I'm embarrassed that it took me this late in life to watch this iconic version of Phantom of the Opera. Truthfully, it's the only version I've seen because the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical always struck me as so terrible, so sentimental, and so, well, musical that I couldn't separate it from any other telling (I haven't seen the stage performance or the movie based on it, but I've heard the songs. God help me, I've heard the songs). Now that this oversight is rectified, I can happily say the 1925 version of Phantom of the Opera is amazing. There are a litany of reasons Phantom floored me, but I'll just name a few.
There are colored scenes! Not hand-painted. Not using filters. Legit color. I knew that people were fooling around with that technology at the time, but not that it was in use. That blew my mind.
Then there's the unmasking, which is justifiably famous. Lon Chaney's makeup is as good as any I've seen. Maybe the black and white helps hide the rough edges, but it's stellar work. But I knew that going in. What I didn't know was that his costume at the masquerade was just as epic:
It's easy to take for granted that older movies won't hold the same potential for violence and scares and may have diminished impact for modern audiences. Fortunately, there are always movies like this one (and The Virgin Spring, which I recently watched and was blown away by how matter-of-fact the brutality is) to crush that assumption with a falling chandelier.
Lastly, and on a different note, I was tickled every time there was a crowd scene that featured the dancers. For some reason known only to them and maybe the director, the dancers will randomly twirl regardless of the situation. I don't think the viewer would get drunk on a drinking game based on these actions, but I think one might get tipsy. "I'm so scared, the only thing I can think to do is twirl!" Never not funny.
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