A naïve young singer-songwriter, Winslow Leach (William Finley) is tricked by legendary but unscrupulous music producer Swan (Williams) into sacrificing his life's work. In revenge, the songwriter dons a menacing new persona and proceeds to terrorize Swan's new concert hall, insisting his music be performed by his most adored singer, Phoenix (Jessica Harper).
The film was a box office failure and received mixed-to-negative reviews contemporaneously, while earning praise for its music and receiving Academy Award and Golden Globe nominations. However, over the years, the film has received much more positive reviews and has become a cult film.
Plot
Following a run-through by the 1950s-style nostalgia band the Juicy Fruits, star record producer Swan overhears singer-songwriter Winslow Leach perform an original composition: A song from the cantata based on the legend of Faust. Swan believes Winslow's music is ideal for the opening of The Paradise—Swan's highly anticipated new concert hall—and has his right-hand man Arnold Philbin steal it.
1 month later, Winslow goes to Swan's Death Records headquarters to follow up about his music but is thrown out. He sneaks into Swan's private mansion, where auditions for singers are being held. There, he meets Phoenix, an aspiring singer Winslow deems perfect for his music. After repeated attempts to contact Swan, Winslow is beaten and framed for drug dealing and given a life sentence in Sing Sing prison. His teeth are extracted and replaced with metal ones.
6 months later, at Sing Sing, Winslow breaks down upon hearing of the Juicy Fruits' success and news that the band will open the Paradise performing Faust. He escapes prison in a delivery box and enters the Death Records building. A guard startles Winslow as he destroys the records and presses, causing him to slip and fall face-first into a record press, which burns the right half of his face and destroys his vocal cords. He escapes the studio and falls into the East River.
A disfigured Winslow sneaks into The Paradise's costume department and dons a black cape and silver, owl-like mask, transforming into the Phantom of the Paradise. He terrorizes Swan and his musicians, nearly killing the Beach Bums (formerly the Juicy Fruits, who have traded doo-wop for surf music) with a bomb while they play a reworked version of Winslow's Faust. The Phantom confronts Swan, who recognizes him as Winslow and offers him a chance to have his music produced his way. Swan provides Winslow with an electronic voice box, enabling him to speak and sing. Swan asks Winslow to rewrite his Faust cantata with Phoenix in mind for the lead. Although Winslow agrees and signs a blood contract, Swan breaks the deal. Winslow completes Faust, but Swan replaces Phoenix with a male glam rockprima donna named Beef.
Swan steals the completed cantata and seals Winslow inside the recording studio with a brick wall. He escapes and confronts Beef in the shower, threatening to kill Beef if he ever performs Winslow's music again. Beef tries to flee but is forced to perform. Winslow fatally electrocutes Beef with a stage prop from the wings. Horrified, Philbin orders Phoenix onstage, where her performance receives rapturous applause.
After the show, Swan promises Phoenix stardom. She is then confronted by Winslow, who implores her to leave The Paradise. However, Phoenix does not heed his warning. Winslow observes Swan and Phoenix in a tight embrace at Swan's mansion. Heartbroken, he stabs himself through the heart. Swan explains that Winslow cannot die until Swan himself has died. Winslow attempts to stab Swan, but he is unharmed, claiming he is "also under contract."
Rolling Stone announces the wedding between Swan and Phoenix during the finale of Faust. Winslow learns that Swan made a pact with the Devil in 1953: Swan will remain youthful forever, and the videotaped recording of his contract will age and fester in his place. The only way to break the spell is to destroy the video. Winslow realizes Swan is planning to have Phoenix assassinated during the ceremony. He destroys all the recordings and heads to the wedding.
During the wedding, Winslow stops the assassin from hitting Phoenix, with the bullet fatally wounding Philbin instead. Winslow swings onto the stage and rips off Swan's mask, exposing him as a decaying monster on live television. A crazed Swan attempts to strangle Phoenix, but Winslow intervenes and stabs him repeatedly, reopening his wound in the process. Swan dies, and Winslow soon follows. As Winslow dies, Phoenix finally recognizes and embraces him.
Rod Serling as the introductory voice (uncredited)
Musical numbers
The film's soundtrack album features all songs excluding "Never Thought I'd Get to Meet the Devil" and "Faust" (1st Reprise). All words and music are by Paul Williams.
