The Phantom of the Opera

Lon Chaney — the Man of a Thousand Faces — delivers his most iconic transformation as the disfigured genius haunting the labyrinthine depths beneath the Paris Opera House. Chaney designed his own makeup, using wire to distort his nostrils and painful dental appliances to reshape his mouth, and the unmasking scene reportedly caused audience members to faint at the 1925 premiere. The sets are magnificent — particularly the underground lake and the chandelier crash — and the Technicolor masked ball sequence is a stunning surprise of early color photography. The story of a tormented artist who terrorizes the world above to possess the woman he loves has been adapted countless times since, but no version has matched the visceral horror of Chaney's original.