#lon chaney erik – @femmeleatherface on Tumblr

i tortured myself by reading the poto (1925) shooting script! there were good things and bad things and if i don't infodump about them i will explode

really long and rambly disclaimer: this isn't the original-original draft (which from my understanding is where the rosy hours of mazandaran sequence came from, but don't quote me on that), nor is it the same as the los angeles premiere cut (which from my understanding included the redemptive love ending for erik, which was apparently never scripted and got shot on the fly while they struggled to figure out how to end the film, But Again Do Not Quote Me). that said, you can see traces of the original script and some of the sequences lost with the los angeles premiere cut, and some of the choices made are... interesting!

long post so thoughts under the cut

#screaming into the void #poto #poto 1925 #erik the phantom #lon chaney erik #christine daae #raoul de chagny #ledoux #the daroga #nadir khan #very mad that i can't find a copy of the original-original script anywhere. or even the script notes because WOW it sounds interesting #time to crawl through film studies archives i guess. if it's available for academic use i will find it #scratching at the walls. give me a poto script with this good daroga characterization and semi-sympathetic approach to erik please!

femmeleatherface reblogged

femmeleatherface

this random detail in the silent film version of poto is interesting

it makes me wonder if this is a holdover from the original, pre-whitewashed cut and was supposed to imply that the daroga is maybe renting box 5 for erik. there are other interpretations of whose name this could be of course (chief of which being erik is using a pseudonymn), but idk, it's a fun idea! it would align with what the film was doing using the daroga as a red herring for the phantom, and their original connection before the whitewashing happened

femmeleatherface

update: i watched the theatrical 1925 and 1929 cuts back to back and this has got to be a holdover from the original script. the 1929 version of this scene (where the managers chat with madame giry about box 5) is shorter and this is all the information about who uses the box we get:

#do reblogs even show up in the tags. i don't think so. but if anyone sees this reblog this version #screaming into the void #poto #poto 1925 #lon chaney erik #erik the phantom #ledoux #the daroga #nadir khan #pharoga

femmeleatherface

this random detail in the silent film version of poto is interesting

it makes me wonder if this is a holdover from the original, pre-whitewashed cut and was supposed to imply that the daroga is maybe renting box 5 for erik. there are other interpretations of whose name this could be of course (chief of which being erik is using a pseudonymn), but idk, it's a fun idea! it would align with what the film was doing using the daroga as a red herring for the phantom, and their original connection before the whitewashing happened

#screaming into the void #poto #poto 1925 #how do i even tag this particular version of erik uhhh #lon chaney erik #erik the phantom #ledoux #the daroga #nadir khan #and for fun:#pharoga #promise: only one more poto post for the day after this and then i am DONE i am getting offline and i am going to WRITE. and brush my teeth