USA 91m Dir: Rupert Julian Key Cast: Lon Chaney
Based on: The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux (Novel)
It’s so refreshing at this point in my journey through cinema history to briefly see a scene in colour. Sure, it’s not yet full technicolour but seeing the Phantom strut around a masked ball in vivid red is fantastic.
Really, this film is all about the visuals because the plot doesn’t make a whole lot of sense. Vilified thanks to his disfigured face, Erik lurks under Paris Opera house, where there appears to be a sprawling underworld, and manages to convince and aspiring opera singer that she loves him I talking to her through the walls. His plan falls through when he kidnaps her and she no longer feels quite the same way.
Other than that incredible colour sequence, there are two other areas in which the visuals really work. One of these is that sprawling underworld with rivers, elaborate bedrooms and all manner of booby traps. It’s unclear who built all of this in the world of the film- is the Phantom a highly skilled architect and builder?- but it doesn’t really matter, it’s the perfect setting for a Gothic story.
The other is the incredible make up worn by Lon Chaney as the Phantom, inspired by the faces of wounded First World War veterans. Indeed, Chaney is the best thing about this film and the Phantom is by far the most interesting character- like Frankenstein and the Invisible Man, he decides to become the monster humanity has concluded he is.
The plot is terrible and only the Phantom is a decent character but the whole thing is so atmospheric and melodramatic that it’s hard not to like it.
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