"Goodbye, Eddie, Goodbye" – The Juicy Fruits
"Faust" – Winslow
"Never Thought I'd Get to Meet the Devil" – Winslow
"Faust" (1st Reprise) – Winslow, Phoenix
"Upholstery" – The Beach Bums
"Special to Me" – Phoenix
"Faust" (2nd Reprise) – The Phantom
"The Phantom's Theme (Beauty and the Beast)" – The Phantom
"Somebody Super Like You" (Beef construction song) – The Undead
The root for making the film was a recollection that De Palma had hearing a Beatles song in an elevator played as "muzak" to go along with experiences trying to pitch material to indifferent executives and an idea from his friends (Mark Stone and John Weiser) about a "Phantom of the Fillmore". The script was written in tandem with Sisters (1972), although that film was done first because of its perceived commercial viability. Difficulty came with trying to get financing before real estate developer named Gustave Berne provided a majority of the funding; during the trips around studios trying to get funding, De Palma was introduced to Paul Williams, who had a handful of small roles on film but was mostly known for songwriting. While De Palma felt Williams was suited to play the character of Winslow, Williams felt he wasn't scary enough for the role and suggested playing Swan (once named Spectre in the script as a play on the famed producer Phil Spector) instead.[6]
The record press in which William Finley's character was disfigured was a real injection-molding press at Pressman Toys. He was worried about whether the machine would be safe, and the crew assured that it was. The press was fitted with foam pads (which resemble the casting molds in the press), and there were chocks put in the center to stop it from closing completely. Unfortunately, the machine was powerful enough to crush the chocks and it gradually kept closing. Finley was pulled out in time to avoid injury.
The electronic room in which Winslow composes his cantata, and where Swan restores his voice, is in fact the real-life recording studio The Record Plant. The walls covered with knobs are in reality an oversize custom-built electronic synthesizer dubbed TONTO.
The City Center concert hall in New York City provided the exterior for The Paradise; interior concert scenes were filmed at the Majestic Theater in Dallas, Texas. The extras in the audience had responded to an open cattle call for locals interested in being in the film.
The film was financed independently. Producer Pressman then screened the movie to studios and sold it to the highest bidder, 20th Century Fox, for $2 million plus a percentage.[8]
As originally filmed, the name of Swan's media conglomerate "Swan Song Enterprises" had to be deleted from the film prior to release due to the existence of Led Zeppelin's label Swan Song Records. Although most references were removed, "Swan Song" remains visible in several scenes.[9]
Release
Phantom of the Paradise opened at the National theater in Los Angeles[10] on October 31, 1974, and grossed $18,455 in its first weekend, increasing its gross the following weekend with $19,506,[11] with a total gross of $53,000 in two weeks.[10] In two months, Variety tracked it grossing $250,000 from the major markets it covered.[12] The film was successful during its theatrical release in Winnipeg, Manitoba,[13] where it opened on Boxing Day 1974 and played continuously in local cinemas over four months and over one year non-continuously until 1976.[14] The soundtrack album sold 20,000 copies in Winnipeg alone, and was certified Gold in Canada.[13] The film played occasionally in Winnipeg theaters in the 1990s and at the Winnipeg IMAX theater in 2000, drawing a "dedicated audience".[14]
Williams performed the song "The Hell of It" on a 1977 episode of The Brady Bunch Hour, and also performed it in The Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew Meet Dracula the same year.
Critical reception
Vincent Canby of The New York Times wrote that the film attempted to parody "Faust, The Phantom of the Opera, The Picture of Dorian Gray, rock music, the rock music industry, rock music movies and horror movies. The problem is that since all of these things, with the possible exception of Faust (and I'm not really sure about Faust), already contain elements of self-parody, there isn't much that the outside parodist can do to make the parody seem funnier or more absurd than the originals already are."[15]Gene Siskel of the Chicago Tribune gave the film two stars out of four, writing that "what's up on the screen is childish; it has meaning only because it points to something else. To put it another way, joking about the rock music scene is treacherous, because the rock music scene itself is a joke."[16]Variety called the film "a very good horror comedy-drama" with "excellent" camera work, and stated that all the principal actors "come across extremely well."[17]Kevin Thomas of the Los Angeles Times called the film "delightfully outrageous," adding that De Palma's sense of humor "is often as sophomoric as that which he is ostensibly spoofing. Fortunately, this tendency diminishes as Phantom of the Paradise progresses, with the film and the Faustian rock opera within it gradually converging and finally fusing in a truly stunning and ingenious finale."[18]Pauline Kael of The New Yorker was positive, stating, "Though you may anticipate a plot turn, it's impossible to guess what the next scene will look like or what its rhythm will be. De Palma's timing is sometimes wantonly unpredictable and dampening, but mostly it has a lift to it. You practically get a kinetic charge from the breakneck wit he put into 'Phantom;' it isn't just that the picture has vitality but that one can feel the tremendous kick the director got out of making it."[19] Richard Combs of The Monthly Film Bulletin wrote, "Too broad in its effects and too bloated in style to cut very deeply as a parody of The Phantom of the Opera, Brian De Palma's rock horror movie is closer to the anything goes mode of a Mad magazine lampoon ... Phantom of the Paradise nevertheless offers fair competition to and comes on much like Tommy."[20]
On Rotten Tomatoes the film holds a score of 82% based on 65 reviews, with an average grade of 7.3 out of 10 and the consensus: "Brian De Palma's subversive streak is on full display in Phantom of the Paradise, an ebullient rock opera that rhapsodizes creativity when it isn't seething with disdain for the music industry."[21]
The film was given a Blu-ray release on August 4, 2014, by Shout! Factory under the Scream Factory label. This edition features an audio commentary, interviews, alternate takes, the original "Swan Song" footage, and original trailers, and television and radio spots.
