The Phantom of the Opera '25

                   Feast your eyes—glut your soul, on my accursed ugliness!

That scene where the Phantom, mask removed, approaches his muse, the young beauty who he believes has become a star because of his handiwork, is a thing of nightmares, man. I didn’t realize how good and creepy this actually was—my memory of it rather vague since I haven’t watched Phantom in well over a decade—until tonight while it plays out. Chaney just created a character that unsettles just by appearance.

 That freakish face of horror remains a classic iconic image never to fade. It is a testament to Chaney's warped imagination and ambitious creative mind that produced such a face. I think it comes down to the bulging eyes and mouth full of monstrous chompers, his face “skeletal”. This, to me, is the direct interpretation of what the boogeyman all of us (or most of us) as children envisioned such a frightening being to look like.

Universal proves right here (and with Hunchback of Notre Dame) what we would come to expect: whoppingly towering sets that offer equal parts elegance, extravagance, gloom & doom, and atmosphere. Atmosphere is used quite heavily by us when discussing subgenres in horror like Gothic horror or movies about castles and such, but in Phantom of the Opera we get an underground underneath a Paris Opera House; society has wisely forgotten about it which benefits an infamous “ghost” that is seen often during plays and performances, even given his own box to watch from afar in silence, known to appear throughout the opera house, on the tips of everyone’s tongues, specifically the talent and crew who keep the lights on. 

The previous owners more than happily unload the opera house on a duo, at first, unafraid and dismissive of all the talk about a phantom that haunts the establishment. That is until the phantom warns their current play’s diva star, Mademoiselle Carlotta (Mary Fabian) to not perform, (...in written cards in his own handwriting, delivered personally, using passageways and hidden rooms in the opera house), his demands returned in void as she insists to star in a big production after an illness allows lowly performer, Christine (Mary Philbin), to take center stage, a star born, he will return in kind by dropping an elephantine chandelier onto the attending crowd. Christine is the phantom’s obsession, and he considers her new-found success attributable to him. 

He wants her to forsake her beau (Norman Kerry) and any other life outside the opera. He believes he is Christine’s Master and that his love knows no bounds. But this unhealthy, dangerous passion he has for his Christine will only be one-sided (more like lop-sided) as Christine doesn’t share his sentiments…in fact once she sees his hideous face, that misshapen visage that terrifies and repulses, this unrequited love will only fuel the sickness that permeates in the phantom’s soul (he seeks love from her but his mind is so distorted from the trauma of what happened to him and his exile into the lower chambers and tunnels underneath the opera house have further helped to deteriorate him psychologically). 

No one is safe if they step near the opera house unless he is given what he wants. She does agree to “be his forever” but it essentially derives from the point that Christine has seen his face, is horrified, and wants to escape from his clutches, agreeing to be the phantom’s slave. He gives her an ultimatum..not to ever see her lover again or both are sentenced to death. 

The Bal Masque de l’Opera sequence in color is certainly my choice as the second of the two showstoppers (well, the chandelier is pretty awesome, but I digress..) as it shows the phantom lavishing his status as a ghoul. What I thought was incredible about this entire sequence is how it is used to add dramatic tension in regards to the *meeting of the lovers*, dressed as everyone else in their masquerade costumes, masks to hide their faces in a desperate attempt to shield their *transgression* from the phantom only for him to *crash the party*, in serious style I might add. There he was a *spectral figure, robed in red* as he pronounces to them all, “Beneath your dancing feet are the tombs of tortured men—thus does the Red Death rebuke your merriment!” All of this in a red outfit with skull-faced mask, and in his hand a skull-headed cane. This is the epitome of badassery, baby. I will tell you something else that was far-out cool, when Christine and her beau retreat to the rooftop of Paris’ opera house, a giant angel, wings extended, arms stretched wide, a gargantuan statue that seems to reach for the heavens is there and birds disperse in number..it’s incredible. I wonder if that was a happy accident.

When the Phantom captures Christine as she is performing during the play, Faust (ironic considering in a way she sold her own soul to the devil, so to speak), we learn from her beau that he was once confined to the torture chambers (during the “second revolution”), now his home (kind of a sad fate for anyone, to wind up living in the very place that was once a prison of horrors), this is the place to lead the authorities in a pursuit to find the fiend (who strangled a member of the opera house’s crew). 

When Phantom Erik killed the brother, he invited a hellspawn of congregated anger producing a gathering mob that will raid upon his catacombs/sewer-system/torture-chamber underground, giving chase and the end will be falling upon his grotesque head something fierce. In the recognizable vein of Universal Studios Monster Movies, the mob will give chase to the murderer who has brought misery and misfortune to them, lighted torches in hands. Seeing a large crowd as they seize Erik (he pretended to hold a dangerous bomb in his hand) at the river, the phantom’s final resting place (or is it?) is a sight to behold. Quite a well-staged chase, trap, and seize sequence that really allows Chaney to give his human monster a grand send-off.

But before he’s forced out of his home, Phantom has Christine choose between saving her love and a member of the Parisian secret police (who has been under disguise as a creepy onlooker within the opera house) from heat and drowning (traps within their torture chamber cell used by Erik to teach them a lesson for entering his domain) or allowing them to die…if they are to live she must choose Erik as her love forever. Since we know this ultimately will fail, it’s watching the maddening crowd ruin his mad dream that makes it all the more pleasurable.

I actually used music from Philip Glass and the Kronos Quartet as the back drop accompanying the images of this silent film experience. I wanted something different just for the fun of it and it surprisingly worked well! I watched the public domain version and because there are varying versions out there—it exhausts me just thinking about what version might be the most sought after, such a headache isn’t worth it—I just settled on a rather beat-up, battered, but watchable version that served its purpose. I was thinking as I watched The Unknown Thursday night that Phantom of the Opera had never really made my October horror movie rotation so I thought why not a better time than this year. Maybe a bit overlong but worthwhile. If you don't like silents, stay away from this one as the version I watched clocked in at 105 minutes. Chaney fans know that this one delivers the goods in regards to his ability to overpower you with his look and performance. Quite a movie monster, a face only a horror fan could love.