Directed by Rupert Julian
A former Universal stock player, Lon Chaney was a sensation in Universal’s The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1923) and two years later The Phantom of the Opera confirmed him as the silent era’s leading interpreter of horror roles. As Erik, the deformed “Phantom” who lurks in catacombs beneath the Paris Opera, Chaney conceived a legendary, grotesque character, famously employing wire hooks and other effects to give his face a pinched, skull-like quality that terrified 1925 audiences. A master of pantomime, Chaney played effectively to the story’s over-ripe air of Grand Guignol, surreptitiously offering vocal instruction to a young opera understudy (Mary Philbin) from behind a wall, then spiriting her away to his underground lair in the vain hope of winning her love. But the artistry of Phantom, probably Chaney’s best-known film today, belies the difficulty of its making and the volatility of Universal at the time.
Irving Thalberg had been chief of production at Universal since 1919. A precocious talent at 24, he streamlined studio operations through an impressive, centralized organization, but desired to position Universal as an equal with larger studios via costlier prestige pictures. His expensive (and successful) Hunchback was such a gambit but failed to spur a similar ambition in studio founder Carl Laemmle, prompting Thalberg to accept an offer to head the tonier Louis B. Mayer Pictures Corporation.
Laemmle and Universal charted a mostly conservative course for the next five years. But the Phantom project was in the pipeline, and then ascendant Chaney represented the studio’s best chance at a return on its investment in the property. Direction was entrusted to Rupert Julian (Merry-Go-Round) who clashed with Chaney, and whose original cut was coolly received by preview audiences. The picture opened later that year, significantly re-shot and reedited (a process repeated in 1929 for a “talkie” release). This series presents a version of the film that substantially recreates the 1929 release, including a color sequence, the famous “Bal Masque,” with Chaney, costumed as the “Red Death.”
—Shannon Kelley
Universal Pictures. Producer: Carl Laemmle. Based on the novel by Gaston Leroux. Screenwriter: Raymond Schrock, Elliott J. Clawson. Cinematographer: Virgil Miller. Editor: Maurice Pivar. Cast: Lon Chaney, Mary Philbin, Norman Kerry, Snitz Edwards, Gibson Gowland.
35mm, silent, b/w with color, 93 min.
