Sun 1 Nov 2009
A Movie Review by Dan Stumpf: THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA (1925).
Posted by Steve under Horror movies , Reviews , Silent films[3] Comments
THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA. Universal, 1925. Lon Chaney, Mary Philbin. Norman Kerry, Arthur Edmund Carewe, Gibson Gowland, John Sainpolis.
Based on the novel Le Fantôme de l’Opera by Gaston Leroux. Directors: Rupert Julian; Lon Chaney, Ernst Laemmle, Edward Sedgwick (the latter three uncredited).
October is the month I spend watching Monster Movies and reading scary books. I kicked things off with The Phantom of the Opera, directed by Rupert Julian, Edward Sedgwick and possibly others, and adapted by no fewer than seven writers from Gaston Leroux’s novel.
Phantom has its moments, but overall it’s something of a mess — the result, no doubt of so many cooks at the broth, fingers in the pie, pigs at the trough or who-ever in the what-have-you.
Universal did a lot of tinkering with this thing, adding and cutting scenes, restoring deleted parts and cutting added ones, and finally emerged with a rather disjointed film: a slow, mysterious first half capped by a horrific climax in the middle of the movie, followed by a colorful romantic interlude, trailed by some rather tepid serial-type chills, with a wild chase for the finish.
A few pretty nice things creep out of the cinematic jungle though, mostly due to Lon Chaney and the incredible force of personality he brings to Eric the Phantom (Some reports aver that he directed his own scenes himself.) Chaney moves with a compelling balletic grace, and whoever directed his scenes knew how to play up billowing capes and staring skull-faces for all they might be worth.
The Bal Masque scene is a riot of two-strip Technicolor dominated by Chaney’s Red Death, and the ensuing love scene among the statues achieves a fine romantic creepiness: the furtive lovers embracing under cool blue estuary in the night air, as a red-cloaked monster broods above them.
Chaney’s acting is magnetic, and Mary Philbin puts visible enthusiasm — if no discernible subtlety — into heroine Christine’s histrionics.
But it’s Norman Kerry as the nominal hero of the piece who walks off with the show: Aging, bland, over-groomed, dull and unimaginative, Kerry is everything the nominal hero of a Monster Movie should be.
He has only to walk on screen to bore you to tears, and his declarations of undying love offer a listlessness that horror films were not to see again until the “living Dead” movies of the 70s.
But wait, there’s more; where the heroes of most monster movies are merely dull and ineffectual, Kerry actually has to be led by the hand to rescue his beloved and finally faints dead away when things get tough.
There are subversive tendencies in Monster Movies, where the bad guys we’re supposed to fear are always more interesting than the good guys we’re supposed to cheer, and there’s no better illustration of the concept than Norman Kerry in The Phantom of the Opera.
November 1st, 2009 at 10:54 pm
Nice piece, Dan. Loved this film when I was a kid, probably partly due to Forrest Ackerman elevating the Phantom to icon status in Famous Monsters of Filmland.
November 2nd, 2009 at 4:04 am
The film was troubled and difficult, but Chaney carries it through. True to its spirit none of the heroes since in various versions have had much to do, with Nelson Eddy in the Claude Rains version easily the least interesting since this one. At least this one touches on the mysterious Egyptian from The Leroux novel.
Still, that famous scene of the unmasking works incredibly well despite having been lampooned since 1925.
Dan
If you haven’t seen it and want another silent classic next year see Paul Leni’s The Man Who Laughs with Conrad Veidt. More tragedy than horror, but still grotesque and beautiful to watch. Even the Victor Hugo novel is well worth reading — and finally available in trade paperback. Of course any of the Chaney films — even the London After Midnight reconstructed from stills — are interesting.
November 5th, 2009 at 1:27 am
[…] The Phantom of the Opera [reviewed here ] I followed up with two versions of The Fall of the House of Usher: a French silent film from 1928 […]