he sold his soul for rock n' roll - Phantom of the Paradise (1974)
LITTLE EDDIE MITTY, BORN IN JERSEY CITY
Welcome to the opening night of the Paradise! The snazziest new music venue in town! I can reassure you no grim accidents will happen during our opening performance of this bizarre rock cantata adaptation of Faust!
Spoilers below, of course. Trigger warning for some mentions of sexual assault.
Also, this one gets very caps heavy so be warned.
Phantom of the Paradise (1974)
Written and directed by: Brian De Palma
Starring: Paul Williams, William Finley, George Memmoli, Harold Oblong, Archie Hahn, Jeffrey Comanor, Gerrit Graham, Jessica Harper
Running time: 91 minutes
Original release date: October 31st 1974
but first
Folks, we’ve got a musical guest today on The Horror The Horror: introducing, The Juicy Fruits!
You’re welcome or I’m sorry.
so many gold records, he once tried to deposit them in Fort Knox
It’s quite exciting to watch Phantom of the Paradise with the knowledge that Brian De Palma made this just before he properly broke through with his adaptation of Carrie two years later. Here is a filmmaker that’s very ready to just go big, bold and operatic from the start, all in service of a story that deep down is still an all too relevant exploration of exploitation in the music business.
That he tells us this story through the medium of a truly unhinged cheese dream horror rock opera hybrid of Faust, The Picture of Dorian Gray and The Phantom of the Opera makes it all the better.
The film opens with a voice over introduction (BY ROD SERLING) of the villain of the film, a hyper-Svengali record producer only known as Swan. I can absolutely think of no better way to describe this opening narration than to quote it for you verbatim:
Swan... he has no other name. His past is a mystery, but his work is already a legend. He wrote and produced his first gold record at 14; in the years since then, he has won so many other that he once tried to deposit them in Fort Knox. He brought the blues to Britain. He brought Liverpool to America. He brought folk and rock together.
His band, the Juicy Fruits, single-handedly gave birth to the nostalgia wave of the '70s. Now he is looking for the new sound of the spheres, to inaugurate his own Xanadu, his own Disneyland: the Paradise, the ultimate rock palace. This film is the story of that search, of that sound, of the man who made it, the girl who sang it... and the monster who stole it.
Firmly setting up Swan (played by Paul Williams) as some sort of preternaturally talented wunderkind, the film then cuts to a music studio where we get the Juicy Fruits performing Goodbye, Eddie, Goodbye, a sort of teenage tragedy song about the titular Eddie, who is a working musician. In the song, Eddie comes up with a truly unwell plan to pay for his sick sister’s surgery - he figures a posthumous album will sell more so will give his family more money to cover the medical bills (!!) so he deliberately gets into an accident and dies (!!!!!!), with this song being a tribute to his noble sacrifice (!!!!!!!!!!!).
During the performance, we briefly cut away to an irate man furiously plastering over a poster for the Juicy Fruits with a small sign that reads “WINSLOW LEACH AT THE PIANO”. This man, Winslow Leach (William Finney), takes to the stage after the Juicy Fruits, and plays an original composition, a heartfelt piano ballad taken from his “rock cantata” adaptation of Faust. He is overheard in the wings by Swan (and his earthly representative for this scene - a single white-gloved hand) and Swan’s right hand man, a grotsky sex pest named Philbin (George Memmoli). Swan thinks he’s found the perfect sound to play at the opening of his much-anticipated music hall, The Paradise, and has Philbin speak to Leach.
In the process, Philbin takes Leach’s cantata, promising him that Swan will contact him in due course. A month later and with no word from Swan’s end, Leach goes to Swan’s record label office in order to speak to him - as an aside, the record label is called Death Records and its logo is a black and white pixel drawing of a dead bird. It was originally meant to be Swan Song Enterprises but that name had to be deleted from the movie as there is a real life record label called Swan Song Records; nevertheless, you can still see the logo a few times throughout the movie.
