The Phantom of the Moulin Rouge

Last updated

The Phantom of the Moulin Rouge
The Phantom of the Moulin Rouge.jpg
Directed by René Clair
Written by
Produced by Rene Fernand
Starring
Cinematography
Edited by René Clair
Production
company
Films René Fernand
Release date
13 March 1925
Running time
70 minutes [1]
CountryFrance
Languages

The Phantom of the Moulin Rouge (French: Le fantôme du Moulin-Rouge) is a 1925 French silent comedy fantasy film (made in 1924 [2] ), directed by René Clair and starring Albert Préjean, Sandra Milovanoff and Paul Ollivier. [3] It was based on a novel by Walter Schlee. [4] The film's sets were designed by Robert Gys.

Contents

Plot

Julien Boissel is engaged to marry Yvonne, but her diplomat father is against it. Her father is being blackmailed by a corrupt newspaper publisher named Gauthier, who states he will surrender the incriminating evidence he has if the old man will allow him to marry Yvonne. To save her father from a scandal, Yvonne agrees to marry the blackmailer.

A depressed Julien encounters a mesmerist named Dr. Window at the famed Moulin-Rouge nightclub, and he allows the doctor to experiment on him with his mesmeric powers. Julien's spirit is freed from his corporeal body and he goes on a mischievous spree around Paris, causing a string of humorous and frightening occurrences. The police come across Julien's body while he is out of it and believe he is dead, and Dr. Window is charged with the murder.

Julien discovers an autopsy is scheduled to be performed on his "corpse", and if this happens, his spirit will never be able to reenter it. Julien manages to get the incriminating evidence away from Gauthier and deliver it to Yvonne, then returns to his body just moments before the time of the proposed autopsy. Dr. Window is exonerated when Julien's corpse returns to life, and Julien gets the girl.

Cast

Related Research Articles

The year 1928 in film featured various significant events for the film industry.

The following is an overview of 1925 in film, including significant events, a list of films released and notable births and deaths.

The following is an overview of 1924 in film, including significant events, a list of films released and notable births and deaths. This year saw the official establishment of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.

The following is an overview of 1923 in film, including significant events, a list of films released and notable births and deaths. This year saw the establishments of both Warner Bros. Pictures and Walt Disney Productions.

The year 1920 in film involved some significant events.

The year 1915 in film involved some significant events.

1913 was a particularly fruitful year for film as an art form, and is often cited one of the years in the decade which contributed to the medium the most, along with 1917. The year was one where filmmakers of several countries made great artistic advancements, producing notable pioneering masterpieces such as The Student of Prague, Suspense, Atlantis, Raja Harischandra, Juve contre Fantomas, Quo Vadis?, Ingeborg Holm, The Mothering Heart, Ma l’amor mio non muore!, L’enfant de Paris and Twilight of a Woman's Soul.

The year 1911 in film involved some significant events.

The year 1910 in film involved some significant events.

L'Homme qui vendit son âme au diable is a 1921 French silent film comedy directed by Pierre Caron. The plot was similar to Faust and The Student of Prague, about a man who makes a diabolical deal with the Devil.

<i>The Hunchback and the Dancer</i> 1920 film

The Hunchback and the Dancer is a 1920 silent German horror film directed by F. W. Murnau and photographed by Karl Freund. This is now considered to be a lost film. The film was written by Carl Mayer, who also wrote The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920). Karl Freund later emigrated to Hollywood where he directed such classic horror films as The Mummy (1932) and Mad Love (1935). It premiered at the Marmorhaus in Berlin.

Esmeralda is a 1922 British silent film and an adaptation of the 1831 novel The Hunchback of Notre-Dame by Victor Hugo, with more emphasis on the character of the gypsy girl rather than Quasimodo. It was directed by Edwin J. Collins and starred Sybil Thorndike as Esmeralda and Booth Conway as the hunchback. The film is considered lost, but extant still photos show a 40-year-old Thorndike who appears to be too old for the role of the young and virginal Esmeralda. This version emphasized romance and melodrama over horror.

Maria Marten is a 1928 British silent drama film directed by Walter West starring Trilby Clark, Warwick Ward and Dora Barton. It is based on the real story of the Red Barn Murder in the 1820s, and is one of five film versions of the events. The film shifted the action to fifty years earlier to the height of the Georgian era. This was the last of the silent film adaptations of the Maria Marten story, and its success paved the way for the much better 1935 sound film remake starring Tod Slaughter. A 35mm print of the 1928 silent film exists in the British Film Institute's archives.

Harry Agar Lyons was an Irish-born British actor. He was born in Cork, Ireland in 1878 and died in Wandsworth, London, England in 1944 at age 72.

Lord Arthur Saville's Crime is a 1920 Hungarian silent crime film directed by Pál Fejös and starring Ödön Bárdi, Lajos Gellért and Margit Lux. It was also released as both Mark of the Phantom and Lidercnyomas. The film was based on the 1891 short story Lord Arthur Savile's Crime by Oscar Wilde. It was one of Pal Fejos' earliest films and is now considered lost. It was photographed by Jozsef Karban.

Alwin Neuß German actor and film director

Carl Alwin Heinrich Neuß was a German film director and actor, noted for playing Sherlock Holmes in a series of silent films during the 1910s. He also played the dual role of Jekyll and Hyde in the 1910 Danish silent film version of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, directed by August Blom. He played Jekyll and Hyde again in the 1914 German silent film Ein Seltsamer Fall, scripted by Richard Oswald.

Friedrich Feher

Friedrich Feher was an Austrian actor and film director. He first entered the film business in 1913, starting out as an actor but quickly gravitated toward directing.

The Grinning Face, aka The Man Who Laughs, is a 1921 Austrian-German silent horror film directed by Julius Herska and starring Franz Höbling, Nora Gregor and Lucienne Delacroix. It is an adaptation of the 1869 novel The Man Who Laughs by Victor Hugo.

The Monster of Frankenstein was a 1920 Italian silent horror film, produced by Luciano Albertini, directed by Eugenio Testa, starring Luciano Albertini, Aldo Mezzanotte and Umberto Guarracino, and is an adaptation of Mary Shelley's 1818 novel Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus. It was one of a very few Italian horror films produced in the silent era since after Benito Mussolini seized control of the country, horror films were strictly forbidden. The Mary Shelley novel had been filmed twice before during the silent era, as Thomas Edison's Frankenstein (1910) and as Life Without Soul (1915).

<i>The Phantom Melody</i> 1920 film by Douglas Gerrard

The Phantom Melody is a 1920 American silent drama film directed by Douglas Gerrard, and starring Monroe Salisbury, Henry A. Barrows, Ray Gallagher, Charles West and Jean Calhoun. The film was released by Universal Film Manufacturing Company on January 27, 1920. The film's "premature burial" plotline tilts it in the direction of being a horror film as well as a melodrama. Director Gerrard emigrated to Hollywood from Ireland in 1913 to become an actor, but quickly gravitated to film directing in 1916 with his The Price of Victory, but gave up directing soon after filming The Phantom Melody.

References

  1. Workman, Christopher; Howarth, Troy (2016). "Tome of Terror: Horror Films of the Silent Era". Midnight Marquee Press. p. 279. ISBN   978-1936168-68-2.
  2. Workman, Christopher; Howarth, Troy (2016). "Tome of Terror: Horror Films of the Silent Era". Midnight Marquee Press. p. 279. ISBN   978-1936168-68-2.
  3. McGerr p.222
  4. "Silent Era : Progressive Silent Film List".

Bibliography