid editing We simply see his face, and that's enough You know, Versal kept Chaney's appearance secret while promoting the film Audiences knew they were going to see the Phantom But they didn't know exactly what he would look like until Christine removed the mask Today, his appearance is everywhere

[00:05:35] It's on posters, DVD covers, and almost every article written about the film Even if you've never watched the Phantom of the Opera There's a good chance you've already seen Lon Chaney's face It's difficult to imagine watching that scene without knowing what was coming Chaney designed his own makeup As he did for many of his films There are numerous stories about exactly how he achieved the effect Some more believable than others

[00:06:01] He reportedly used wires and small devices to pull his nose upward And darkened his nostrils to make the nose appear almost completely absent Whatever methods he used, the result is astonishing It does not look comfortable, or even entirely human But the makeup alone wouldn't have made the Phantom memorable Chaney's performance is what brings the character to life His Eric is constantly moving

[00:06:30] His hands curl like claws His shoulders rise and fall He can glide silently through a room And then suddenly explode with anger Even while wearing a mask Chaney communicates through the position of his body And the movement of his eyes Once the mask is removed, his entire performance changes Eric is furious with Christine But beneath that anger is humiliation She hasn't merely disobeyed him

[00:06:59] She has seen the face he's spent his entire life hiding For a moment, he covers himself Then he turns his shame into rage That brief transition tells us almost everything we need to know about Eric He wants Christine to love him But he doesn't believe anyone could willingly do so Instead of risking rejection, he imprisons her Instead of asking for affection, he demands obedience

[00:07:26] When Christine shows fear, Eric treats that fear as a betrayal Even though he has given her every possible reason to be afraid This is where some later versions of the story feel very different from the 1925 film Many adaptations turn the Phantom into a dark romantic figure He may be dangerous, but he's seductive He's misunderstood

[00:07:51] Depending on the version, you may even wonder whether Christine should choose him instead of Raoul There is very little chance of that happening here Lon Chaney's Eric is tragic, but the film never allows us to forget that he's also terrifying He threatens Christine, kills people Heck, he even dropped a chandelier onto a crowded audience That's not romantic and misunderstanding And yet, Chaney still finds moments that make us feel something for him

[00:08:21] That doesn't excuse Eric's actions It simply makes him more interesting than a monster who kills because the story requires someone to be evil Eric knows how the world sees him He has built an elaborate kingdom beneath the opera house Because he believes there is no place for him above it Music and architecture give him control over a world that has otherwise rejected him

[00:08:47] Christine represents the possibility that someone might finally see more than his face But Eric destroys that possibility almost immediately The more desperately he wants Christine to love him The more impossible he makes it for her to do so The film's most visually spectacular sequence arrives during the Masquerade Bowl The previously black and white film suddenly bursts into color As hundreds of costumed guests fill the opera house

[00:09:15] The sequence was photographed using an early two-color technicolor process Giving the scene vivid reds and greens that feel almost unreal after so much darkness Then Eric appears at the top of the staircase dressed as the Red Death It is one of the greatest entrances in silent film He wears a bright red costume and a skull mask Then slowly descends the staircase while the crowd retreats around him

[00:09:44] He doesn't need to attack anyone His presence alone stops the celebration The strange thing is that Eric almost seems more comfortable dressed as Death Than he does while pretending to be an ordinary person For once, everyone is afraid of him because that is exactly what he wants The color sequence also demonstrates how ambitious the production was The film was designed as a major universal spectacle

[00:10:09] Filled with enormous stats, thousands of performers, and elaborate opera scenes Unfortunately, the production behind the camera was nearly as chaotic as the story on screen Rupert Julian is officially credited as the director But the film went through extensive revisions after an early preview received a poor response Universal reworked the story, filmed new material, and changed the ending Different versions circulated, and the film was altered again in 1929

[00:10:38] When Universal reissued it with synchronized sound sequences And additional technicolor footage Because of those revisions, discussing the Phantom of the Opera can become surprisingly complicated The version available today is not necessarily identical to what audiences saw at the original premiere Scenes have been removed, rearranged, or drawn from alternate versions Even the pacing and color may vary depending on which restoration or release you watch

