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Although now a veritable brand name whose franchising includes an omnipresent musical and myriad film permutations, Hollywood's first stab at Gaston Leroux's novel still has all the force and grace of a genuine original. Lon Chaney gives one of his defining performances as the Parisian sewer-dwelling, deformed opera fanatic who possesses a murderous love for music and an unhealthy attachment to soprano Christine (Mary Philbin). Remembered as a horror classic equal to Bela Lugosi's Dracula (a role originally intended for Chaney), this 1925 silent version also distinguished itself with its innovative rendering of a pivotal scene in vivid, machine-tinted color, among the most effective uses of standardized color techniques to that point.