A home video extra to Universal's 1943 remake "Phantom of the Opera," this documentary, at least, is better than that lackluster adaptation. Besides the '43 version, David J. Skal and Scott MacQueen's documentary covers the 1925 Lon Chaney film and the 1962 Hammer iteration in some detail. Not coincidentally, the Hammer movie is also available on home video from Universal, while it was probably unavoidable discussing, as was a mention of the Andrew Lloyd Webber stage musical--but just a mention, the 1925 version, which has since fallen into public domain. Plus, surely Universal doesn't care too much about throwing some free advertisement the way of small and specialty video distributors that continue to sell that old silent film. The program also shows clips for various other Universal films, including the Phantom reworking "The Climax" (1944) and other movies that reused the 1925 opera auditorium set or are somehow tangentially related and sold by Universal. Not mentioned are "Song at Midnight" (1937), "Phantom of the Paradise" (1974), the 1989 "The Phantom of the Opera," or the 1998 Dario Argento version, among others, but, of course, that's because Universal doesn't own the rights to them.
That said, there's some value here, especially rare clips from the 1930 sound reissue of the 1925 silent version. In between the fawning praise, which I think is mostly undeserving for the 1943 and 1962 versions, but I digress, there are some other interesting tidbits, although, personally, I was already aware of most of it from reading other material. For example, the script for the 1943 film originally had the Phantom as Christine's father, but the studio allegedly axed this for fear of an incestuous subtext. So, instead, they settled for a confusingly pathetic titular character. Unfortunately, no explanation is provided for where the idea of the Phantom's disfigurement from acid came from, which appears in both the 1943 and 1962 versions, as well as "Song at Midnight," but is not in the book.
Additionally, I like Chaney's performance in it and the 1925 film in general, but, c'mon, the silent cinema did not die with Chaney, as MacQueen claims. For one, there was that guy named Chaplin who was still making them at the time, and he was rather popular.
That said, there's some value here, especially rare clips from the 1930 sound reissue of the 1925 silent version. In between the fawning praise, which I think is mostly undeserving for the 1943 and 1962 versions, but I digress, there are some other interesting tidbits, although, personally, I was already aware of most of it from reading other material. For example, the script for the 1943 film originally had the Phantom as Christine's father, but the studio allegedly axed this for fear of an incestuous subtext. So, instead, they settled for a confusingly pathetic titular character. Unfortunately, no explanation is provided for where the idea of the Phantom's disfigurement from acid came from, which appears in both the 1943 and 1962 versions, as well as "Song at Midnight," but is not in the book.
Additionally, I like Chaney's performance in it and the 1925 film in general, but, c'mon, the silent cinema did not die with Chaney, as MacQueen claims. For one, there was that guy named Chaplin who was still making them at the time, and he was rather popular.