Phantom of the Opera (1925)

The Phantom of the Opera

An Original Release Poster

Starring: Lon Chaney, Mary Philbin, Norman Kerry

Directed by: Rupert Julian

This is a silent movie, so whilst I was on my laptop, I unfortunatly missed several snippets of it, but I got the amjority of it, and let me tell you: PHAN-TASTIC! The ending was altered from the book to a cheesy chase scene which ruined the very bookurate film but was...alright as an ending. Though let this be a lesson to you; Chicago plebs from the mid-1920's do not good film critics make.

The front cover of the DVD I got as a suprise from the wonderful Amazon (no advertising intended) was not one of the two I'd come to recognise as the fully composed, meaning specially soundtracked, two. On the back, it gave a very brief idea of the film in two lines and then mentioned a few things on Chaney. But then, it comitted the worst crime possible for every Phanatic, such as myself; It mispelled Erik. No, it did not spell it Eric, it did not spell it Erique outside of the 1943 version, it, somehow (God only knows how), spelt it Erick.

So naturally my hopes weren't high.

I found the strange, crackly, badly sound-tracked version from Youtube and played that along with snippets, such as the opening credits and the ballet scene. Thank God, they were different, I was getting worried there. Speaking of opening scenes, I don't understand the scene straight after the credits, with the man with the lantern. He just wanders aimlessly for ten minutes before, I presume, getting punjabbed by our dear Erik. But I'm getting side tracked.

The DVD turned out to be the European composed version by Gabriel Fibber...gibber...kskfnaksnf...biscuitbarrel...or however you say it, as, much to my dismay, Erik end Christine descending into the lair was accompanied by a slow, mournful: DEEEEEEER DEEEEEER DDDEEEEEDEEEEE! DEEEEER DEEEEER DEEEDEEEE! Over and over and over and over andover again. And worse yet, it featured more than once!


This version is fantastic for more reasons than the superb acting of Lon Chaney Sr. The dialogue really gets through emotion, even just by itself, the costumes and set are both fantastic, absolutly astounding, in fact. And the main cast that wasn't already famous, would go onto be.

As far as I know, Mary Philbin was relativly unknown when she did Phantom, though I can't back this up with anything more than the people on Youtube, so I'm probably completly wrong, But I am sure that she went on to do The Man Who Laughs, a fantatsic film with the amazing Conrad Veidt, which is probably my favourite silent film out of the ones I've seen so far.


So that concludes my first blog review. Reading back throuh it, I notice that I spent more words explaining the story behind my version than the actual film. I'm sorry for that, but I really haven't got the strength to change it now. It's been a reaaaallly loooong daaaaay.