His isolation has turned his madness into the stuff of nightmares, and Chaney shows how the Phantom’s thought process operates on a different and far more dangerous level than anyone facing him. He’s a haunting figure who exists outside of society and genuinely lives in the darkness. Chaney easily stands above everyone else by being the only one who makes the Phantom into something otherworldly.
The clear winner in this category is 1925. In the three films, the titular character was played by Lon Chaney, Claude Rains, and Gerard Butler, respectively, and all three brought something unique to the role. A combination of dualities – he is insane and yet romantic, villainous and yet also tragic – whose repulsive “Death’s Head” of a face belies his genius in architecture, music, and torture chambers. In the book, the Phantom is a surprisingly bittersweet figure. There’s no Phantom of the Opera without a phantom of the opera (aka the Opera Ghost aka Erich aka the Angel of Music aka the Phantom). Which managed each angle best? Which was the best overall? Time to go “past the point of no return” and “listen to the music of the night.” This contest is divided into four categories: 1) the Phantom himself, 2) the music, 3) the opera house, and 4) the young lovers Raoul/Christine. I decided to place Rupert Julian’s silent version from 1925, Arthur Lubin’s version from 1943, and Joel Schumacher’s 2004 big screen version of the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical in head-to-head competition. Having recently read Gaston Leroux’s 1909-1910 novel The Phantom of the Opera, I thought it would be interesting to see how different cinematic versions succeeded or failed at presenting the musical maniac, his conflicted crush Christine, and his romantic rival Raoul. Directors and writers can take characters into new genres, time periods, and universes while ensuring that our artistic past never remains too far from our present.
One of the best things about having stories in the pop culture consciousness for so long is seeing how they evolve and are reinterpreted over time.