To borrow a phrase from this excellent deconstruction by Pitchfork, De Palma performs a stylistic balancing act to tell his story. Visually, he borrows from German expressionism (most clear in the scenes featuring the record company offices, with their black and white angles and shadows) and baroque stylings (what is The Paradise if not the answer to the question “what if Lestat de Lioncourt designed the O2 Academy Brixton”). On a storytelling level, he balances expressionist horror with touches of slapstick and sweeping strokes of melodrama.
come sit at my obnoxiously large record-shaped table
Leach is promptly escorted out of the building (I like the record company’s little rolodex of hate, I want to know what it says about Dick Clark) and decides to sneak into Swan’s mansion (which is named Swanage). He stumbles into a room full of women rehearsing his music for an “audition”, and as he walks up the stairs he overhears one of the women, Phoenix (Jessica Harper, in her first credited feature role and pre-Suspiria) singing. He is blown away by her and tells her she’s perfect for his music - they have a brief chat before the line of auditionees moves and she is let in to Swan’s room. And promptly marches back out when she pretty much immediately discovers that “audition” is code for “if you perform a degrading sexual act for me I will be amenable to giving you a part”.
Leach makes several attempts to speak to Swan, but is eventually beaten and framed for drug possession by two cops on Swan’s payroll. He is sent to Sing Sing prison (from the looks of it, also on Swan’s payroll) and enrolled in a bizarre program (bankrolled by YOU GUESSED IT, SWAN!) which involves his own teeth being removed and replaced by metal teeth.
Six months later, during a morning spent assembling toys for a scheme called Toys From Sing Sing, Leach overhears of The Paradise’s imminent opening and the success of the Juicy Fruits, who are due to perform his Faust cantata at the opening. Leach loses his goddamn mind, throwing himself into a delivery box and managing to escape prison (!!!!). He breaks into Death Records’ offices and wreaks havoc, but when he’s startled by a guard, he slips and falls face first into a record press (!!!!!!!!!) and burns the right half of his face, while also destroying his vocal chords. He manages to escape the studio and the police, but falls into the East River.
Miraculously he survives, and sneaks into the costume department at The Paradise where he steals the most dramatic wardrobe combo available (black cape and silver owl-like mask) and BECOMES the Phantom of the Paradise.
The Phantom observes rehearsals, with the Beach Bums (the artists formerly known as the Juicy Fruits, now a surf music combo) playing a heavily reworked version of his Faust (which includes a song called, and I shit you not, Upholstery). In an incredible split screen tracking shot, we see a bomb being planted in an on stage vehicle prop - on one side of the screen, the Beach Bums are rehearsing, and on the other side, the stage manager is maneuvering the vehicle (along with a bunch of bikini girls) out onto the stage. It’s a real heart-in-mouth sequence and from a relatively untested director, a truly bravura shot.
Anyway, the Beach Bums are unfortunately not exploded and Swan catches The Phantom in the act, recognizing him as Leach. He offers him a chance to have his music produced the way he (Leach himself) wants and provides him with a voice box so he can speak and sing. Swan convinces Leach to rewrite his cantata, with Phoenix in mind for the lead role and has him sign a contract in blood. While Leach is kept in the studio, on uppers and writing at all hours of the day, Swan plans on replacing Phoenix and is seen auditioning (it is possible that these auditions take place in Swan’s head) new acts while sat at a comically large, record-shaped table. Or sat in, idk.
Fucking hell, I am losing my mind looking at that picture and that’s not even the best part of this.
He eventually decides on a vain, pill-popping glam rocker who we learn at a press conference goes by the name of Beef.
Beef.
BEEF.
BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEF.
Having Paul Williams as Swan dramatically announce: “I give you… BEEF” nearly took me out entirely, the fact that he is presented to the adoring press by popping out of an upright coffin (accompanied by the Undeads, fka the Beach Bums, fka the Juicy Fruits because we love a rebrand, don’t we, kids) and just fucking growling at the audience makes it even camper, holy shit.
