The Phantom of the Opera
1925 · 180 min · silent · drama · horror
The Phantom of the Opera (1925), Lon Chaney's self-made skull face and the unmasking that emptied theaters. Watch the silent horror classic free, no account.
Chaney designed and applied the makeup himself, and Universal kept it out of every poster and press still until opening night, so the unmasking hit audiences cold. It still works. Christine's hand comes up behind him and the entire horror genre arrives at once.
The studio had nowhere to put a Paris opera house, so it built one. Stage 28 was Universal's first steel-and-concrete stage, holding a full-scale replica of the auditorium, and the set outlived Chaney by nearly ninety years before it came down in 2014.
Rupert Julian directed, and by his cameraman's account the two could not stand each other. The masked ball was shot in two-strip Technicolor, and some prints still carry the color.
Free to watch via internet-archive, pluto.
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