This authentic silent film masterpiece is the first of many (the last being Joel Schumacher’s film) adapted from Gaston Leroux’s novel The Phantom of the Opera (1910). Rupert Julian’s film is an impressive mix of spectacle and horror, with memorable scenes such as the costume ball. A deformed musician (‘the man with a thousand faces’ Lon Chaney), hidden behind a mask, hides in the underground of the Paris Opera. He is madly in love with a young opera singer whom he ends up kidnapping… This cult film with its eerie atmosphere and gothic style was destined to be a landmark. Its production was difficult, however, due to disagreements between the director and Lon Chaney, so much so that during filming, the former was forced to leave the set, replaced on several sequences by Edgard Sedwick and by Chaney himself.
subject: Gaston Leroux - Novel
script: Elliott J. Clawson, Frank Mccormack, Raymond Schrock, Tom Reed
photography: Milton Bridenbecker, Virgil Miller, Charles Van Enger
music by: Gustav Hinrichs
mounting: Edward Curtiss, Maurice Pivar, Gilmore Walker
scenography: Charles D. Hall, Elmer Sheeley, Thomas F.O’Neill, Joseph Wright
other titles: Das Phantom der Oper, Le Fantôme de l'Opéra, The phantom of the opera, Il fanstasma dell'opera
color: Bianco & Nero
taken from: Novel "Le Fantôme de l'Opéra" (1910) by Gaston Leroux
production company: CARL LAEMMLE FOR UNIVERSAL PICTURES
Su gentile concessione dell'Ente dello Spettacolo
