The picture also features Mary Philbin, Norman Kerry, Arthur Edmund Carewe, Gibson Gowland, John St. Polis and Snitz Edwards.

The following synopsis is based on the general release version of 1925, which has additional scenes and sequences in different order than the existing reissue print.

Carlotta, the prima donna, receives a letter from "The Phantom," demanding that Christine replace her the following night, threatening dire consequences if this does not happen.

The following day, Christine reveals to Raoul that she has been tutored by a mysterious voice, the "Spirit of Music," and it is now impossible to stop her career.

Raoul saves Christine while Erik, in one last act of twisted showmanship, frightens the crowd by pretending to hold some kind of lethal entity in his clenched fist, only to reveal an empty palm before he is swarmed and killed by the mob and thrown into the Seine.

[4]: 37  His first script was a close adaptation of Leroux and included scenes from the novel that never appeared in the released film, such as the Phantom summoning Christine to her father's grave in Brittany, where he poses in the cemetery as the "Angel of Music" and plays "The Resurrection of Lazarus" on his violin at midnight.

[4]: 38 Inspired by the novel, Clawson added a lengthy flashback to Persia, where Erik (the Phantom) served as a conjurer and executioner in the court of a depraved Sultana, using his Punjab lasso to strangle prisoners.

Instead, a line of dialogue was inserted to explain that Erik had been the chief torturer and inquisitor during the Paris Commune, when the Opera served as a prison, with no explanation of his damaged face.

[4]: 39 The studio considered the novel's ending too low-key, but Clawson's third revised script retained the scene of Christine giving the Phantom a compassionate kiss.

The mob enters his lair under the Opera House, only to find the Phantom slumped dead over his organ, where he had been playing his composition Don Juan Triumphant.

Most of the new scenes depicted added subplots, with Chester Conklin and Vola Vale as comedic relief to the heroes, and Ward Crane as the Russian Count Ruboff dueling with Raoul for Christine's affection.

[citation needed] The third and final version resulted from Universal holdovers Maurice Pivar and Lois Weber editing the production down to nine reels.

[citation needed] Following the success of The Hunchback of Notre Dame in 1923, Chaney was once again given the freedom to create his own makeup, a practice which became almost as famous as the films he starred in.

[3] Stage 28 on the Universal Studios lot still contained portions of the opera house set, and was the world's oldest surviving structure built specifically for a movie, at the time of its demolition.

Mordaunt Hall of The New York Times gave the film a positive review as a spectacle picture, but felt that the story and acting may have been slightly improved.

"[11] Roger Ebert awarded the film four out of four stars, writing "It creates beneath the opera one of the most grotesque places in the cinema, and Chaney's performance transforms an absurd character into a haunting one.

"[12] Adrian Warren of PopMatters gave the film 8/10 stars, summarizing, "Overall, The Phantom of the Opera is terrific: unsettling, beautifully shot and imbued with a dense and shadowy Gothic atmosphere.

With such a strong technical and visual grounding it would have been difficult for Chaney to totally muck things up, and his performance is indeed integral, elevating an already solid horror drama into the realms of legendary cinema.

[14] TV Guide gave the film 4/5 stars, stating, "One of the most famous horror movies of all time, The Phantom of the Opera still manages to frighten after more than 60 years.

The site's critical consensus reads, "Decades later, it still retains its ability to scare – and Lon Chaney's performance remains one of the benchmarks of the horror genre.

"[16] After the successful introduction of sound pictures during the 1928–29-movie season, Universal announced that they had secured the rights to a sequel to The Phantom of the Opera from the Gaston Leroux estate.

[18] Universal later scrapped the sequel, and instead opted to reissue The Phantom of the Opera with a new synchronized score and sound effects track, as well as a few new dialog sequences.

[21] While a financial success pulling in an additional million dollars for the studio, this version of the film was reportedly given a mixed to negative reception with most audiences being both underwhelmed and confused.

The sound version is currently thought to most likely be lost as Universal's archived reels were reportedly burned in a studio fire in 1948, although the soundtrack discs survived, to which fans have produced extensive re-constructions since the film fell into the public domain.

[citation needed] As described in the "Production" section of this article, the filmmakers initially intended to preserve the original ending of the novel, and filmed scenes in which the Phantom dies of a broken heart at his organ after Christine leaves his lair.

The finest quality print of the film existing was struck from an original camera negative for George Eastman House in the early 1950s by Universal Pictures.

It is uncertain for what purpose the negative used to strike the Eastman House print was produced, as it includes footage from the 1929 sound reissue, and shows few signs of wear or damage.

To make an international version, the studio would simply replace any spoken dialogue in the film with music, and splice in some title cards in the appropriate language.

These included amber for interiors, blue for night scenes, green for mysterious moods, red for fire, and yellow (sunshine) for daylight exteriors.

[34] In 1998 The Phantom of the Opera was added to the United States National Film Registry, having been deemed "culturally, historically or aesthetically significant".