Too much of everything

Crappy film

There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

This silent adaptation of The Phantom of the Opera is very boring. The music is hypnoyizing and the lack of dialogue makes it hard to get in to. The story is good, but because the film is silent makes it boring. I can't believe people used to pay to see silent movies; they are garbage.

Silent movie star and all-round horror icon Lon Chaney was known as the 'Man of a Thousand Faces'. His gift for make-up and prosthetic work meant that he was able to transform himself into some of the most iconic characters of the silent era, such as the masked Phantom of Phantom of the Opera, and Quasimodo in 1923's The Hunchback of Notre Dame. But Chaney didn't become a legend simply for his skills with a make-up brush, he was also a damn fine actor. Having grown up with two deaf parents, Chaney became incredibly skilled at pantomime, something that would benefit him when he was eventually promoted to silent film. The Phantom himself is what people remember and take away from the story, not the plot, the dialogue or the songs of Andrew Lloyd Webber's later musical adaptation, and much of this is thanks to Chaney's memorable incarnation, which was only the second on film (1916's Das Phantom der Oper is now lost).Adapted from Gaston Leroux's 1910 novel Le Fantome de l'Opera, the story is centred around Paris Opera House, which has recently been acquired by two men who laugh off any suggestion that a cloaked ghost known as 'The Phantom' stalks the halls at night. The new season is about to open with Faust, led by prima donna Carlotta (Mary Fabian), whose understudy Christine Daae (Mary Philbin) has made a rapid rise from a mere chorus girl to potential star-in-waiting. Somebody is clearly a fan of Christine, as Carlotta's mother (Virginia Pearson) receives a letter demanding that Christine be given the lead, otherwise a great tragedy will befall her daughter. The note is signed by the Phantom, but Carlotta sings anyway. Soon enough, she is taken ill, and Christine steps in to wow the audience and her fiance Vicomte Raoul de Chagny (Norman Kerry). Visited by the shadowed Phantom late one night, she is told that she has been touched with a divine voice, and nothing can now stop her career, as long as she agrees to obey the wishes of her new master.She soon discovers that these wishes involve her heading through a secret passage into the catacombs beneath the Opera House and living out her days in solitude with a disfigured creature who hopes she will return his love. The Opera House was built upon some kind of palace complete with torture chambers, and Christine is whisked off on horseback and gondola to the Phantom's secret lair. This sequence is captured with a dream-like quality, blurring the lines between reality and nightmare, although it has a sense of eerie beauty to it also. The eventual unmasking of Phantom, or Erik as he reveals himself to be, is one of the most famous images in cinema. Even though you know the moment is coming, Chaney's expression of shock and rage at being revealed to the world still has the ability to send a shiver down the spine. It is a shot that wouldn't have had quite the same impact if not for Chaney's involvement, and the actor also manages to squeeze some sympathy out of his bitter, twisted and completely insane romantic. It's far from the best chiller to emerge from the silent era, but it is undoubtedly one of the most influential.

The Phantom Of The OperaIf one still finds it interesting enough to not only acknowledge but also blend into its sketchy environment which was made almost a century ago, speaks for itself how advance it might have been in that era where love or even drama used to be a bit stretched (and lets face it, how many of those went mythical or into fantasy land). The Phantom Of The Opera is exquisitely entertaining and immensely horrifying at the same time but what gives it away is that even though being of such a short runtime it seems a bit long (which means somewhere it was stretched unnecessarily) especially in the early stage where the writer sets up the fear and horrific nature of the phantom among the surrounding to the audience (the gossips outside the dressing room). And also the editing part especially the one which cannot be expressed to the audience and is shown as a message could have been better (like in Charlie Chaplin's movies).

at the end of silent movie era came a true classic and main triumph belongs to Lon Chaney who plays a mad phantom who'd been madly love on an actress of Paris opera house. Phantom haunts in the opera and masters Christine who he wants to be the main prima donna. mystery things happens and Christine gets her chance on stage. Christine's master and the phantom are same character which Christine finds out too late when phantom already been captured her assuming her to be his and only his property. Christines fiancée finds the way to phantoms cave and finally saves her. mad mob catches phantom and kills him. Lon Chaney makes a remarkable role as a mad and lonely phantom who is possessed by Christine wanting her love. rest of the cast in mainly statistics. sadly hero, Norman Kelly, is charmless and I had problems to take his role seriously. the opera gives a fine Gothic atmosphere to the film.