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FEBRUARY 1925
Picture s an d Picture poer
53
lU-low :
Iht
Phantom
and
the
mainly, with his dreadful mental m
thrrncc on " Christ iru DaM " (played by
M.iry I'hirlun) and her ultimate rescue by " Raoul dc Chagny " (Norman Kerry).
Much of the action of the film takes
Mary
Philbin.
of the gayest, dominating the fortunes of the opera singers with his morbid influence, he seems the very incarnation of those dread phantoms, who, popular belief has it, hold ghostly concourse in the cellars beneath the Opera House.
This is the role that Lon Chaney takes in the filmed version of Gaston Leroux's'The Phantom of the Opera," and never has he succeeded in making himself look quite so horrible as he does with this particular make-up. According to the author of the book, * Erik, the Phantom " was a music teacher who would have been an opera-singer himself had it not been for a terrible facial disfigurement.
This made him look so ghastly tha: women had been known to faint at the sight of him, and in consequence he had to keep his face covered when he walked abroad. The story deals
Right: Rupert Julian and the first all
metal stage in filmland (it housed the
Opera sets).
A &
a:fc yt'
Underground passages play a large part tn the film.
place in the cellars where the properties of the different operas arc stored, and the result is eerie in the extreme. For instance one scene is enacted with the palace and brilliant trappings of " Le Roi de Lahore," with its Hindu settings, as a background, and another in a vault where the giant dragon Fafnir, the serpent and enchanted forests of " The Nibelungen Ring " are lying.
Besides this there is a staged version of Margu«rite's garden in Faust.
When it was first decided to film this story, Rupert Julian the director had some idea of taking the entire company to Paris, to obtain the necessary scenes, but it was afterwards found more practicable to take Paris — or as much of it as they needed — to the company. The replica of the famous opera house was erected in a little over nine weeks (its original took nine years to complete!)
The framework is made of steel, the walls and roof being reinforced with corrugated iron, and 175,000 ft. of lumber were used on it. Inside, the splendour of the original is duplicated, even to the carving and the great glass chandelier in the centre; the auditorium is the full height of five tiers, while the main staircase has been reproduced completely.
Three thousand people were used in the crowd scenes for this film, and more money was spent on it by Universal than on any of its predecessors. So, if lavish sets, unstinted money, and an exceptionally good cast are enough to assure a good film, The Phantom of the Opera promises to be one of the best of America's picture offerings for 1925.