Today’s episode of Sounds of Cinema looked back at many of the film adaptations of Phantom of the Opera for the 100th anniversary of the classic 1925 film starring Lon Chaney.
The Phantom of the Opera originated as a literary story written by French writer Gaston Leroux. The narrative was published serially between 1909 and 1910 and then released as a book. Leroux was a journalists and popular fiction writer well known for intricate tales of mystery. He drew inspiration from Edgar Allan Poe and Arthur Conan Doyle as well as history and urban legends and those influences are evident in his novel.
For The Phantom of the Opera, Leroux drew upon his background a journalist. The story is set at the Palais Garnier, a real-life location with a storied history. The novel was written partially as an investigation with the narrator researching these fictional events and claiming to have interviewed the people involved. A few sections of the novel are presented as direct testimony. The style of the writing builds the myth and mystery around the story and around the titular character.
The Phantom of the Opera begins with the sale of the Paris opera house. The new owners are informed that the venue is haunted by a mysterious figure who resides in the catacombs underneath the building. The Phantom extorts the owners and micromanages the opera hall’s programming. Accidents and deaths occur whenever the management refuses to comply. The Phantom is a musical virtuoso and is obsessed with the singer Christine Daaé. She is in love with Viscount Raoul de Chagny. The Phantom abducts Christine and keeps her in the catacombs below the opera house where he tutors her in music and composes his masterwork. Raoul is approached by a mysterious figure known as The Persian who knows the Phantom’s true identity. The novel climaxes with Raoul and The Persian trying to rescue Christine.
Leroux’s novel was only a modest success at the time of its publication but The Phantom of the Opera is now considered a classic story. The Phantom combines qualities of Frankenstein’s creature and Count Dracula to be one of the definitive tragic monsters. The longevity, ongoing popularity, and cultural imprint of The Phantom of the Opera has a lot to do with the story’s adaptations to the screen and the stage.
The first adaptation of The Phantom of the Opera is believed to be the 1916 German film Das Gespenst im Opernhaus. Little is known about this production except that it was filmed in autumn of 1915 and directed by Ernst Matray. Das Gespenst im Opernhaus is believed to be lost.
Another silent film version of The Phantom of the Opera was produced by Universal Pictures in 1924. The production was expensive and chaotic with various directors brought on to helm the project. The Phantom of the Opera was initially directed by Rupert Julian. He left The Phantom of the Opera after principal photography was completed. Allegedly, his version ended in a way that was consistent with the tone and themes of the novel but preview audiences didn’t like it. Edward Sedgwick was brought on to oversee a massive reshoot. Sedgewick’s version of The Phantom of the Opera lightened the tone and inserted comedy but also included a more dramatic and action-oriented ending. This version was considered a disaster and was reportedly booed by a preview audience. Universal hired Maurice Pivar and Lois Weber to rework the material. They returned to Rupert Julian’s version but slimed it down and discarded most of Sedgwick’s material but retained his ending. The final version of The Phantom of the Opera was a critical and box office success when it was released in 1925. Multiple versions of the movie are in circulation, with the variance partly due to the inclusion of footage but also due to the frame rate.
The 1925 version of The Phantom of the Opera established the story in popular (and especially American) culture. So much of this movie is iconic and established a baseline for the visuals and styles we’ve seen in later film dramatizations of this story. 1925’s The Phantom of the Opera is fascinating as a piece of cinema history given its chaotic production and the prodigious talents who were involved in making it. The key contributor is actor Lon Chaney as The Phantom. Chaney was known as “The Man of a Thousand Faces” for his extreme transformations and innovative use of makeup which Chaney designed himself. The facial makeup that Chaney created for The Phantom is one of the most famous visages in movie history. Read the full review here.
With the advent of sound, Universal gave The Phantom of the Opera another overhaul in 1929. They reshot parts of the movie to include music, sound effects, and dialogue. The 1929 version is mostly lost although some pieces of it survived and are included as extras on the Kino Lorber Blu-Ray release.
The 1925 release of The Phantom of the Opera featured a music score by Gustav Hinrichs. New music was created for the 1929 sound version by David Broekman. Many silent films have had contemporary music scores, sometimes commissioned by distributors to be synched with home video releases and in other instances created by musicians themselves out of inspiration or admiration. There have been numerous scores created for The Phantom of the Opera with Carl Davis, Roy Budd, The Laze, and Rick Wakeman, and Craig Safan each taking a crack at the material.
Following the silent 1925 version of The Phantom of the Opera, Universal made another film that was released in 1943. Universal’s second Phantom of the Opera is distinguished by its production value. It was a lavish production in its day.This is not a rehash of the 1925 version. The 1943 film builds upon some of the ideas from Gaston Leroux’s novel but also finds a fresh approach to the material. 1943’s Phantom of the Opera introduces ideas about deceit and corruption in the entertainment business, themes that would reappear in later adaptations. However, the movie is rather bland in the mode of a lot of 1940s Hollywood films. Read the full review here.
Britain’s Hammer film studio was one of the major companies in the horror genre of the 1950s and 60s. Hammer was best known for their gothic period pieces, and the studio produced its own version of The Phantom of the Opera which was distributed by Universal. This version of Phantom of the Opera is less an adaptation of Gaston Leroux’s novel and more a reworking of Universal’s 1943 version. This is an improvement on that material. 1962’s Phantom of the Opera builds on the themes of the 1943 film, namely corruption in the entertainment business, and the filmmakers deepen the concept, using it to drive the drama. Read the full review here.
