8mm Forum: The Phantom Of The Opera (1925) Blackhawk

This is topic The Phantom Of The Opera (1925) Blackhawk in forum 8mm Print Reviews at 8mm Forum.

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Posted by Osi Osgood (Member # 424) on August 05, 2008, 08:24 PM:

You must ask, what more can be said about this film? This is just about the most well known silent film. I would gi9ve it my bid as THEE most well known of the silents. The others would have to be :

Metropolis
The Gold Rush
Hunchback of Notre Dame
Birth of a Nation
Intolerance

(in perhaps that order)

... this one, though is so well known, partly because of that un-masking scene, which you've seen in everything from Commercials to music video's.

The story ...

Deep below the opera house, there is a man who, tragically deformed, has slowly but surely went a little over the edge.
The opera house has new owners, and they are informed that a certain man sits in one certain opera box. They go to inspect, and think they see someone, who disappears.

Meanwhile, A pushy mother of an up and coming singer, is trying to force her daughter on the new owners. The one who considers himself the Phantom, disagrees. If she is allowed to sing, there will be terrible circumstances to come.

They ignore the warning and having the daughter of the pushy one sing. The Phantom then brings an enormous Chandellier on the assembled crowd.

Meanwhile the favored young singer of the Phantom, is just about to carry her away, promising to make her a famous singer if only she'll pledge her allegience to him. She is divided, as she has a young suitor, but chooses to go with the Phantom.

She accompanies him into the catacombs and into his luxurious lair. All he asks is that she leave him to his mask and never dare remove it. After a short time, she gives into tempatation, slipping up behind him, (as he plays the organ), and what follows is one of the greatest reveals of a grissly face, (Lon Chaney actually put assorted pins and needles through-out his nose and other parts of his face to give himself that wonderfully ghastly look!). He makes her promise, even with having seen his outward ugliness, to be true to him, and she keeps her word.

Meanwhile, the dashing suitor and a detective, (who has been on the trail of this Phantom, as there have been a number of murders), have been in search of the lady, and they are closing in on thier quarry, but the Phantom has a number of clever and murderous traps and if not for the ladies help, they would not have escaped!

The Phantom knows his end is near, he takes the unconscious lady in his carriage and tries tyo make a getaway, with the crowds in hot pursuit, as all the city has now been clued into the Phantom's murderous where-abouts. The Phantom looses control of his carriage and leaves the lady behind, in the arms of her dutiful suitor!

The Phantom getsa trapped on the bridge. In one last effort, the Phantom, in a theatrical manner, puts up his hand, as if there is some deadly device in it. He looks around and laughs hideously as he opens his hand to show that it's empty. The enraged crowd takes the Phantom and brutalizes him, throwing his dead carcass into river.

The End!

Balckhawk did an excellent job on this transfer! I have the "Image/Milestone" 2 disc DVD restoration, and it has the unrestored 1925 version on disc two, (the first disc is a restored version of the 1929 re-issue that was shortened with a sountrack).

I have to say that this Blackhawk version, (on standard 8mm) is actually a better picture by leaps and bounds. The 16MM that they show on disc two is a very worn copy, and is a re-issue in itself, with extra subtitles and missing footage. The negative
used for this 5x400ft version is very clean comparitively, but then Blackhawk was known for doing either partial or complete
restorations. In fact, this version also has the approximate 3 minute two strip technicolor scene, (sadly, quite faded, but then, the color was never perfect in this). This transfer is fairly free of surface wear and is quite nice.

It is of note, that in the 16MM on disc two, it has about ten seconds of a scene in the catacombs before we are first introduced the that grand opera house shot. In the Blackhawk version, this scene lasts a full two minutes, as a man looks about with a lantern, only to be followed first by a shadow, and then the Phantom himself, to be hung in short order, (the body that we encounter shortly in the film). There are a number of other differences as well. All the titles are the original titles and I believe is definitely closer to the original vision of the 1925 version that audiences saw way back then!

Sharpness :

This is a very sharp standard 8mm print of this silent classic.
I have not seen the Super 8 version by Blackhawk, but I'm betting that it is comparable. It is very nice to watch and not hard on the eyes at all!

Contrast :

The contrast is very good on this as well. Nice grays and a nicely saturated black and white image. No terribly bleached scenes, (very white ghostly faces), and the blacks are not over-exposed as well.