A fan-organized festival, dubbed Phantompalooza, was held in 2005 in Winnipeg, where the fanbase took particularly strong root.[24] That event featured appearances by Gerrit Graham and William Finley, in the same Winnipeg theatre where the film had its original run in 1975. A second Phantompalooza was staged April 28, 2006, reuniting many of the surviving cast members and featuring a concert by Paul Williams.
A successful concert production of the show, adapted by Weasel War Dance Productions, premiered March 12, 2018, at The Secret Loft in New York City.[25]
Musician Sébastien Tellier wrote about his song "Divine" on his album Sexuality: "This is my tribute to the Beach Boys and the Juicy Fruits (from the 1974 musical Phantom of the Paradise). It's about a time of innocence – when having fun was more important than picking up girls. I visualise a bunch of kids having fun on the beach and I'd really love to play with them."[26]
According to a Guardian interview with Daft Punk, "Hundreds of bands may tout cinematic references, yet few have them as hard-wired as Daft Punk. Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo and Thomas Bangalter met two decades ago this year, at the perfect cinema-going ages of 13 and 12... the one movie which they saw together more than 20 times was Phantom of the Paradise, Brian De Palma's 1974 rock musical, based loosely around Phantom of the Opera (both this and Electroma feature 'a hero with a black leather outfit and a helmet')."[27]
The electrocution scene in Romeo's Distress was created in tribute to Beef's death on stage.
On October 26, 2024, a 50th anniversary screening of the movie was held at the Majestic Theater in Dallas, one of the original filming sites representing the interiors of Swan’s Paradise concert venue. It was followed by a Q&A with Paul Williams.
On November 2, 2024, a 50th anniversary screening of the movie was held at the Burton Cummings Theatre in Winnipeg. It had a Q&A with Paul Williams, and three of the Juicy Fruits.
Overture is a music instrumental introduction to a ballet, opera, or oratorio in the 17th century. During the early Romantic era, composers such as Beethoven and Mendelssohn composed overtures which were independent, self-existing, instrumental, programmatic works that foreshadowed genres such as the symphonic poem. These were "at first undoubtedly intended to be played at the head of a programme".
Faust is the protagonist of a classic German legend based on the historical Johann Georg Faust. The erudite Faust is highly successful yet dissatisfied with his life, which leads him to make a pact with the Devil at a crossroads, exchanging his soul for unlimited knowledge and worldly pleasures. The Faust legend has been the basis for many literary, artistic, cinematic, and musical works that have reinterpreted it through the ages. "Faust" and the adjective "Faustian" imply sacrificing spiritual values for power, knowledge, or material gain.
Swan Song Records was a record label that was launched by the English rock band Led Zeppelin on 10 May 1974; however, its first record releases were Silk Torpedo by another English rock band, The Pretty Things, and the self-titled album, Bad Company. It was overseen by Led Zeppelin's manager Peter Grant and was a vehicle for the band to promote its own products as well as sign artists who found it difficult to win contracts with other major labels. The decision to launch the label came after Led Zeppelin's five-year contract with Atlantic Records expired at the end of 1973, although Atlantic ultimately distributed the label's product.
List of notable events in music that took place in the year 1974.
The Phantom of the Opera is a 1925 American silent horror film adaptation of Gaston Leroux's novel of the same name directed by Rupert Julian and starring Lon Chaney in the title role of the deformed Phantom who haunts the Paris Opera House, causing murder and mayhem in an attempt to make the woman he loves a star. The film remains most famous for Chaney's ghastly, self-devised make-up, which was kept a studio secret until the film's premiere. The picture also features Mary Philbin, Norman Kerry, Arthur Edmund Carewe, Gibson Gowland, John St. Polis and Snitz Edwards. The last surviving cast member was Carla Laemmle (1909–2014), niece of producer Carl Laemmle, who played a small role as a "prima ballerina" in the film when she was about 15 years old. The first cut of the film was previewed in Los Angeles on January 26, 1925. The film was released on September 6, 1925, premiering at the Astor Theatre in New York.
