Hello again!
I'm sorry I was not able to bring a review to you yesterday, because I was busy that day and was unable to watch all of the film in question before going to sleep. So, today, I'll be bringing you a double- feature, from the age of silent films.
First up, there's 1925's 'The Phantom of the Opera.'
I had never seen this movie before (Though I had seen the newer film with Emmy Rossum as Christine, and saw the Andrew- Lloyd Webber musical performed live once when I was a boy), and didn't even know it was a silent film! The Phantom (Played by Lon Chaney) is a ghoulish, disfigured man with a beautiful voice who lives in the sewers and dungeons beneath the Paris Opera House. He makes a few small demands in exchange for not causing trouble (i.e. that Box Five be reserved for him for certain performances), and the managers always met those demands well. However, at the start of the film, the Opera House comes under new management, who scoff at the very idea of the Phantom and refuse to even consider meeting any of his demands until a series of incidents show them that the Phantom is no mere ghost story. The Phantom comes to gain quite an interest in a young, apparently unknown singer named Christine Daae, and uses violence and the threats of violence to ensure that she replaces the more well- known singer/ actress Carlotta in the role of Marguerite in the Opera's performance of 'Faust.' The Phantom becomes Christine's mentor, and desires to be her lover as well, even though she is in love with the charming Raoul. The Phantom finally truly attracts the attention of everyone by killing a few people (A few by dropping the Opera House's massive chandelier on them, and another is hanged), and kidnapping Christine when he learns that she and Raoul were planning on secretly leaving by the end of the night's performance. Raoul and a mysertious police inspector set out to rescue her, and the Phantom is ultimately caught by an angry mob (Truly the classic movie monsters' #1 weakness), beaten nearly to death, and thrown in the river to end the movie.
It'll be hard for me to review this, and the next entry, because I am not terribly familiar with silent films, and obviously reviewing them will be more difficult than reviewing one with sound. All I'll say is, I certainly liked 'The Phantom of the Opera.' Even though it is silent, the actors are able to express through body language and facial expressions all their emotions quite well. At times, the panels of text that are a hallmark of silent films weren't even necessary, because you can gain at least a rough idea of what they're probably saying just by their physical reactions. The makeup for the Phantom was amazing considering when it was made, I can see why Lon Chaney was called 'The Man of a Thousand Faces.' The scene when Christine abruptly unmasks the Phantom was wonderful, between the makeup effects, the fear shown by the actress playing Christine, and Chaney's mixture of shame and fury. Definitely glad I saw it.
The next film I watched was 1922's 'Nosferatu.' This is a movie with quite an interesting behind- the- scenes backstory. The director, F.W. Murnau, had wanted to do a film adaptation of Bram Stoker's novel 'Dracula,' but Stoker's widow Florence refused to give him the rights. So, Murnau made the film in such a way that it had basically the same story (Evil vampire desires to move from the isolated village area in which he currently lives, to a large city with plenty of fresh blood, hires a young clerk named Harker to make the transaction, and takes an interest in Harker's wife), but with certain details tweaked a bit (i.e. The vampire's name is now apparently Count Orlock, the city Dracula desires to relocate to is now is Germany rather than England, Harker's wife is named Nina rather than Mina, etc.). These changes, however, were not enough to appease Florence Stoker. She sued the studio for copyright infringement, and won a court order to have the film's prints and negatives destroyed. Bootleg copies soon surfaced, however, and the film is now considered public domain.
This was a fascinating film. Again, the characters are often able to display so much emotion through their body language and facial expressions that you can gain an idea of what they're saying even before the text is put up. Max Schreck looks amazing as Count Orlock, really creepy. It seems like he always moves either really quickly, or really slowly. Every scene with Orlock is like being in some kind of weird dream. The pacing can be a bit slow at times, but all things considered, it is a classic movie, and I'm proud to have it on VHS.
On another interesting note relating to 'Nosferatu,' the 1990's Nickelodeon horror anthology show for kids, 'Are You Afraid of the Dark?', once featured an episode (One of the best episodes in the series, in fact) called 'The Tale of the Midnight Madness,' which concerns an old movie theater saved from bankruptcy by airing a silent film called 'Nosferatu' that was a VERY obvious nod to the actual film, in which the vampire steps into the real world. It's a great episode, which can be seen on Youtube (As can both of the movies I talked about today), check it out if you have 25 minutes or so to kill.
That's all for now, see you tomorrow!
