Silent Sundays: The Shock (1923)

Silent Sundays: Phantom of the Opera (1929)

“If I am the Phantom it is because Man’s hatred has made so.”

            Halloween is this Friday. For this edition of Silent Sundays I wanted to watch a good old silent “horror” film. I could not really think of one that I have not seen. Then I thought to myself, silly any of Lon Chaney’s films are basically “horror” since he was known for playing scary characters and wearing awesome makeup. I realized I had his version of The Phantom of the Opera saved. PERFECT! So in honor of Halloween for this edition of Silent Sunday I present a review of the 1925 version of The Phantom of the Opera.

            It is the late 1800s/early 1900s of Paris. The famous Paris Opera House has just been sold to new managers. They are warned that many people working in the theater believe there is a phantom, a ghost that haunts the old medieval cellars the theater rests above. The new managers think nothing of the stories they just brush them off. There is a performance that night. The managers go to Box 5 and ask a maid who the person in the box is. The maid says she does not know who he is she has never seen his face. He wears a cape and a mask.

            Backstage after the show the dancers get nervous. They say they saw the Phantom come up from the cellar again. One of the older stagehands tells the girls and another man that he had once seen the Phantom with his own eyes. He was a hideous creature with no nose and beady black eyes.

            The following day the mother of the Prima Ballerina Carlotta receives a letter signed by the Phantom. It states that Carlotta must not sing a number that night instead a young girl named Christine Daaé is to sing it. If Christine does not sing something bad will happen to Carlotta. The mother is furious that this supposed phantom is making this kind of demand. But on the day of the show Carlotta becomes sick and Christine sings the number.

            Christine is seeing Raoul, a captain in the French army. He wants to marry her but she never wants to leave the Opera. She tells him to forget about her. Raoul walks out of the room and from somewhere in the walls of her room Christine hears a melodic voice. The voice tells her that he has placed everything at her feet and that she will be worshipped by all of Paris but only if she listens to him. Christine obliges the voice saying she will do whatever he wants her to do.

            The Phantom writes another letter to Carlotta’s mother. Again it says that Carlotta better claim she is ill or misfortune will befall her. He has even sent one to the managers that if they do not comply with his demands a curse will come upon their performance of Faust. Carlotta’s mother makes her go on stage that night. The Phantom keeps his promise. As Carlotta sings the lights in the giant chandelier over the audience begins to flicker and it eventually falls on the audience as well the stage.

            After the performance Christine goes to her dressing room. She hears the voice of her master speaking to her. The voice tells her to walk into her mirror which is shown to be a trapped door. Christine has walked into one of the many cellars under the Opera. The Phantom (Lon Chaney) comes up behind her. When he comes into her sight, Christine is both disgusted and horrified by what is front of her. Even though she is frightened Christine follows the Phantom. He brings her down underground water channels to the cellar where he has made his home.

            In the morning Christine wakes up in her room in the furnished cellar and finds a note from the Phantom. He wrote to her that as long as she does not tough his mask no harm will come to her. Stupid girl and her curiosity get the better of her. Christine sneaks up behind the Phantom and pulls his mask off. He looks exactly as the stagehand described him with no nose, beady eyes and wrinkled deformed skin. Despite what she has done, the Phantom lets Christine go back to the Opera on the condition that she never see Raoul again.

            Every year the Opera holds a large costume ball. The Phantom boldly comes to the party dressed in a red cape, a large black hat, a skeleton face for a mask. Raoul takes Christine to the roof to speak to her alone. The Phantom follows them and looks over them from atop a statue. Christine tells Raoul she has seen the Phantom and needs his (Raoul’s) help in getting away. She begs him to take her to England to be as far away from Paris and the Phantom as possible.

            A police officer named Ledoux has been looking for the Phantom after a description for a man came to his office. The man’s is Erik. He had once been a composer and a musician and was sent to Devil’s Island after the Second Revolution and was considered insane. Ledoux has been following the Phantom for some time. He was in the room the night Christine went through the mirror. He meets up with Raoul to look for Christine. He tells the captain that the Phantom had been brought down to the cellars during the Revolution and tortured.

            The Phantom takes Christine back to his cellar. Ledoux and Raoul find her but the Phantom traps them in a basement. The Phantom somehow gets Christine to pull a lever which floods the basement the two men are in with water from the underground channels. Christine can hear the men’s cries and she tells the Phantom she will do whatever he wants if he will let them go. The Phantom opens the basement door and the men are saved.

            A crowd is heard in the distance coming for the Phantom. The Phantom grabs Christine and takes her to the surface. He tries to get them both away in a carriage but the carriage falls over and Christine is thrown out. The crowd catches up to the Phantom and they chase him to the edge of the Seine. They beat him and throw him into the river.

            The Phantom of the Opera I found to be a bit boring. I thought it was a little long but that tends to be my though most of the time with silent films lately. The only really interesting part of this film was the ball scene because the film was in color. The coloring in that scene actually made the Phantom look a little scarier because you can see the shadows and his clothing clearer. Also the scene was just really cool. Lon Chaney was an absolute creepy bugger and he was totally brilliant. I like how Chaney was usually the bad guy in his films but everyone back then loved him. He was genius. You feel for his characters no matter how bad or evil he was supposed to be. The Phantom of the Opera was a perfect silent film to watch for Halloween.

            Happy Halloween to all my followers and to those who are casually reading this post. Stay safe either trick or treating (Wait, how old are you reading this? If you are not under the age of twelve and you are trick or treating, go get your head examined!) or going out partying your asses off at a bar or house. 