La damnation de Faust, Op. 24 is a French musical composition for four solo voices, full seven-part chorus, large children's chorus and orchestra by the French composer Hector Berlioz. He called it a "légende dramatique". It was first performed at the Opéra-Comique in Paris on 6 December 1846.
Paul Hamilton Williams Jr. is an American composer, singer, songwriter, and actor. He is known for writing and co-writing popular songs performed by a number of acts in the 1970s, including Three Dog Night's "An Old Fashioned Love Song" and "Out in the Country", Helen Reddy's "You and Me Against the World", Biff Rose's "Fill Your Heart", and the Carpenters' "We've Only Just Begun" and "Rainy Days and Mondays". He also wrote "Cried Like a Baby" for teen idol Bobby Sherman.
Faust is a tragic play in two parts by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, usually known in English as Faust, Part One and Faust, Part Two. Nearly all of Part One and the majority of Part Two are written in rhymed verse. Although rarely staged in its entirety, it is the play with the largest audience numbers on German-language stages. Faust is considered by many to be Goethe's magnum opus and the greatest work of German literature.
William Franklin Finley was an American actor who appeared in the films The Funhouse, Simon, Silent Rage, Phantom of the Paradise, Sisters and The Wedding Party.
Christine Daaé is a fictional character and the female protagonist of Gaston Leroux's 1910 novel The Phantom of the Opera and of the various adaptations of the work. Erik, the Phantom of the Opera and Viscount Raoul de Chagny both fall in love with her.
Gerrit Graham is an American stage, television, and film actor as well as a scriptwriter and songwriter. He is best known for his appearances in multiple films by Brian De Palma as well as appearances in two Star Trek series. He starred in Used Cars with Kurt Russell and voiced Franklin Sherman on The Critic.
Gary Mallaber is an American musician from Los Angeles, mostly known as a drummer, but plays percussion, vibraphone, and keyboards. In addition, he is a songwriter, arranger, composer, producer, engineer, and actor. He began music lessons at six years old at PS #45. He attended Lafayette High School, where he and Bobby Militello, along with other musicians, were mentored by saxophonist Sam Scamacca. Mallaber got his start playing drums in a Buffalo band known as Raven.
There have been many literary and dramatic works based on Gaston Leroux's 1910 novel The Phantom of the Opera, ranging from stage musicals to films to children's books. Some well known stage and screen adaptations of the novel are the 1925 film and the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical ; Susan Kay's 1990 Phantom is one of the best known novels and includes in-depth study of the title character's life and experiences.
Timothy Howar is a Canadian-born British singer with the pop-rock band Mike + The Mechanics who also acts in leading roles in West End and Broadway musicals.
Erik is the titular male protagonist of Gaston Leroux's novel Le Fantôme de l'Opéra, best known to English speakers as The Phantom of the Opera. The character has been adapted to alternative media several times, including in the 1925 film adaptation starring Lon Chaney, the 1943 remake starring Claude Rains, the 1962 remake starring Herbert Lom and Andrew Lloyd Webber's 1986 musical.
Juicy Lucy was a British blues rock band officially formed on 1 October 1969. After the demise of The Misunderstood, Juicy Lucy was formed by US-born steel guitarist Glenn Ross Campbell, and prolific Blackburn saxophonist Chris Mercer. The group later recruited vocalist Ray Owen, guitarist Neil Hubbard, bassist Keith Ellis, and drummer Pete Dobson.
Faust has inspired artistic and cultural works for over four centuries. The following lists cover various media to include items of historic interest, enduring works of high art, and recent representations in popular culture. The entries represent works that a reader has a reasonable chance of encountering rather than a complete catalog.
Leo Butler is a British playwright. His plays have been staged, among others, by the Royal Court, the Royal Shakespeare Company and the Almeida Theatre. His plays have been published by Bloomsbury A & C Black. His 2001 play Redundant won the George Devine Award. Between 2005 and 2014 he was Playwriting Tutor for the Royal Court Young Writers Programme.
Raymond Louis Kennedy was an American singer, songwriter, musician, and record producer based in Los Angeles. His works span multiple genres including R&B, pop, rock, jazz, fusion, acid rock, country, and many more. He co-wrote "Sail On, Sailor", one of The Beach Boys' mid-career hits, as well as two hits for The Babys: "Everytime I Think of You" and "Isn't It Time".
↑ "The 47th Academy Awards (1975) Nominees and Winners". Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. April 8, 1975. Retrieved November 22, 2018. Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. "'Phantom of the Paradise' Song Score by Paul Williams; Adaptation Score by Paul Williams and George Aliceson Tipton". Retrieved August 13, 2012.
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