The first Phantom of the Opera made its cinematic debut sixty years before Michael Crawford donned the mask, and almost ninety years ago today.
The film is being presented by ‘Unsilent Movies’, who consist of Ric Elsworth (Percussion) & Andrew Shirtliff (Piano). The pair are dedicated to giving classic, Silent Movies a uniquely modern soundtrack played live as the film is screened. Last year they visited the venue with Buster Keaton’s epic ‘The General’, which was a huge hit with audiences.
Ric Elsworth, from Unsilent Movies, said: “This is how the films were meant to be seen. On a large screen, with a live audience and live music. We have a rough composition in our heads but we do play live, so often we spot new things, or audiences respond to something new and we try and react to that.”
Starring Lon Chaney ‘The Man of a Thousand Faces’ the film has had an interesting history. The original ‘Phantom’ was scrapped when studio heads feared it would not recoup the staggering $20,000,000 it had cost to film, a large part of this budget being spent on the lavish opera house set, which still survive to this day. The film was reshot as a romantic comedy, which was not well received by audiences or critics, in fact audiences ‘booed’ it off the screen when it premiered.
Finally in 1929, after more reshooting, more editing and a completely different ending being added the film was re-released. This time audiences loved it. The unmasking of the phantom had audiences running out of the theatre, and the 1929 cut has since been deemed ‘culturally significant ‘by the Library of Congress. It is the 1929 version that will be shown at Theatre Severn.
Marketing officer Pip Bayley said: “When the film was originally shown it was so terrifying that Cinema Managers were advised to keep smelling salts handy for fainting patrons, we’d like to think modern audiences are a bit more rugged and made of stronger stuff, but we will have a first aider on just in case!”
The Phantom of the Opera will be shown on Tuesday October 28 at Shrewsbury’s Theatre Severn, with live musical accompaniment. Tickets are available by visiting the website at www.theatresevern.co.uk or by calling the Box Office on (01743) 281 281.
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