The Phantom of the Opera

Tragedy is practically built into the DNA of these classic universal monsters from the 20s through the 40s.

If you think about Lon Chaney's The Phantom of the Opera, 1925, the Phantom is terrifying, certainly, but he's also a profoundly lonely figure.

whose physical appearance has condemned him to live a life of isolation.

I always end up watching a few of these movies around Halloween.

And the tragic dimensions always strike me, especially the Phantom of the Opera, where his longing for love is understandable, even as his possessiveness and violence becomes monstrous.

Same with 1931, the classic Frankenstein, Boris Karloff's Creature.

There's something heartbreaking about a being who enters the world with an almost childlike innocence only to encounter fear and rejection and cruelty.

Horror films in the United States were very far and few in between.

Between the 1900s through the 1930s, the silent film era for horror consisted of literary works of past Gothic tales like The Phantom of the Opera and The Hunchback of Notre Dame.

The most influential genre films of the era came from the Expressionist movement in Germany with movies like The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari and Nosferatu, two films that have iconically given inspiration to some of the most celebrated directors of our time.

German Expressionism used tall, sharp, and warped buildings, shadows that were painted on walls to give rooms these unnatural shapes, misshapen windows and doors, exaggerated towns and buildings, Almost every Tim Burton film uses this art style to show these dreamscapes of the macabre by using these harsh shadows and exaggerated silhouettes as ways to signify feelings of dread and tension.

It provided films with do's and don'ts on what Hollywood films should be depicting, and studios followed the guideline all the way until, I think, around the mid-1950s.

The Wolfman stars Lon Chaney Jr., who would reprise his role in four sequels as The Wolfman.

He's also the son of Lon Chaney, who was an actor and makeup artist for movies like The Phantom of the Opera and The Hunchback of Notre Dame.

It's really what catapulted the werewolf subgenre into the mainstream.

Exactly right.

James Cagney signed on to portray Lone Chaney and during the course of the movie recreates some of Lone's most famous moments, especially Hunchback of Notre Dame and The Phantom of the Opera.

Like most films of this type, it's not strictly accurate.

However, it does give an impression of the man.

The Hunchback of Notre Dame, the miracle man, the Phantom of the Opera.

The world, fascinated and thrilled, called him the man of a thousand faces.

But what was the secret Lon Chaney hid behind his thousand faces? What was the mystery in his life? Now, for the first time, the true story torn from his heart comes to the screen.

Later, he named his son Lone after Lone Chaney, so providing proof of how one generation impacts another.

I

guess Phantom, if you consider that, that was before this.

Phantom of the Opera is 1925.

Is it a silent picture? Because I've never seen it.

Oh, right.

Producer Kyle Emly Jr.'s father, the aptly named Kyle Emly Sr., would only give Jr. the green light to make this film if his good friend Lon Chaney got the role.

But Chaney, also known as the Man of a Thousand Faces because of his chameleon-like performances in silent horror films such as 1925's The Phantom of the Opera, died of a throat hemorrhage before production began.

So, Junior went back to his wish list.

Actors like Paul Muni and Conrad Veidt, the somnambulist from 1919's The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, were all at the top, but they didn't work out, opening the door for Lugosi to come in.

He also played Frankenstein's monster.

The Phantom of the Opera.

That was Lon Chaney Sr.

These are like the most famous names in horror acting of yore, right? These like father-son duos.

The electrical laboratory apparatus was designed by Kenneth Streckton Field.

He also did Phantom of the Opera, Wizard of Oz, and cinematography by Arthur Edson.

So this is really where Frankenstein Laboratory as we know it is invented.

Henry isn't working in some little room at the top of his house anymore.

Well, here we go.

And then, and then on, on the, uh, piggybacking on that, Lon Chaney then cements Universal as the monster movie studio with The Phantom of the Opera two years later.

Yeah.

So it's not...

Two years later, Universal staged their most audacious production to date, and Chaney returned to make his mark on horror cinema for all time.

[gentle music] 1925's The Phantom of the Opera saw Chaney take the role of Erik, the masked phantom haunting the Paris Opera House, causing death and destruction in his attempt to make the opera singer Christine Daae his love.

Laemmle had bought the rights to Gaston Leroux's novel from the author personally when they'd met in Paris in 1922.

He instantly knew that it would be a fit for Lon Chaney and his unique talents.

Life finally seemed to be working out for Lon Chaney, but as Creighton reached adulthood, he began to ask questions about his mother.

Desperate that his son should not be hurt by the deeds of the past, Chaney lied to the boy and told him that his mother was dead.

With the success of The Hunchback of Notre Dame and The Phantom of the Opera at Universal, Chaney had established himself as the most versatile actor in Hollywood.

But there was one problem.