BEEEEEEEEEEEEEF.
“never sing my music again”
The last act of this movie is a full throttle ride into bonkers. To keep it short:
*deep breath*
Swan steals the completed cantata and seals Leach into the studio with bricks and cement. Leach breaks out (SOMEHOW), threatens Beef (BEEEEEEEEEEEEF) in the shower. Beef tries to flee, Philbin forces him to stay and perform with the Juicy Fruits the Beach Bums the Undeads. Leach as the Phantom fatally electrocutes Beef live on stage, prompting Philbin to send Phoenix on stage to sing. Phoenix gags the girls a little bit and sings beautifully, receiving a standing ovation and a busload of freshly minted fans. Swan comes to her dressing room and promises her stardom, the Phantom spirits her away to the roof of The Paradise and tries to explain that he is Leach and to absolutely not listen to Swan, Phoenix doesn’t believe him and flees with Swan to his mansion (which is called SWANAGE).
The Phantom watches from the roof through the skylight, bereft as Phoenix and Swan do a bit of light fumbling on the circular bed (oh COME ON). He tries to off himself, fails, is then told by Swan that his (Leach’s) fate is tied to Swan’s and that he cannot die unless Swan dies because of the contract which is no doubt in breach of several major global employment regulations.
Rolling Stone announces that Swan and Phoenix are to marry during Faust’s finale, Leach learns that Swan made a pact with the Devil (!!!!) and recorded it on video (!!!!) and unless the video tape of his contract is destroyed, Swan will remain youthful forever (!!!!??????). On the tape, there’s also footage of his own contract signing and that of a drugged-up, barely conscious Phoenix, who Leach realises to his horror will be assassinated at the end of Faust.
Leach heads to the wedding, stops the assassination of Phoenix, gets Philbin (who is officiation the wedding and dressed up as a fucking bishop for no reason) killed instead, swings onto the stage, rips of the mask Swan is wearing (?????) and exposes his true, decaying face, saves Phoenix from being strangled, stabs Swan, reopens his own wound in the process and dies along with Swan, but not before Phoenix finally recognises him as the man she met at Swan’s mansion.
The film ends as she embraces a dying Leach, with the crowd of The Paradise around her.
*deep breath*
The fact that De Palma manages to cram ALL OF THAT in a tight 91 minutes and it never feels like a chore to watch is deeply impressive. Along with the previously mentioned influences, he also draws from his own experiences with Hollywood, saying:
(the film was) motivated by my own experiences, going into big buildings, bringing in your own material that nobody pays any attention to or rips off in one way or another
While he doesn’t state it directly, one can assume he’s talking about his experience making Get To Know Your Rabbit, a film which completely crushed him and put him off of working with a studio for several years.
Phantom of the Paradise was not exactly a roaring success at the time (although it did get an Academy Award nomination, as well as a Globes one, for the music), but has been positively re-evaluated in recent years, with the movie gaining a cult following which includes Daft Punk’s Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo and Thomas Bangalter, and musician and noted beard-haver Sébastien Tellier (whose song Divine - which was produced by de Homem-Christo and also THE FRENCH EUROVISION ENTRY IN 2008 - was directly inspired by the Juicy Fruits).
On a holistic storytelling level, De Palma has impressive control of the elements he uses to tell this story (and the deeper truth within it - that music is an ugly business) - there’s a real sense of a director who, while relatively new to the business, has a distinct idea of how to use mise-en-scène, cinematography and soundtrack to his advantage. The movie looks stunning, the music low-key slaps and while it’s A LOT to take in, it’s absolutely worth watching it, even just once, to soak in the full capital E Experience that is Phantom of the Paradise.
….
…..
….
BEEEEEEEEEF
I remember when the movie came out, but I never saw it. I suppose now I'm going to have to, or it will haunt me...
In my hometown, Winnipeg, this movie is beloved in a way it is not anywhere else.