The Phantom of the Opera (review)

Milestone's two-DVD set of The Phantom of the Opera, labeled "The Ultimate Edition," is the most comprehensive treatment of Universal's "Super Jewel" of 1925 yet to appear on home video. Available here for the first time since David Shepard's 1990 dual laser disc edition is the pairing of the film's original 1925 domestic release version along with the 1929 (or 1930—more on this later) international sound reissue. Also fully chronicled is The Phantom of the Opera's production history, from its tortured preview to its release and eventual box-office success—a convoluted patchwork of studio indecision and behind-the-scenes ineptitude, redeemed by a charismatic star turn and the ultimate triumph of good old-fashioned Hollywood ballyhoo.

The set is ultimately a testimony to the painstaking scholarship of historian Scott MacQueen, who provides a detailed commentary track that guides one through the labyrinthine trajectory of each of the film's five "pedigrees" (two 1925 preview versions, the 1925 domestic release, and two 1929-30 sound reissues). Among the wonderful supplementary sections are reconstructions in almost five hundred stills/titles of Phantom's disastrous preview versions and a seemingly comprehensive collection of trailers, posters, lobby cards, press kit half-tones, publicity portraits, backstage stills, concept art, and most memorably a photo archive that chronicles the building of the famed Stage 23 Phantom opera house set, which is still in use today on the Universal lot. The still file also documents the set's reuse for Phantom's 1943 remake, Hitchcock's appropriation of the stage for Torn Curtain, and the visit of Mary Philbin, the film's Christine Daaé, to the site in 1989 with MacQueen. A final "Publishing" still supplement includes Andre Castaigne's exquisite color illustrations for the 1911 American first edition of Gaston Leroux's novel, one of the plates providing clear evidence of the inspiration for Lon Chaney's ghoulish, iconic makeup for Erik the Phantom. Excerpts from Richard Koszarski's audio interview with cameraman Charles Van Enger attest to credited director Rupert Julian's ineptitude on the set. David Skal provides a video interview with Universal mogul Carl Laemmle's niece Carla, who was the prima ballerina in the film's corps de ballet when she was sixteen years old. She provides reminiscences of her childhood on the Universal City back lot.

From an archival standpoint, the survival of what could be considered a preeminent version of The Phantom of the Opera is problematic. In his commentary, MacQueen recounts how in the early 1950s Universal-International, perceiving its silent material of no further commercial viability, junked all nitrate material in its vaults that did not have an optical soundtrack, essentially consigning the vast majority of its silent heritage to oblivion. It was only through the intercession of James Card, who requested a print of Phantom for George Eastman House, that a copy was struck for the archive of the 1930 "international release" version of the film prepared for foreign markets. Because it was already showing signs of deterioration, the studio then junked this sole existing material from its vaults. As it was struck from 35mm material of predominantly good quality, the Eastman House version of the film is the one most frequently exhibited today and made available on home video, often augmented by inclusion of the two-strip Technicolor "Bal Masque" sequence discovered by David Shepard in the 1970s. But what of the original 1925 domestic release version? As MacQueen further explains, in the early 1930s Universal made available for narrow-gauge home viewing a selection of the studio's past successes. The Phantom of the Opera was one of these titles, and it is largely because of the existence of these "show-at-home" prints that the original version survives today, albeit in material of inferior quality.

Further complicating the notion of a "definitive" Phantom is the fact that, depending on transfer/projection speed, the international release version is...