Phantom has been beautifully reconstructed and restored in 2003 in collaboration with the Bundesarchiv-Filmarchiv, Berlin from the original 1922 negative. Phantom was F.W. Murnau's twelfth film and a screen version of a novel by celebrated German Author Gerhart Hauptmann. The film features Alfred Abel (Metropolis, The Grand Duke's Finances, Dr. Mabuse) as a town clerk who has visions of becoming a famous poet and marrying a charming girl with whom he has had a fateful encounter, played by Lya de Putti (Variety, The Burning Earth). Increasing fixated by his longing through Murnau's cinematic touches, Lorenz sleeps with a prostitute resembling the unattainable girl which leads to near insanity, financial ruin and ultimate redemption.

Criticized upon the film's initial release for simplifying Hauptmann's novel, Murnau's dazzling imagery (assisted by designer Hermann Warm and cameramen Axel Graatkjar and Theo Ouchakoff) transforms picturesque location shooting into a realm of disquiet and despair.