The world spins into being, flying around its axis in practiced precision. A new world forms in its wake. A world of horror, romance, and music.
Such is the world that introduces me to the Phantom.
Since the debut of Gaston Leroux’s book, there has been at least ten film adaptations. When I began playing around with the idea of writing my own adaptation in college, I began searching for as many of these movies as I could. Obviously, Lon Chaney’s version from 1925 became a huge inspiration, but many of the other films helped me to enter into the world of the Phantom, guiding my steps and warning against any missteps.
I’ve spoken about it before, but Claude Rains’ Phantom of the Opera from 1943 was probably my first Phantom. And it is the first of many acid-scarred Phantom’s. The empathy you feel for Claude Rain’s Phantom is the key to his success. I make sure that I write my Phantom with the same empathy. However, I make sure to avoid the acid story element – something that goes on to plague many of the movies to follow. Of them, only three explain or infer Erik’s grotesque visage as a congenital defect – as it is written in the book. For Erik’s true deformity is not his face, but the darkness that has twisted him from the inside.
The next movie is 1962’s The Phantom of the Opera starring Herbert Lom. The acid curse continues to wreak its havoc, pulling the story further away from the book. It also introduces a new part of the curse – the Henchman. The unnamed character played by Ian Wilson takes on the murderous aspects of the Phantom, becoming his loyal henchman. But while empathy for the Phantom is key, hatred for his dark nature is also key. Taking that away is as detrimental as tossing acid in his face.
It took over 20 years for the next adaptation to make it to the screen. Though this time it was the small screen. In 1983, Maximilian Schell and Jane Seymour star in the oft-forgotten and hard to find TV movie adaptation. These days, the full movie can be easily found on YouTube, but when I was tracking it down in college, I could only find a DVD from Australia of all places. The issue being, it would not play on American DVD players. I had to watch it on my computer, manually switching the region – a dangerous thing since it could only be switched so many times.
But it was worth it, despite its MANY departures from the book, this adaptation does the best attempt, since Lon Chaney, at recreating the unmasking scene as it’s described in the book. The full-faced mask, torn away to reveal a living corpse. True, it is still an acid-scarred living corpse, but it proves that even when straying far, being true to the source material can be achieved.
Only six years go by before the Phantom haunts the screen, this time, returning to the big screen. In 1989, Robert Englund (Nightmare on Elm Street’s Freddie Kruger) seems like the perfect actor to bring the horrifying Phantom to life. Bolstered by the film’s title, stylized in the opening credits as “Gaston Leroux’s The Phantom of the Opera,” I’m hopeful that we’ve finally returned to a horror-based, faithful adaptation. It certainly is horror-based – 1980s gore and guts to prove it. And it is the first to break the acid curse. But it is far from a faithful adaptation.
Instead of acid, this time, a deal with the devil scars the Phantom’s face. However, this Faustian agreement connects the plot to the opera that is integral to the book. Charles Gounod’s Faust tells the story of an old man who sells his soul to the devil for the love of a girl. A plot that Gaston Leroux uses to mirror the Phantom’s murderous obsession with Christine. I use this same mirror image to guide my hands in constructing the twist ending of my play.
Not long after Robert Englund’s poorly received film failed at the box office and killed future plans for sequels, the Phantom returned to the small screen again. This time, in a two-part television miniseries that went on to win two Emmy Awards and earn two Golden Globe nominations. Despite its success, finding a DVD proved just as difficult, eventually having to track down a copy released from Korea. This version, written by Arthur Kopit, is based on an unproduced musical written before but sent foundering in the wake of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s 1986 rock opera. The drastic differences between the two musicals eventually paved the way for Kopit’s version to make it to the stage in 1991 as the musical, Phantom. But this miniseries version does things that none of the other movies have attempted before.
Having three hours to work with, the miniseries can fully explore the relationship between Christine (played by Teri Polo) and Erik (Charles Dance). Kopit’s intention from the beginning is to the return the story to its romantic roots and uses the extra time wisely to fully flesh out the Phantom’s love story. But more interesting to me, is how he fleshes out the love story between Christine and the Raoul character. For some reason, Kopit renames the character “Philippe” after Raoul’s older brother from the book – a character never portrayed on film since 1925.
Name change or not, the miniseries explores Christine and “Philippe’s” childhood love story that blossoms when they meet again at the Opera House. This backstory, touched upon in the Webber musical, is important to understanding Christine – torn between the love of her late father, the Phantom that loves her, and the childhood love she’s never forgotten. Just as empathy and darkness is key to the Phantom, this love triangle is key to Christine.
For almost a decade and a half, the movies remain silent, except for Dario Argento’s off-putting and mask-less attempt in 1998 – a movie of strange choices and ratcatcher machines – not worth mentioning further here. After this dry spell, we finally get an adaptation of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Broadway success in 2004. In the same way that Claude Rains scarred the movies with acid for nearly 50 years, Andrew Lloyd Webber scarred the movies with half-deformities. The use of the half-mask became synonymous with the Phantom, finding its way in almost all interpretations of the story. For the next decade plus, book covers, artwork, publicity, and the little known 1991 muscial adaptation by Lawrence Rosen and Paul Schierhorn all adopted the half-mask (Kopit’s being the one stand out).
Joel Schumacher’s The Phantom of the Opera doubles down on this, shrinking the mask (and the deformity it hides) even further. However, the underwhelmingly blemished face under the mask has its merits. By diminishing the grotesquerie, it focuses the evils upon the man, not the monster. And the mask-divided face serves to echo the soul-divided man. An interesting metaphor made tangible, but still detrimental to the story Gaston Leroux originally told.
The true saving grace of the 2004 film is its use of flashbacks – the story unfolding through the memories of an old and frail Raoul. This conceit opens the stage musical, but it is something that Schumacher can fully utilize on film. It is through these flashbacks that I conceive the narrative of my play. Just as in the book, the narrative of my play is unfolded by Gaston Leroux peering into the past of the Opera House. My play takes that further with Gaston peering into his own past and how it is tangled with the history and horror of the Opera House.
Reexamining all of the movie adaptations of the Phantom reveals much about the ways we interpret the story. Each movie does not adapt the original book, but seemingly adapts the film that came before it. A copy of a copy, becoming blurry with each new iteration. Henceforth the staying power of the acid curse, the henchman, and the half-mask. With my play, I wanted to return to the book, forgetting all other adaptations that came after. But try as I might, I still see shadows cast from 1943, 1962, 1983, 1989, 1990, and 2004.
Hopefully though, by blending them together and tying them back to the book, I have escaped without a curse of my own. And if not, hopefully the curse is the book itself. It has been 20 years since the last proper film adaptation of “The Phantom of the Opera.” Perhaps the next movie Phantom will be cursed to return to its origins. Horror, romance, and music will spin into being, forming a new world from the world that Gaston Leroux created.
GASTON. All you need is in the book.
“Gaston Leroux’s The Phantom of the Opera,” Next Stage Press Publication
- Original production still by Chris Kotcher.