Phantom of the Opera Movie Adaptations

  As a Phantom of the Opera Phan (not fan, members loved to call themselves that in honor of the Phantom), I have seen a few adaptation of The Phantom of the Opera movie based on Gaston Leroux's novel.

The first movie that I have seen was the 1925 silent film starring, the man with a thousand faces, Lon Chaney who during that era was considered the top special effects make-up artist. He did a really wonderful work on the Phantom. But it was not yet fully recognized back then. His talent was really amazing since back then prosthetics and make-up was not really known. He has really good make-up skills. This silent film, here the phantom wears a one of a kind mask making him look like someone from the middle-east. He wears a cap with this mask that resembles a face, and a dust muffler under the nose. Without the mask he is really grotesque (corpse like looking, and with a few hair in his head), so this movie was really quite faithful to the book. Funko Pop Vinyl Toy Figures released this Phantom figure. I have this one. Most Phantom of the Opera fans are familiar with Lord Andrew Lloyd Webber musical. Lord Webber's version of the Phantom is the half-masked Phantom that we all know. This 1925 movie I kind of find it dragging at first. I really don't like the ending wherein The Phantom was mobbed! I prefer the alternate ending,  wherein the Phantom died of heartbreak.

Next movie that I have seen is the 1989 slasher film starring Robert Englund. From the trailer itself this is one old movie that I really wanted to see. I like the storyline a bit, but the Phantom was portrayed as a psycho brutal killer, because he skins his victims. I like the sort of time travel thing element in the story, and when the Phantom and Christine met at the present time. I wished that they ended up together instead of the Phantom being killed by Christine, and she threw the compositions and file of Erik Destler into the sewer. A lot of people hate this adaptation, but in my opinion if they tweaked the storyline a little it would have been a great adaptation.

The last movie that I have seen is the tv movie version starring Charles Dance. This is the Kopit musical version. This version is not that well known compared to Lord Webber's musical. I like the Phantom here best. He is a gentleman, sarcastically amusing, and mild-mannered. A lot of people really like this adaptation. This is just quite long. This is a two-part series. This is really worth-watching.

There are a lot of The Phantom of the Opera movie adaptations, and in one old movies, we see The Phantom's cause of disfigurement was due to the acid that was thrown on his face. There's even a rock version. I tried watching the other versions but I got bored. So I will just share this top 3 old and classic movies that I have seen. I hope you will enjoy watching these films as much as I have. "The Phantom of the Opera, is there....inside my mind!"