[00:11:08] You could almost say that the film itself has become a Phantom We know it exists, but the complete original version remains slightly out of reach Some of the production problems are visible in the finished film The story occasionally feels disjointed Characters disappear for long stretches Certain plot developments receive very little explanation While other scenes continue much longer than necessary Raoul, Christine's love interest, is especially underdeveloped

[00:11:37] He loves Christine and wants to rescue her That's essentially everything we know about him The Phantom completely overwhelms everyone else in the movie Which is probably inevitable when Lon Chaney is giving this kind of performance Whenever Eric is absent, the film can feel like it's waiting for him to return Fortunately, the final plot gives him plenty to do After discovering that Christine plans to escape with Raul Eric kidnaps her again and takes her beneath the opera house

[00:12:05] Raoul and Inspector Ludo follow Only to become trapped inside of one of Eric's torture chambers This room is designed to resemble a forest But the scenery is part of an elaborate trap The walls become increasingly hot, turning the room into an oven When Raul and Ludo escape through a hidden door They fall into another chamber that begins filling with water Eric has apparently spent years beneath the opera house Inventing extremely complicated ways to kill anyone

[00:12:35] Who might eventually attempt to rescue a kidnapped opera singer He is nothing if not prepared Meanwhile, the angry mob descends into the underground passages Christine begs Eric to release Raul Eventually agreeing to remain with him if he allows the others to live Eric seems moved by her willingness to sacrifice herself For perhaps the first time, Christine has shown him genuine compassion He releases Raul and Ludo

[00:13:05] Then realizing the mob is approaching Eric flees with Christine in a carriage The chase ends along the sheen Where the mob surrounds him For one final moment, Eric reaches into his coat And raises his hand as though he's holding something dangerous The crowd recoils Then he opens his hand There is nothing there He laughs It's a perfect final gesture for the character

[00:13:33] Even when he has lost everything He still needs to perform He still needs to control the people around him Even if only for a few seconds Then the mob attacks him Kills him And throws his body into the river It is an unusually brutal ending There is no peaceful death beside the organ There was no final kiss from Christine There is no suggestion that Eric is redeemed by love He dies surrounded by people who see him only as a monster

[00:14:04] It's tragic It's also difficult to argue that the mob has misunderstood the situation That tension is what keeps the film interesting a century later Eric has suffered because of his appearance He has been isolated, feared, and rejected We understand why he built a world where he could hide from everyone who judged him But suffering doesn't automatically make someone good Eric takes the pain inflicted upon him And passes it to everyone around him

[00:14:33] He becomes exactly what people believed him to be Then uses their fear as proof that he could never have been anything else Lon Chaney understood how to make audiences pity a character Without asking them to forgive him He had already played Quasimodo in Universal's The Hunchback of Notre Dame two years earlier Both characters were physically different people Hidden within enormous gothic buildings Watching women who they could never truly possess But Quasimodo protects Esmeralda

[00:15:02] Eric imprisons Christine That is a massive difference The Phantom of the Opera was released before Universal's famous monster cycle officially began But it established the formula the studio would soon perfect Its monster is frightening because of what he does But memorable because of what has been done to him That idea would return in Frankenstein, The Wolfman, The Creature from the Black Lagoon And countless horror films that followed

[00:15:30] The monster is rarely just a monster In 1998, the Library of Congress selected The Phantom of the Opera for preservation In the National Film Registry Recognizing its cultural, historical, and aesthetic significance That recognition feels especially appropriate Because this film's influence extends far beyond its own story The image of a masked figure haunting an opera house

[00:15:57] Has been recreated so many times that it has become part of popular culture The Phantom has appeared in musicals, films, TV shows, cartoons, and Halloween decorations But beneath all of those other interpretations is Lon Chaney Standing in the shadows Waiting for Christine to remove the mask And nearly 100 years later That face is still waiting underneath And cut

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