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Once again, Let me post Scott MacQueen's info on PHANTOM:

Subject: Phantom -- again, and again,
Date: Tue, 19 Sep 2000 15:20:47 GMT

On Tue, 19 Sep 2000 00:37:20 -0700, in alt.movies.silent "Scott MacQueen" wrote:

This issue of the versions of Chaney's PHANTOM just doesn't go away,
and there doesn't seem to be a definitive answer.
Here is what we know:

The 1925 ("Astor Theater") version:

This is what opened in NYC in September after all the monkeying around.
It was in 10 reels. It only survives in 16mm Universal Show-at-Home copies
that were reduction printed in the 1930s, by which time the domestic
"A" negative was very heavily worn. John Hampton had several copies of this,
which he cannibalized, yet still never got a full 100% print. Hampton allowed
one of these to be duped in the 1960s, which is why there are collector prints about.
The Packard Foundation now has Hampton's original Show-at-Homes, and have funded
a restoration at UCLA which Bob Gitt has been overseeing.
The 35mm blow-up work is superb,and the best possible allowing for the indifferent quality
of the source material and the printed-in cinches and scratches. However, authentic 1925
Main Titles are still proving elusive...so check your closets & cellars.

No word on when UCLA will consider this done. Bob did locate a 35mm
dupe negative of a 1925 version in Italy, but the quality is said to be indifferent,
though it offered one shot that appears nowhere else. The 1925 version is a VERY
full 2 reels longer than the reissue print, with a different continuity
( i.e. placement of chandelier fall ).

While sound discs are known for the 1930 sound version, there is no
corresponding bona fide picture. The surviving copy, the common Phantom,
was obtained as a 35mm acetate print in 1950 by Jim Card from Universal.

It is likely that it was the only negative Universal had at that date,
and clearly it was decomposing when the print was struck ( perfs break into
picture, the sequence in Christine's underground bedroom rippling and hypoing ).
It was clearly stated in 1929-30 by U that PHANTOM was "sound on disc only".

No paperwork has surfaced re: a foreign version, but all of the evidence is
that the GEH print is a non-dialogue Music & Effects version for Europe. It
is from a "B" (or "C") alternate camera negative, alongside and often at a
different elevation than the "A" camera. All of the intertitles are physically
spliced into the 35mm print, so they were printed up seperately
either from title rolls (my guess) or flash frames. None of the newly-shot
dialogue scenes are included, but the Faust "Jewel Song" is, at 24 fps
( shot on Agfa negative, by the way! ) with a new performer.
The "old" Carlotta retained in the silent footage is now called "Carlotta's Mother"
via a changed title. All of the intertitles are simplied and refilmed.
Those cards with live background plates (inlcuding the Main Title) of the Phantom
are newly shot with a double for Chaney. The Main Titles, by the way,
have been truncated - probably by Jim Card; look at the jump cut,
which removes the production credits including cameramen...
this same card carried the "Western Electric Sound System" credit.

In the domestic version of the talkie, as much old footage was used as could
be salvaged, and Joseph Buquet & the ballerinas were looped with "synthetic
dialogue" in the manner of CHINATOWN NIGHTS.

Now, the Man With the Lantern;
 
He does NOT appear in the domestic talking version.

He appears in the Eastman House print, in a long 24 fps take, with
the Phantom's double/shadow gliding by. It is likely that THIS scene alone
was for foreign dialogue so the picture could be advertised as "talking" in
other countries. Either A) the long shot allowed for asynchronous dubbing,
or, B) there were inserts created for the major language territories and
positive assembled to the prints ( this is how Universal handled the various
European and Latin emcees for THE KING OF JAZZ in 29-30! ). The figure is
wardrobed like Snitz Edwards (he is NOT Snitz) so it is possible that he was
meant to be Florine Papillion. I have another theory.

The dupes of the Show-at-Home contain the Main Titles and the Man With
Lantern, lifted from the Eastman House print. BUT! They also contain a
Medium Shot of the Man which is clearly from different preprint! There is a
different pattern of tram lines and wear, suggesting that this shot was cut
in to the master print being duped. Also, in MS this guy looks nothing like
Snitz, much uglier and heavier - and the generic Parisian workman's clothes
and cap leave one other alternative: he is Jospeh Buquet's brother - the
SOB who is found strangled by the Phantom later. Makes narrative sense.

QUESTION: what the hell print did THAT shot come from?

Unfortunately I found no corroboration of this when I was researching at
Universal in the '80s, and since then U's PHANTOM holdings have, uh, been
"liberated", shall we say, by a "historian" armed with carte blanche from
Mr. Wasserman. So if the answers were once at the studio, they're gone now.

PHANTOM still lacks color inserts. In Reel 1, the shots of the audience
arriving, with the uniformed soldiers "fashion show" as it were, was
originally in Prizma ( U tested both Prizma & Technicolor ). Contemporary
reviews indicate that "all views" in the auditorium were in color, yet this
is not born out by continuities - I believe that SOME long shots of the
house curtain were color. The "Apollo's Lyre" sequence was blue tinted (or
toned) with red Handschlegl, which I helped Kevin Brownlow replicate for
this recent version ( the intertitles here were originally all in GREEN, but
Kevin elected to keep them uniform with the scene ). The second half of
the Masked Ball, from the lovers' return from the room through Florine's
fainting number, was also Tech, and again it was my privilige to replicate
this for Photoplay's version which will be on TCM. The tints were very
interesting, and in no version are done correctly -- for example, the
flashing of the chandelier prior to falling was amber/blue/amber/blue to
action, and similar color cutting was done in the torture chamber with the
waves of heat and light. The Phantom's rooms "below stairs" (including the
unmasking) were entirely in B&W. The "Honeymoon in Viroflay" tag
that closed Reel 10 ( still in the Show-at-Home in B&W ) was also once in
Technicolor.

The Technicolor masked ball sequence was rescued by David Shepard
years ago, and is from a 1930 dye transfer copy. In the latest versions
restored by both Shepard and Photoplay, an effort was made to remove
the heavy amber color, which was a by-product of the early 2-color process
(perhaps varnish to keep the print from scratching). This version has a much
wider range of colors than we have seen previously, and the color is clearly
more accurate to the 2-color primaries and what colors were actually under
camera -- Mary Philbin's gown is now salmon-pink as it should be, not gold.
For purists, who want the IB color warts and all, there is adequate
preservation of excellent quality already accomplised on a one-to-one basis
by both UCLA and Mr. Shepard.

Photoplay's version, by the way, is the best looking edition I have seen.
Sharp, steady, nicely tinted. The heavily decomposed section prior to the
unmasking was blown-up from the Hampton 16mm at UCLA, which will give you
an idea of the pictorial qualities of the two surviving editions.

Unfortunately, the Eastman House print was struck with a block in the track
position, so the far left of image is lost forever, and the movie is now
best shown with something approaching Movietone (1.17) aperture.