Greetings! Wow *cough* lots of dust around here, and cobwebs ... and skellingtons in the closet! It's that time of year again, time for another Halloween Classic. Wow, it really has been a year hasn't it? As empty as this blog gets I'll never abandon the Halloween Classics. So, this year I decided to follow a theme; you see, last week the girlfriend and I saw Andrew Lloyd Webber's The Phantom of the Opera, and while watching it, it occurred to me that as much as I love the Phantom (I really do - this was my third time seeing the production, and I even wrote a song inspired by it - yeah I'm that guy) I haven't seen any of the movies. I decided to rectify that failing immediately: October 2014 is month of the Phantom ya'll, and up first is the granddaddy of them all: 1925's "The Phantom of the Opera" directed by Rupert Julian and starring the magnificent Lon Chaney.
That's right, the silent film. This is a Halloween Classics first, and I always thought that honor would go to "Nosferatu," but there you have it. If you haven't seen a silent film before, they are quite the experience, I think many people automatically assume that they will be boring or hard to follow just because there's no sound - i.e. the same assholes that wont watch foreign films because they don't want to read. In practice, I find them very entertaining, lot's of grand gestures and a great portion of the story is shown to you visually instead of explained to you through terrible expository dialogue (to be fair, some silent films have terrible expository text cards, but the good ones don't). It's quite a thing to see performances by actors where all they have is body language and facial expressions to work with.
That's enough of that, what's "Phantom" all about then? Well, to put it simply, there are rumors of a phantom that haunts a Parisian opera house, stage hands and ballerinas have even seen the shadowy figure lurking about the place. Then people begin receiving mysterious notes from the specter himself, he demands that his protégé Christine Daaé should sing the lead of their current opera. This pisses off the prima donna and the managers something feirce - but the star becomes "mysteriously" ill and Christine has her moment in the spotlight. You see, the Phantom is madly in love with Christine and has been tutoring her in music, which is great because it has gotten her the lead and this whole time she has imagined him as this mysterious sexy tortured artist type. Something like this:
But when he finally leads her to his place - which is down in the sewery torture chambers under the opera house by the way - what she actually gets is this:
Turns out, tortured souls aren't all that sexy after all, plus he's kind of a disfigured psychopath - so Christine wants none of that mess. Fueled by Christine's rejection, and the opera managers ignoring his demands, the Phantom goes on a shit fit terror spree across the opera house - ultimately killing a few people and dropping the opera house's massive chandelier on the audience during a packed performance of "Faust." This all escalates to a climax with a kidnapped Christine, a boring love triangle guy out to save her, and and an angry mob out to stop him.
So how does it hold up today? Is it still scary? Well, when originally released "The Phantom of the Opera" was met with screams and faints from its audiences, especially the scene where the Phantom's face was first revealed. I don't think this movie will cause that reaction anymore, but - BUT - the scene where Christine slowly builds up the courage to snatch the Phantom's mask off, which cuts suddenly to the big reveal is masterfully done, and actually got an audible reaction from me. No, it wasn't a scream, but it was a "Wow," a gasp of awe if you will. I'd say this scene was perfect, the buildup and the payoff were so satisfying, and I think a lot of modern horror directors could learn a thing or two from studying this (I'm looking at you any director that uses lame jump scares).
Speaking of the big reveal, the makeup of the Phantom is incredible. Did you know that Lon Chaney applied his own makeup and it was his own design? Did you know he based it on the book's description of the Phantom, and it's cited as being the closest visual adaptation of the character's face? Yeah, Lon Chaney was a master, and his performance here was no different, lots of big faces and acting through tons of makeup, but none of it comes off too big. It all feels just right given the silent space. I also love the way he is shot in the beginning of the movie, for a long time you never get a good look at him, you only see his shadow lurking about, or you see him in silhouette. It's not until Christine passes through the mirror into his nightmare world that we finally see him in full lighting (With the creepiest Phantom mask I've ever seen by the way - ick).
On this note, there are so many great visuals on display here (Which was necessary given the medium). The scene on the top of the opera house, the Phantom's sex dungeon, and the whole opera house were all gorgeous - and it cheers me beyond belief to know that the sets were reused for another film version of "The Phantom" made twenty or so years later. The movie is also worth a view for the chandelier scene. I think this is typically a main spectacle of this story, and here the special effect is especially good for the time. The ending is also surprisingly stark, I was kind of shocked at what happened and what was actually filmed given the time. It's not gratuitous, but it's certainly a shock. It reminded me of the graphic ending of "The Passion of Joan of Arc," though this movie is nowhere near as shocking.
If I have a complaint, I would say that the movie is a tad too long. I know, I know, I hate that complaint too, but here it is certainly apt. There are a few scenes that are kind of unnecessary and baffling. For example, at one point someone is trying to sneak into the Phantom's lair through the sewer, and in response the Phantom grabs a bamboo snorkel and swims out to where the person is and kills him. Seriously, the Phantom of the fucking Opera just swam ... underwater ... in order to kill a guy on a boat. This might have been in the book for all I know, but here it comes off goofy as hell. And it basically just stopped the climax cold for this stupid scene only for the Phantom to return and continue the climax. Fewer of these goofy scenes and an overall slimming of the film would have done wonders in my book.
So do I recommend "The Phantom of the Opera?" Yes, I'd say I do. If you haven't seen any silent films though, I'd say hold off and maybe start with "The Passion of Joan of Arc" or "Metropolis" first, or even "Nosferatu" if you're in the mood for something befitting the month. If you're a fan of Universal Classics for all the awesome monster makeup then definitely give this one a whirl, if only for the awesome reveal of Chaney's makeup. And yes, even though I knew what it looked like beforehand, the reveal in-film was still spectacular. Basically, this movie has Lon Chaney* in monster makeup dropping chandeliers on people. What else could you want in a movie?
*If this name sounds familiar it's because Chaney's son went on to play Wolf Man years later, which I blab about in great detail here.
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