The Phantom of the Opera (1925) | Directed by Rupert Julian - Full Movie

A mad, disfigured composer seeks love with a lovely young opera singer.

The Phantom of the Opera is a 1925 American silent horror film adaptation of Gaston Leroux's 1910 novel Le Fantôme de l'Opéra, directed by Rupert Julian and starring Lon Chaney in the title role of the deformed Phantom who haunts the Paris Opera House, causing murder and mayhem in an attempt to make the woman he loves a star. The film remains most famous for Chaney's ghastly, self-devised make-up, which was kept a studio secret until the film's premiere. The film was released on November 15, 1925.

The picture also features Mary Philbin, Norman Kerry, Arthur Edmund Carewe, Gibson Gowland, John St. Polis and Snitz Edwards. The last surviving cast member was Carla Laemmle (1909–2014), niece of producer Carl Laemmle, who played a small role as a "prima ballerina" in the film when she was about 15.

Directed by: Rupert Julian: Uncredited: Lon Chaney, Ernst Laemmle, Edward Sedgwick
Screenplay by: Uncredited: Walter Anthony, Elliott J. Clawson, Bernard McConville, Frank M. McCormack, Tom Reed, Raymond L. Schrock
Jasper Spearing, Richard Wallace
Based on: The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux
Produced by: Carl Laemmle
Starring: Lon Chaney, Norman Kerry, Mary Philbin
Cinematography: Milton Bridenbecker, Virgil Miller, Charles Van Enger
Edited by: Edward Curtiss, Maurice Pivar, Gilmore Walker, Lois Weber
Music by: Gustav Hinrichs
Production company: Jewel Productions
Distributed by: Universal Pictures
Release date: September 6, 1925 (New York, premiere), November 15, 1925 (USA)
Running time: 107 minutes (Original cut), 93 minutes (Eastman House print)
Country: United States
Language: Silent (English intertitles)
Box office: $2 million