THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA

Director:  Rupert Julian

Starring:  Lon Chaney, Mary Philbin, Norman Kerry

A spruced-up, tinted version of the ‘silent’ 1929 reissue of the Lon Chaney version has been issued by Eureka as a Special Collector’s Edition, sourced from a good 35mm print, transferred at a projection rate of 20 frames per second. 

The Bal Masque sequence is presented in two-strip Technicolor, and the entire film is windowboxed so that no pictured information is unnecessarily lost at the edges of the screen. A decent orchestral score (recorded in 1990) is also offered, along with a shaky reissue trailer (“If you look quick… you will catch a glimpse of him in some of the scenes that follow!”) and a worthwhile 15m featurette that documents the film’s troubled production and Universal’s abortive attempts to mount a sequel. 

It’s unlikely that there will ever be a definitive DVD of the Chaney movie, gathering together all the various permutations, so fans will have to resign themselves to buying more than one version: this is as good a place as any to begin.