The Phantom of the Opera (1929)
The Phantom of the Opera (1929)
A film by Rupert Julian - BFI edition
DVD9+DVD5 | Untouched | ISO | PAL 4:3 720x576 VBR | 292 mn | 11.63 GB
Audio DVD9: Scores Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound @ 384 kbps 48.0 kHz & AC-3 Dolby Digital Stereo @ 192 kbps 48.0 kHz with English Intertitles
Audio DVD5: English AC-3 Dolby Digital Stereo @ 192 kbps 48.0 kHz | Subtitles: English
Extras: Menu, Scene Selection, Special Features, Channel 4 Restoration Program (PDF), Documentary (DVD5) | Genre: Horror, Thriller, Classics | Country: USA
Lon Chaney, 'the man of a thousand faces', gives his most famous performance in this first version of the oft-filmed tale. Based on Gaston Leroux's novel, Chaney stars as the 'Phantom', living in the catacombs beneath the Paris Opera, who falls in love with the voice of a young opera singer. Infatuated, he kidnaps her, dragging her to the depths below where she will sing only for him.Directors: Rupert Julian, Lon Chaney (uncredited)
Directed by Rupert Julian, this lavish 1925 production launched the Hollywood Gothic style - which would become the trademark of Universal horror films.
Original prints of the film were fully tinted, with some sequences in Technicolor, and a rooftop scene using a special process that enabled the Phantom's cloak to show red against the blue night sky. This Photoplay restoration carefully re-instates all these effects, and is accompanied by Carl Davis' celebrated score which draws heavily on Gounod's Faust, which is the opera being performed in the film.
Writer: Gaston Leroux (from the celebrated novel by)
Stars: Lon Chaney, Mary Philbin, Norman Kerry
IMDB
TRAILER
Extras - Special Features:
*The original 1925 version, (black & white, 103 mins): with newly commissioned piano accompaniment by Ed Bussey.
*Original 1925 trailer and 1929 sound re-issue trailer.
*Reel 5 from lost 1929 sound re-issue (12 mins): the only surviving element, newly discovered in the Library of Congress archives.
*The 'man with a lantern' sequence: mysterious footage thought to have been shot for non-English speaking territories.
*Channel 4 Silents restoration souvenir programme (PDF).
*Lon Chaney: A Thousand Faces (2000, Kevin Brownlow, 86 mins): Kevin Brownlow's definitive documentary on the legendary actor. (DVD5)
The Phantom of the Opera (1929)
The Phantom of the Opera (1929)
The Phantom of the Opera (1929)
The Phantom of the Opera (1929)
