Phantom of the Paradise (1974): De Palma's Tale of Rock, Roll, and Revenge

Today’s selection for Terrifying Tuesday might be a little light on the terror, but it gains plenty of horror cachet by taking its inspiration from Phantom of the Opera, Dorian Grey, and Faust. Plus, Paul Williams, even if he did write “The Rainbow Connection“, is a creepy little dude. The film in question is Brian De Palma’s 1974 rock/horror/comedy Phantom of the Paradise. The inspiration for the film hit him when he was in an elevator and heard a Beatles song as muzak. It made him dwell on how corporations take artistic endeavors and boil away what made it special in the pursuit of the almighty dollar. After combining these thoughts with the aforementioned horror classics and the tunes of the aforementioned creepy Paul Williams, De Palma created a truly original work.

The film follows the downfall of songwriter/composer Winslow (William Finley) whose cantata, based on the story of Faust, is taken by super producer Swan (Paul Williams) as the perfect piece to open his new venue, The Paradise. Swan steals the cantata away and frames Winslow for drug dealing. After breaking out of jail, Winslow goes on a rampage in Swan’s record factory which leads to him getting his face stuck in a record press. Donning a mask and costume, Winslow becomes The Phantom, and agrees to finish the cantata if Swan will cast Phoenix (Jessica Harper) in the lead role. The producer, of course, double crosses The Phantom, steals the finished music, and casts the glam rocker Beef (Gerrit Graham) in the lead. The Phantom pledges to ruin the production, and soon he discovers that Swan is part of his own Faustian bargain.

Phantom of the Paradise was De Palma’s fourth major production following the trio of films, Hi Mom (1970), Get to Know Your Rabbit (1972), and Sisters (1973), that established him as one of the up and coming directors in the business. The studios were not keen on De Palma’s script, and so he started shopping the idea to record companies finally getting somewhere when an A&M executive introduced him to Paul Williams. At the time Williams was an in demand composer with hits like The Carpenters’ “We’ve Only Just Begun” on his resume. Originally, De Palma wanted Williams to write the songs, but after getting to know Williams, De Palma thought that the composer should take on the part of the wronged songwriter Winslow. At first, Williams agreed, but then he decided that he could not be menacing enough as The Phantom and instead agreed to play Swan.

Williams' portrayal of the super evil super producer is dead on, and this is only enhanced by his long floppy hair, large tinted glasses, and short stature. He seemed like an evil executive who was trying to be hip. The character was loosely based on producer Phil Spector, and in fact the character had been called Specter in early drafts. That wasn’t the only name change that went on in the film. Swan was intended to be the CEO of a media conglomerate called Swan Song, but after Led Zeppelin’s manager created a real record label called Swansong, the film, which had already been shot, had to be altered to replace mentions of Swan Song with Death Records. Unfortunately for De Palma’s well made film, some places where the logos had to be changed look really clumsily done and it takes away from the picture. De Palma also thought it took away from the picture and its indictment of corporate greed to reduce Swan to simply a producer. However, looking at it through a prism of modern times, when so much of music is controlled by producers, it seems just as meaningful.

Though Williams is not the star of the film, he nearly steals the picture away from William Finley as Winslow/The Phantom. Thankfully, Finley has some great comic moments before and after he becomes The Phantom. My favorite scene has to be when Winslow, in fully caped and bird masked Phantom garb, uses a plunger to attack glam rocker Beef in the shower. I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone be menaced with a plunger before, but both Finley and Gerrit Graham sell the scene perfectly. Graham was another highlight of the film, and his performance as the fey rocker was probably the strongest full on comedic performance in the film.

There are a couple of other actors I’d like to briefly mention. First off is Jessica Harper. Not only did she beat Linda Ronstadt out for the role, she sang and acted the part beautifully. Harper really sold the ingenue role perfectly, and it made me wonder if Dario Argento saw Phantom of the Paradise before he cast Harper in his film Susperia. It definitely seems like De Palma’s film would have appealed to the Italian director. The other actor that I want to mention has the other purely comedic performance in the film, and that is George Memmoli as Swan’s right hand man Philbin. Memmoli, who also appears in one of my favorite films, Mean Streets, is delightfully sleazy throughout and has a kind of faux hippie air around his character that I found really interesting.

When Phantom of the Paradise was released, it was not a rousing success. In fact few people really got the picture, though strangely it was a massive hit in the Canadian city of Winnipeg running for four and half months and selling over 20,000 soundtrack albums. (For more info check out the interesting essay Why Winnipeg?) In the intervening years Phantom of the Paradise has grown as cult film, but it hasn’t ever reached the wide appeal of the other well known rock/horror/musical The Rocky Horror Picture Show. De Palma went on to direct Scarface and Carrie, Williams wrote the hit song Evergreen from A Star Is Born and basically all the classic Muppet songs, and The Phantom of the Paradise became a cult classic that doesn’t get the attention that it deserves. I can’t recommend this film enough. It has a little something for fans of comedy, horror, and even musicals to enjoy. So check it out, but don’t let Paul Williams creep you out too much.

Bugg Rating