The Phantom of the Opera (1925)

By Jonathan Goodsell

Whenever anyone hears the word Phantom of the Opera, they immediately think of the daunting organ theme from Andrew Lloyd Weber’s musical. However, long before Weber wrote the classic adaptation, The Phantom of the Opera was a famous old, silent, black and white film. Made in 1925, The Phantom of the Opera starred the famous Lon Chaney as the Phantom himself. For those that have seen the musical, this film had a very similar plot. For those that don’t know the classic story, the Phantom lives in the cellars of the Paris opera house and haunts it. He takes on a young singer as his student and, in his attempt to bring her to stardom, raises chaos like never before at the opera house.

            Now it may be hard to imagine The Phantom of the Opera without any music, because that’s how everyone knows it. But it almost surprisingly made a stunning film to watch without hearing the infamous organ music. The thing that made this film enjoyable was all the body language. Since there was no speaking, the actors had to be able to portray what they were saying without saying it. It was kind of like watching a bunch of professional charade players. Granted at times it would get a little cheesy due to some over expressiveness, but it was all still really enjoyable and easily understandable.

            Though the film was black and white; they did an excellent job with the lighting. I know, that’s probably sounds a little weird, but here’s what I mean. This movie used a lot of shadows throughout the film instead of always showing the characters. For the first half of the film, you only saw the Phantom’s shadow. But even that had a way of making it that much more creepy. I must say that the thing I loved the most of this film was the makeup work though. The job Lon Chaney did to the Phantom was spectacular. He made the Phantom extremely creepy. I can imagine whole theaters in 1925 jumping in fear from his face. 

            For those that have never seen a silent black and white film, this would be great one to start with. It is extremely enjoyable and it’s a story anyone can fall in love with. Even if you’ve seen the musical, this is still a great new look at the beloved story of The Phantom of the Opera.