Classic Film Club

For October we will be watching the silent, horror film classic The Phantom of the Opera. Ninety-nine years old this year, this film is the oldest surviving and second adaptation of Gaston Leroux's novel. The Paris Opera House has come under new ownership. After the papers have been signed, the old owners mention in an aside that the new owners may hear of a ghost. A mysterious figure in cloak and hat is sometimes seen in Box Five. Joseph Bouquet, a stagehand, tells the terrified chorus girls of a "living skeleton" who lurks in the theater's depths. The Phantom himself is played by Lon Chaney in one of his most famous performances.