The Kennington Bioscope is a regular cinema event featuring live accompaniment to silent films that takes place at the Cinema Museum.

The Phantom of the Opera (USA 1925). Universal Pictures. Producer: Carl Laemmle. Based on the novel by Gaston Leroux. Screenwriter: Raymond Schrock, Elliott J. Clawson. Cinematographer: Virgil Miller. Editor: Maurice Pivar. Cast: Lon Chaney, Mary Philbin, Norman Kerry, Snitz Edwards, Gibson Gowland.

For the Bioscope’s first show of 2024, we will be screening one of the most iconic silent films of all, but as you’ve never seen it before. The Phantom of the Opera, starring Lon Chaney, was made in 1925. But the version always shown, because it survives on 35mm, is a shortened and recut reissue from 1930, with several scenes removed, and others moved to different places. We will offer a very rare chance to see the genuine original 1925 version on the big screen, from a scan of what appears to be the best surviving print, courtesy of Photoplay Productions. Come and see The Phantom of the Opera as audiences actually saw it in 1925, instead of the version you’re used to seeing. The first part of the evening will comprise a selection of short films.

“A former Universal stock player, Lon Chaney was a sensation in Universal’s The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1923) and two years later The Phantom of the Opera confirmed him as the silent era’s leading interpreter of horror roles. As Erik, the deformed “Phantom” who lurks in catacombs beneath the Paris Opera, Chaney conceived a legendary, grotesque character, famously employing wire hooks and other effects to give his face a pinched, skull-like quality that terrified 1925 audiences. A master of pantomime, Chaney played effectively to the story’s over-ripe air of Grand Guignol, surreptitiously offering vocal instruction to a young opera understudy (Mary Philbin) from behind a wall, then spiriting her away to his underground lair in the vain hope of winning her love. But the artistry of Phantom, probably Chaney’s best-known film today, belies the difficulty of its making and the volatility of Universal at the time”. — Shannon Kelley, UCLA library notes.

Live piano accompaniment for The Phantom of the Opera will be provided by Costas Fotopolous.

Silent film with intertitles which may be suitable for the deaf and hard of hearing.

Tickets & Pricing

£7. Seats are limited, so please arrive early or request an invitation using the email kenbioscope@gmail.com.