Silent Sundays: Ace of Hearts (1921)

“Don’t take life to heart. Hear that wind! Who knows but the world may end tonight.”

            Ace of Hearts begins with a secret society of eight men and one woman who come together to decide the fate of those they deem should not live. Part of this group are two men, one named Farallone (Lon chaney) and Forrest. The woman is named Lillith (Leatrice Joy) whom Farallone and Forrest both love.

            The group comes together one night and decides “The Man Who Has Lived Too Long” needs to be killed. As per their custom Lillith deals a deck of cards to each man and whoever receives the ace of hearts is to carry out the assassination. Forrest receives the card. Lillith offers to marry Forrest if it will give him the courage to carry his mission for “the cause”. Farallone’s heart breaks when he hears this because he so desperately loves her. That night Lillith marries Forrest and they go back to his apartment. Farallone stays outside the apartment all night.

            The next morning Lillith finds she really loves Forrest and does not want him to carry out the assassination. She begs him not to go but his pride and sense of duty gets the best of him. That is until he is actually given the bomb with which he is to kill The Man Who Has Lived Too Long. Forrest has been posing as a waiter where the man goes every morning and is to place the bomb under his chair. He loses his confidence when he sees a young couple at the next table talking about running away together to get married and holding hands. Forrest backs out of his assignment.

            The other members now have to kill Forrest for backing out. He will not know when or where he is to be killed. Again they chose who will carry out the deed by dealing the deck of cards. Farallone receives the ace of hearts. Since he loves Lillith so much and he knows how much Forrest means to her he cannot kill her husband. Instead Farallone sets the bomb off in the building where the society meets killing everyone including himself.

            I found Ace of Hearts to be terribly boring. Farallone was not a good character to me he seemed like a love sick baby who had nothing else in his life. I am not sure if I did not like Lillith because she was a poor character or if it was because of Leatrice Joy’s horrendous acting. Ace of Hearts I can only recommend watching if you really like Lon Chaney otherwise skip it. 

Silent Sundays: The Penalty (1920)

“When Satan fell from Heaven he looked for power in Hell.”

            The Penalty takes the gangster storyline and mixes it with a plot of revenge.  

            Dr. Ferris has amputated the legs of a young boy who suffered an accident. Another older doctor said that the boys legs did not need to be amputated. Dr. Ferris made a mistake and the older doctor covers for him. The boy overhears the doctors and he tries to tell his parents but the doctors tell the parents that the boy is just groggy from the surgery. Twenty-seven years later the boy becomes a man called Blizzard (Lon Chaney). He has become head of the criminal underworld.

            A man named Lichtenstein is head of a federal task force. He has an assignment for his operative Rose but he hopes that she turns it down because it is so dangerous. The task has to do with Blizzard. Rose says she can get the criminal for murder, theft, and arson but his people in the underworld would still go on with his work. Lichtenstein has found out that Blizzard is making dancehall girls make hats and he wants to know why. Rose’s task is to find out what Blizzard has planned with the hats.

            Dr. Ferris has become a famous surgeon. Blizzard has people working for the doctor watching his every move. Ferris has a daughter named Barbara who is an artist.

            Rose has been working with Blizzard for a week and has learned nothing. He keeps the plans to himself. One day he wonders why Rose is not afraid of him. She replies that he plays the piano so beautifully she cannot be afraid.

            Barbara puts an ad in the paper for a model who looks like Satan for a group of sculptures she wants to make. Blizzard has one of his men make sure that he is the only one who shows up the following day. Barbara is friends with a kid from the streets who tells her that Blizzard is not a good man to have around.

            While Blizzard is out, Rose sneaks down into his secret passage. She finds a full operating room down there. When he comes back he sees a drawer in his desk was broken into and a clip inside. He goes to the entrance of the passage way at the fireplace and sees something is missing. Blizzard looks in on his shop and calls for Rose. He was going to kill her but she helped him play a beautiful song. Rose writes a letter to Lichtenstein about what she found. Before she gives it to an inside man she hesitates because it would mean the end of Blizzard. Rose does drop it to the person. The person is then strangled by one of Blizzard’s men before he gets to end of the alleyway.

            Rose finds out that Blizzard’s second hand man and lawyer has come into town. Blizzard tells this man his plan: he wants several of his men to rob banks and create chaos in the city. The hats are for the men so that their descriptions will all be the same and no one can be singled out when the people are describing them to the police. This chaos will cause the police to be scattered and allow him to loot the city.

            Blizzard eventually gets the doctor to come to his place. He wants Ferris to take the legs of Barbara’s boyfriend and graft them on to his. The doctor thinks Blizzard is insane but agrees to perform surgery. The surgery he performs is not on Blizzard’s legs but his head. In his initial accident Blizzard suffered a concussion at the base of his skull. That concussion went untreated and over the years created pressure on his brain that made him act like a mad man.

            Rose falls in love with Blizzard and is happy that he is better and normal. But their happiness together is short lived. Blizzard dies not long after.

            The Penalty was pretty good. I would have liked it if Blizzard had just stayed bad and had not been redeemed in the end. Lon Chaney made a great bad guy. The man was a true genius at showing emotion through his many faces. He can be sinister and menacing one minute and gentle and sensitive the next. I can see the part of the story where Blizzard wants to distract the law enforcement in the city and loot it being done today. The Dark Knight Rises seems to have used a bit of this when Bane took over (maybe… possibly… I’m not sure it has been a while since I have seen The Dark Knight Rises). The Penalty is one of the better silent films I have seen. It is worth seeing at least once.