Sound :

This is a silent version of this classic, but then, what's missing, eh?

It should be noted that this particular print was on 5X400, but it easily fits onto 4X400, which I did. They are full reels. It should be noted that this was filmed at (I believe) 18 frames per-second, which means that while a sound speed would be approximately 20 minutes per reel, this is more like 25 or more minutes. Therefore, you have a fairly full length original cut of this film. The 1929 re-issue was at 24 frames per-second and only ran 90 minutes. This version is at least ten or more minutes longer.

This is must for any silent era classics collection, and you can't get any better than the Blackhawk edition.

Note: I believe that Blackhawk, in the early to mid 80's, released an even more restored version with a soundtrack, but I would need fellow forum members to verify that!

Get this film ... if you dare!!!

LONG LIVE SUPER 8!!! (and standard 8!)

Posted by Guy Taylor, Jr. (Member # 786) on August 06, 2008, 09:22 AM:

Thanks for the review.

I purchased the Niles Films version back in 1977 when I was still a teenager.

My print is pretty sharp with good contrast; better than the average Niles prints.

This was the first feature length movie that I purchased.

Posted by Osi Osgood (Member # 424) on August 06, 2008, 09:30 AM:

Glad to hear the Niles print was okay on this title. Was there a lot of surface wear to the negative? I know that Niles was notorious for that too. I once had a Bette david feature, "Of Human Bondage", and it was almost unwatchable!

Posted by Michael O'Regan (Member # 938) on August 06, 2008, 01:51 PM:

Nice review of a great movie.

Not sure you can limit the list of Gretest Silents to so small a few, though...

What about SUNRISE, THE CROWD, THE WIND, KING OF KINGS, NOSFERATU, THE LAST LAUGH.... to name but a few that spring to mind.

-Mike

Posted by Osi Osgood (Member # 424) on August 06, 2008, 07:07 PM:

Nosferatu, definitely way up there, as well as, "The Cabinet of Dr. Calgari."!

Posted by Bradford A Moore (Member # 426) on August 06, 2008, 08:59 PM:

Hey Osie,

I have The Super 8 Blackhawk sound print of The Phantom, which I believe was printed in 1977. The Soundtrack was a organ score by Gaylord Carter, who scored many Blackhawk sound prints. I also have the 8mm silent Blackhawk print, and I would say over all the general picture is better with the silent 8mm print.
But on the other hand, my 8mm print doesn't have the masked ball scene in two color technicolor like my super 8 print. So there are ups and downs for sure. I would like to find a copy of the true 1925 release like in the Ultimate Phantom, but that wasn't even the original 1925 version. This film went through many unfortunate releases, and each one with a new premier and edit with more and more lost footage.

Posted by Osi Osgood (Member # 424) on August 06, 2008, 09:58 PM:

The color inserts of the Masked Ball sequence are a curious thing with Blackhawk. They did this with "The Great Train Robbery" as well, with the color tinted sequences, (the guns firing, the color of the dresses in the dance sequence).

The rest of my print is on obvious black and white stock, while the masked ball sequence is obviously spliced on. The color is badly faded on my print, which probably means that it's a somewhat early generation print, as Blackhawk did start citting down on it's standard 8mm releases by, when? Mid seventies?

Posted by James N. Savage 3 (Member # 83) on August 09, 2008, 07:41 AM:

Yes, I think they did cut back on the standard 8's in the late 70's, but I think they did still release most of their films on both super and standard 8, up until the early 80's, when they stopped releasing films all together.

My "Phantom.." print is also from the mid-70's, with the organ score. It's a great silent classic to project on the home movie screen. My print also has the spliced-on, sepia-looking ball room scene.

James.

Posted by Osi Osgood (Member # 424) on August 09, 2008, 10:58 PM:

Have you noticed just how good your standard 8mm print of this is James? I was struck by the print that they had on disc two
of the two DVD set, which is supposed to be the original 1925 version of the film, (far from it actually), and what struck me was how much wear the negative they used ... had.

The negative material that Blackhawk used for thier standard 8mm (and possibly Super 8 release) they either restored themselves, or it was just a very good negative and, as was Blackhawk's forte, they would always TRY to get the absolute best negative material, and if it was below thier usual quality standards, they would improve on it. Many a slient film was saved due to Blackhawks great work, as is also well known.

