The first film version of Gaston Leroux's romantic melodrama is cast in the twisted shadows and baroque decorations of the German Expressionist cinema. Directed for the screen by New Zealander Rupert Julian and photographed by Charles van Enger and Virgil Miller, the film was a triumph for producer Carl Laemmle, who delivered a wonderful match of style to content which would later inform the cycle of talkie horrors from Universal throughout the 1930s and 40s including adaptations of Dracula, Frankenstein and cycles based on The Mummy and The Wolf Man. Here, without sound, the camera is free to move about the impressive sets to find the best angle from which to shoot the drama which unfolds. The story concerns the mysterious goings-on in the Paris Opera house when an unidentified patron attempts to bolster the career of a young singer, even if it takes murder to do so. The film centers on a remarkable performance by Lon Chaney as The Phantom. Both in make-up and underneath the mask, his marvelously physical acting works in conjunction with the stylish lighting and cinematography. -Review by Harvey O'Brien M.A. copyright 1998
