Brian De Palma’s Phantom of the Paradise
is a hard movie to classify, it’s not really a musical but it is chock
full of music, it’s not a straight horror film because who the actual
monster turns out to be is not who you’d expect and it’s darkly satiric,
but what
Phantom of the Paradise is in fact is an awesome blend of several disparate elements that all work together in a sort of monster mash-up if you will.
Though based loosely on Gaston Leroux’s
The Phantom of the Opera,
but closer to the 1943 Universal movie (so close that Universal sued
them), this version of a mad musician seeking revenge takes elements
from many different sources;
The Picture of Dorian Gray, The Cask of Amontillado, Mary Shelley’s
Frankenstein and of course
Faust,
then weaves all these threads through a satirical look at the music
industry. Of course what holds these various components together are the
fantastic songs by legendary singer/song writer Paul Williams, not to
mention his dead on portrayal of the evil music producer Swan the films
chief villain, who is kind of a cross between Orson Welles in
Citizen Kane and record producer Phil Spector.
Paul Williams is Swan.
Talented songwriter Winslow Leech (
William Finley) is working on an immense rock cantata based on the story of Faust and when music producer Swan (
Paul Williams) hears some of it he wants it for the opening of his new club
The Paradise.
Unfortunately for Winslow he wants the songs not the artist and soon
poor Winslow finds himself tossed out on his ear, framed for drug
dealing, and thrown in prison. While in prison he his forced to
volunteer for some dentistry experiments and all his teeth are replaced
with metal ones.
“I’m innocent!”
When Winslow hears that the 50s nostalgia rock band
The Juicy Fruits,
who he hates with a passion, are performing his music he loses it and
breaks out of prison. It’s while trying to trash the record presses at
Death Records
that Winslow is horrible scarred when his head is caught between
pressing plates. He later dons full leathers, cape and a metal birdlike
helmet to hide his disfigurement. His reign of terror begins by bombing a
rehearsal of
The Beach Bums (formerly The Juicy Fruits).
The Phantom.
This is where things diverge greatly from the original story as
Winslow Leech’s Phantom isn’t all that monstrous, when confronted by
Swan he cowers before him and eventually agrees to write more music for
him as long as they are only sung by the beautiful ingénue Phoenix (
Jessica Harper). Winslow signs a contract with Swan and of course he is forced to sign it in blood.
No one reads the fine print.
Swan has no intention of letting Phoenix sing because her voice is
perfection and the only perfection he will allow is his own. He instead
holds auditions and eventually picks a glam-rock meathead named Beef (
Gerrit Graham) to sing lead for
The Undead (formerly The Beach Bums) to open
The Paradise
with Winslow’s now finished cantata. Though a greatly altered if not a
completely bastardized version of it. Swan orders his goons to brick up
the studio where Winslow is sleeping and thus leaving him unable to
interfere with Swan’s plans.
Things do not go according to plan.
This movie has everything; great songs, an
excellent cast and a story that has you routing for Winslow but also
mesmerized by Swan. Paul Williams is just chilling as the Faustian Swan,
with equal parts charismatic star power and evil seducer of the
innocent, he pretty much steals the movie from the title character. This
film also does a great job of poking fun at the industry, showing how
original art isn’t always appreciated until it’s been sampled and turned
into something more palatable for the public.
Case in point: The Juicy Fruits.
Jessica Harper’s Phoenix is quite different from her counterpart Christine from the original
Phantom of the Opera
as Phoenix may have started out a sweet young innocent but she quickly
falls prey to the addiction that is fame. And a huge shout out to Gerrit
Graham who’s portrayal of the flamboyantly homosexual rocker Beef is
just a joy to behold.
Rock on, Beef!
William Finley certainly has the tougher character to play as he goes
from mild mannered writer to not very effective figure of revenge; it
pales in comparison to the richness of Swan’s character. Special mention
goes to
George Memmoli
who played Philbin, the number one lackey of Swan, Memmoli was
sufficiently creepy with a great sense of menace and depravity, and
greatly reminded me of Beadle Bamford, the evil lackey of Judge Turpin
from
Sweeny Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, and is most likely based on dozens of real life music industry personages.
On
its initial release back in 1974 it failed to catch the public’s eye, it
was only received well in two cities; Winnipeg and Paris, but it has since garnered a rather large cult following. This
film certainly isn’t for everyone as it is whimsically weird at times,
but that is why I love it.
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