Although she appreciates the mysterious music lessons, Christine’s heart belongs to the handsome Vicompte Raoul de Chagny (Norman Kerry). A voice heard through the dressing room wall implores Christine to follow ‘the Spirit of Music’ and realize a fabulous career. Erik, known as The Phantom (Lon Chaney) is deliriously in love with the singing understudy Christine Daaé (Mary Philbin), and devises a bizarre method of shaping her destiny. Somewhere down in the vast catacombs once used as torture chambers lurks a madman. The Paris Opera House is under new management, but an old curse returns in force. Gaston Leroux’s creaky old suspense tale comes off pretty well for a silent show in a musical setting. Although not as extensive as one or two earlier disc offerings, the extras give us an understanding of the shaky production circumstances of this classic-by-default. Above all, we get an even better look at Lon Chaney’s fairly incredible makeup creation - a man who looks like a living skull. We can examine details in the specially tinted scenes, and fully appreciate the film’s many elaborate sets.

The dazzling restored Technicolor sequence never looked better. With the jump to HD video, this double disc set of the original Lon Chaney The Phantom of the Opera regains much of its visual grandeur. I’d mainly seen pieces of the show on cable television, with crazy over-tinting and sometimes-blurry pictures that didn’t help much. Several Phantom lasers and DVDs have offered differing versions and levels of quality that made figuring out this puzzle picture a major headache. There has never been a shortage of video offerings on this classic title, but a while back none of them were really very good.

Polis, Snitz Edwards.Ĭinematography Milton Bridenbecker, Virgil Miller, Charles Van Engerįilm Editors Maurice Pivar, Gilmore Walker

Starring Lon Chaney, Mary Philbin, Norman Kerry, Arthur Edmund Carewe, Gibson Gowland, John St. Street Date Octo/ available through Kino Lorber / 29.95 A 1929 recut has the best image, while the original 1925 version is uncut.ġ925/29 / B&W with tints and Technicolor sequences / 1:37 flat Silent Aperture / 78, 92 and 114 min. The release has three separate encodings, of different versions running at different film speeds. Erik the Phantom is one of the two or three greatest fantasy makeup performances of all time. The latest release of Lon Chaney’s most famous silent classic is a Blu-ray, which allows us to marvel at at the actor’s artistry in a beautifully tinted HD image.

The phantom of the opera trailer