Honolulu Weekly

The Phantom of the Opera (1925) / Talk about commitment to one’s craft: Lon Chaney, who played the frightening title character in 1925’s classic The Phantom of the Opera, reportedly put egg membrane on his eyeballs to give them a cloudy, faraway appearance for the role. Chaney’s groundbreaking make-up job both repulsed and fascinated early movie-goers. It’s often repeated that some audience members fainted from the fright of first seeing the phantom during the famous unmasking scene. His look–hollowed eyes, upturned nose–has been echoed on screen ever since (take the 1962 Twilight Zone’s “Eye of the Beholder,” for example).

Chaney’s portrayal of the Parisian musical recluse is an unequivocal silent (and, later, sound-dubbed) film classic. This Halloween, Hawaii Theatre will celebrate the film by infusing it with live organ music in a screening accompanied by local legend John McCreary, who has brought back to life the spooky likes of Nosferatu and the Hunchback of Notre Dame. McCreary has been playing the organ since he was nine years old and performed for television shows like Hawaii Five-O and Magnum P.I. in their heydays. Speaking of commitment to one’s craft, McCreary has a theater-sized organ that he built himself in his home library. His Halloween show at the Hawaii Theatre–for which he performs original, largely improvised compositions–is an annual local favorite, so even anti-social phantoms ought to venture out for this one.