The Phantom of the Paradise has more to do with Universal’s 1943 version and Hammer’s 1962 production than it does with Gaston Leroux’s book. Set in the popular music industry of the 1970s, a corrupt producer (Paul Williams) steals the masterwork of an unknown singer-songwriter (William Finley). The singer haunts the rock palace known as The Paradise. Much like the earlier films, the Phantom is a musician whose work is stolen, is wrongly accused, and becomes disfigured. As a then-contemporary take on the material, Phantom of the Paradise modernizes the story and suggests a continuous conflict between commerce and art. This film has a terrific soundtrack by Paul Williams who co-stars as the villainous music producer. Read the full review here.
In 1986, Andrew Lloyd Webber’s The Phantom of the Opera stage musical debuted on Broadway. The show was a massive hit and success breeds imitation. In 1989 two Phantom of the Opera films were produced, although neither were related to the musical.
Phantom of the Mall: Eric’s Revenge is about the grand opening of a new shopping center. The festivities are disrupted by murders. Throughout the 80s and 90s the mall was the center of suburban life and youth culture. This was reflected in the mall-set movies of the time including Dawn of the Dead, Mallrats, and Fast Times at Ridgemont High. Phantom of the Mall is part of that lot of films. It’s only marginally successful as a satire. The film is split between the Phantom seeking revenge on the real estate developers and the character’s quest to get back to the woman he loves. There’s no coherent endgame. Nothing the Phantom does clears a path toward revenge or getting back with his girlfriend. Phantom of the Mall more a film to be laughed at than engaged with but viewers who enjoy campy and kitschy 80s movies may want to seek it out. Read the full review here.
In the 1980s the horror genre was dominated by the slasher film including the Halloween and Nightmare on Elm Street series. Meanwhile, The Phantom of the Opera had recaptured the public’s interest following the 1986 debut of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s stage musical. All of this coalesced in 1989’s The Phantom of the Opera. The film was directed by Dwight H. Little who had previously helmed Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers, and starred actor Robert Englund, best known for playing Freddy Krueger in the Nightmare on Elm Street series. This version of The Phantom of the Opera was made for horror movie fans. It plays to that audience and will probably not appeal to the viewers who came to this material by way of Andrew Lloyd Webber. However, the shift toward horror also costs the film the emotional appeal that’s usually associated with this story. Read the full review here.
The 1998 version of Phantom of the Opera was directed by Dario Argento who is well known among horror viewers for his films of the 1970s and 80s including The Bird with the Crystal Plumage, Suspiria, and Phenomena. Argento’s better movies mixed extreme violence with stylized cinematography. That’s not the case in Argento’s Phantom of the Opera. There’s no atmosphere and the lighting and the camera work are visually uninteresting. It’s a gory and violent film but without style or imagination. The picture suffers from strange shifts in tone and scenes that are unintentionally funny. This version is so departed from the source that it no longer feels like The Phantom of the Opera. Read the full review here.
Gaston Leroux’s The Phantom of the Opera was adapted into a stage musical that debuted in 1986. The show was a sensation. It is the longest running show in Broadway history and one of the most financially successful entertainment events ever. After a series of film adaptations that modernized the material, the Phantom of the Opera stage musical returned to the time and setting of Gaston Leroux’s novel and the story was consistent with the earlier films produced by Universal and Hammer. The Phantom of the Opera musical was brought to movie screens in 2004 in a film that was produced by Andrew Lloyd Webber. The film plays to the musical’s legions of fans and viewers who were looking for a safe, literal translation of the stage show but it’s not a very well produced film. The songs are disconnected from the camerawork, the editing, and the action. The spoken dialogue doesn’t always translate well from the stage to the screen, sometimes sounding awkward and expository, and the performances vary. Ultimately, this version of The Phantom of the Opera is boring and the movie lacks style and emotional impact. Read the full review here.
The 2014 version of The Phantom of the Opera splits the difference between adapting Gaston Leroux’s novel and telling an original story. The film is presented as a frame narrative. In the present day, a television crew investigates the history of the opera house. That history is dramatized in flashbacks. The inner frame is presented in black and white and the high contrast images create a spooky atmosphere and conceal the limitations of the budget. However, the present-day scenes are presented in harsh color images that look like they were shot on early digital videotape and the sound is frequently terrible, probably recorded on the camera mic. Many scenes play out in cropped closeups and the performances are either stilted or melodramatic. Read the full review here.
There are some additional versions of The Phantom of the Opera:
Song at Midnight is a 1937 Chinese adaptation of The Phantom of the Opera. A sequel was released in 1941 and Song at Midnight has been remade several times, most recently in 2005.
A made-for-TV version of The Phantom of the Opera was broadcast in 1983. This version starred Maximillian Schell, Jane Seymour, and Michael York and was set in the Budapest Opera House.
Another made-for-TV version was released in 1990 and starred Charles Dance, Teri Polo, and Burt Lancaster. This was the first version of The Phantom of the Opera to be shot in the Paris opera house.
The 1988 animated version of The Phantom of the Opera is often cited as one of the most faithful adaptations of Gaston Leroux’s novel. It was co-directed by Al Guest and Jean Mathieson who also directed the animated 1986 version of Oliver Twist and 1988’s Les Misérables.