I still have the question, did Blackhawk re-release this in the early to mid 1980's in those nice grey boxes with an even further restoration? I'm not sure, but I( think I remember
that they had.

Posted by Trevor Adams (Member # 42) on August 10, 2008, 03:52 PM:

Best include,The Lost World and The General Osi......... [Wink]

Trev

Posted by Osi Osgood (Member # 424) on August 10, 2008, 09:40 PM:

Your right! How could I forget "The Lost World"? I have a very early print of this (on Geavert Belium film stock no less, that goes a good way back!), the best stop motion until King Kong, of course!

Posted by Guy Taylor, Jr. (Member # 786) on September 01, 2008, 07:27 PM:

It's funny you mention The Lost World; I remember back when I was fourteen years old trying to decide between purchasing Phantom of the Opera or The Lost World from the Niles Film Products catalog. Phantom won.

Years later I purchased The Lost World on Laser Disc. It's a really fun movie.

Posted by Osi Osgood (Member # 424) on September 01, 2008, 08:14 PM:

The Lost World, obviously low tech compared to todays special effects, in some scenes still looks quite good. For instance, the scene when the trapped dinosaur is about to be shipped back with the expedition, is on the ground , and they have the dinosaur breathing quite regularly. It looks fairly realistic.

... and it, of course, paved the way for all the stop motion features of the future, including Jurassic Park!

Posted by Trevor Adams (Member # 42) on October 28, 2010, 08:33 PM:

Got a 400ft S8 Blackhawk silent today.Highlights from the Phantom of the Opera! It really cuts to the quick and is heavily annotated.In fact,rather than be called "highlights"it would be better named,"synopsis"!Anything about the phantom is good to have though. [Wink]

Posted by Bradford A Moore (Member # 426) on October 29, 2010, 05:42 AM:

I couldn't agree more. Last night I showed my annual showing of the Blackhawk Phantom, as part of the winter film series I do. I had a decent crowd of about 14. I started the evening with the scored Blackhawk print of Harold Lloyd's Haunted Spooks for some laughs. I always think Harold's hair raising bit reminds me of Eraser Head.

Posted by Wayne Tuell (Member # 1689) on October 29, 2010, 05:24 PM:

Bradford, how is your color section of the film? Mine is 100% red on my 8mm print. Although I know of a Blackhawk print outside the U.S. where the processing was done incorrectly and the film is tacky AND the color is intact still!

Posted by Bradford A Moore (Member # 426) on October 30, 2010, 04:21 PM:

Wayne,

What do you mean by tacky? The scene has faded for sure, but looks better than other faded film I've seen. The best is the close up of his face. Some of the over all print suffers from being on the dark side. In some cases my 8mm Blackhawk print is better, but has some projector wear.

Posted by Wayne Tuell (Member # 1689) on October 30, 2010, 04:35 PM:

The person who has the print says to this day the film still has a sticky or tacky characteristic when it comes off the reel. He has used a few film treatment products and nothing solved the issue.

It was a processing error that didn't allow the film to cure (not sure if that is the right term or not) during or after processing. On the flip side, the mistake caused the color NOT to fade like all the other color scenes did where the processing was done "correctly".

Posted by Pasquale DAlessio (Member # 2052) on November 16, 2010, 09:46 AM:

HI Osi

I just purchased Phantom on Ebay for 15.00. It's 1200' on 3 very full 400' reels. This is the Lon Chaney version. Do you know who made this? The leader is missing so I don't know who did it? The seller said it was not the Blackhawk version. It is B&W silent. I'm also trying to find the artwork for the box if any. It came in cans.

PatD

Posted by Douglas Meltzer (Member # 28) on November 19, 2010, 07:36 PM:

Pasquale,

Both the Blackhawk and Niles Phantom releases were 5x400'. Do you think you have the entire film? As to the artwork, both companies used generic boxes.

Doug

Posted by Pasquale DAlessio (Member # 2052) on November 20, 2010, 06:45 PM:

I have the entire film and it's from a really old print. There are some parts that have more grain than Wheat Chex [Confused]

I'm thinkin that it was originally a 4 reel print cut to 3 reels. The reels are full to the edge.

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