History Film / ThePhantomOfTheOpera1925

* FocusGroupEnding: Chaney was a strong supporter of being faithful to the novel, including using the original ending where Erik is redeemed and dies. When test audiences reacted negatively to the original cut of the film, many scenes were reshot, and the ending was revised to the mob chase scene. Other book accurate scenes were also cut out.

* AdaptationalWimp: While still the most faithful adaptation film overall, the silent film kickstarted the FranchiseOriginalSin of giving Christine {{Chickification}} turning her into a standard DamselInDistress (barring the bit where she frees Raoul had the policemen from the trap). In the original novel Christine was ahead of her time being a PluckyGirl who was throughout the book actually the one protecting Raoul from the Phantom, rather than the other way around. The silent film like the future films and musical largely obliterates Christine’s overt brave heroine traits, in favour of making her simply a hysterical victim.

This is the second film adaptation of Gaston Leroux's novel ''Literature/ThePhantomOfTheOpera'' and the oldest to survive, a previous German version having since been lost. It is seen as one of the most faithful adaptations to the original book. It depicts the Phantom as tragic, but also murderous and criminally insane, and deformed from birth. It's also the most famous role of Lon Chaney's career. It's undisputedly the second most famous adaptation of the novel after [[Theatre/ThePhantomOfTheOpera the 1986 musical.]]

An unusual happening that surrounds the film is how it was [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vj1XW-636TI apparently haunted]] by Lon Chaney's ghost long after his death in 1930.

An unusual happening that surrounds the film is how it was [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vj1XW-636TI apparently haunted]] by Lon Chaney's ghost long after his death in 1930; making it a potential case of the Phantom of the Opera having a real Phantom.

''The Phantom of the Opera'' is a 1925 film directed by Rupert Julian, starring Creator/LonChaney as the Phantom.

This is the second film adaptation of Gaston Leroux's novel ''Literature/ThePhantomOfTheOpera'' and the oldest to survive, a previous German version having since been lost. It is seen as one of the most faithful adaptations to the original book. It depicts the Phantom as tragic, but also murderous and criminally insane, and deformed from birth. It's also the most famous role of Lon Chaney's career.

* TheFilmOfTheBook: This version revises the ending but is otherwise the most faithful adaptation of the novel. It includes Raoul's brother, who is usually AdaptedOut. It also originally included the Persian--he is shown wearing a fez--but in post-production he was turned into a French police detective. Since it was a silent movie, all they had to do was change the title cards. Chaney's deformed head resembles the "death's head" (skull) that the book describes, and is a deformity from birth as in the book, unlike most later adaptations in which it is an injury.

[[quoteright:194:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/imgres_3425.jpeg]]
[[caption-width-right:194:"Feast your eyes! Glut your soul on my accursed ugliness!"]]

* HypnotizeThePrincess: The Phantom's voice exerts a hypnotic control on Christine.

It has since fallen in the public domain and may be watched [[http://www.archive.org/details/ThePhantomoftheOpera here]] and [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2QKpWPut8iM here]].

It has since fallen in the public domain and may be watched [[http://www.archive.org/details/ThePhantomoftheOpera here]] and [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vElsIYXbhMU here]].

This is the second adaptation of ''Literature/ThePhantomOfTheOpera'' and the oldest to survive, a previous German version having since been lost. It is seen as one of the most faithful adaptations to the original book. It depicts the Phantom as tragic, but also murderous and criminally insane, and deformed from birth. It's also the most famous role of Lon Chaney's career.