Christine, a young singer in the Paris Grand Opera, is loved by Raoul DeChagny. The employees are terrified by stories of a weird Phantom who is supposed to inhabit the sub-cellars under the opera house. Guided by a strange and commanding voice that she hears from the walls, Christine finally achieves success as a singer. Then the mysterious voice summons her and she finds its owner is a huge man wearing a mask. He takes her to his hiding place and demands her love in payment. Tearing off his mask, she finds a horrible and grotesque monster. Due to her pleading, he allows her to sing once more and breaking her promise, she manages to communicate with Raoul, who plans to save her. The monster, who is the Phantom, learns of the plan and again kidnaps her. Raoul, aided by Ledoux of the secret police, seeks to rescue her, but they are trapped in fiendish ways by the Phantom, who has been identified as an insane musician and magician. The Phantom finally captures them but the brother of Buquet who was murdered by the Phantom leads a mob to the hiding place. The Phantom escapes to the street with Christine and gets in a carriage which overturns. Raoul rescues Christine and the mob finally captures the Phantom, beats him to death and hurls him into the River Seine. Raoul finds happiness with Christine. Moving Picture World September 19, 1925
Fun fact:For The Hunchback Of Notre Dame, Lon Chaney wore a hump weighing over 50 pounds so that he would walk realistically. For "The Penalty" (1920), he had his legs bound tightly behind him in a harness, inserting his knees into leather stumps devised as artificial legs with his feet bound at the thighs. This was a very painful ordeal which cut circulation to his legs resulting in broken blood vessels.