Phantom of the Paradise
Encyclopedia
Phantom of the Paradise is a 1974 musical film
written and directed by Brian De Palma
. The story is a loosely adapted mixture of The Phantom of the Opera
, The Picture of Dorian Gray
and Faust
and also briefly references Frankenstein
and The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari
. Initially, it was a box office failure and was panned by some critics, but it was nominated for an Academy Award and a Golden Globe and has since acquired a significant cult following.
/singer Winslow Leach (William Finley
), who is seen by Satan
ic record producer
Swan (Paul Williams
) during his performance as a back-up act to the nostalgia
band The Juicy Fruits, whom Swan produces. Swan is deeply moved by Winslow's song, and, deeming Winslow's music as the perfect music to open "The Paradise" – Swan's highly anticipated new concert hall – has his right-hand man Arnold Philbin (George Memmoli
) steal it. When Winslow arrives at Death Records, Swan's record label, he is thrown out. When he sneaks into "The Swanage", Swan's private mansion, to find out what's going on, he observes several women all rehearsing his music for an audition. One of them is Phoenix (Jessica Harper
), an aspiring singer, whom Winslow deems perfect for his music and the two quickly fall for one another. Winslow is told of Swan's plan to open the Paradise with Winslow's music. When Winslow sneaks in once more, Swan orders he be thrown out again and for his minions to beat up Winslow and frame him for drug dealing.
Winslow is given a life sentence in Sing Sing
Prison. In prison, Winslow's teeth are extracted as part of an experimental prisoner program funded by the Swan Foundation. His teeth are now replaced with shiny metal ones. Six months later, Winslow hears on the radio, while assembling tiddlywinks games in the prison rehab center, that The Juicy Fruits, whom he hates, have made an anticipated hit record of his music with Swan's backing. Winslow goes berserk, punches out a guard and escapes from prison in a delivery box driven off prison property. He breaks into the Death Records building and tears the place up. He then breaks into Swan's record factory where he sets out to destroy a record press
. When a guard catches him fiddling with the record press, Winslow slips and the record press catches his sleeve, tumbling him head first into the record press which crushes and burns his face and destroys his vocal cords
. Bleeding profusely and with his face now severely mutilated, a very disoriented Winslow makes his way to the edge of the East River and tumbles into the water. The newspaper reports the details of the night and that his body was not recovered. Sneaking into the Paradise, Winslow makes his way into the costume department where he dons a black leather costume, a long, black cape (though later in the film he also wears a red one) and a silver, owl-like mask to cover his now scarred face, becoming the Phantom of the Paradise so he can terrorize Swan and his musicians. He plants a time bomb on a prop car and nearly kills The Beach Bums (formerly The Juicy Fruits). Swan, seeing the Phantom on a security camera, realizes there is an intruder about.
The Phantom confronts Swan who recognizes him as Winslow. Swan offers the composer the chance to have his music produced his way. Auditions are held and the Phantom selects Phoenix. Later, in a secluded recording studio, Swan provides the Phantom with an electronic voice-box, enabling him to speak and sing (but with the voice of Paul Williams
). Swan asks the Phantom to rewrite his cantata for Phoenix. The Phantom reluctantly agrees on the condition that Phoenix is the lead singer and that Swan plays "what I write!" Swan promises and the Phantom signs a contract in blood. Swan is later shown bitterly listening to the recording session with Winslow: while he sounded normal at the time, the tapes mysterious play back Swan's voice as ragged, wicked and monstrous-sounding. While the Phantom remains in the recording studio rewriting his cantata, Swan breaks the deal by telling Philbin that he resents Phoenix's "perfection" for the lead role: "You know how I abhor perfection in anyone but myself." Swan puts a pill-popping, effeminate male glam rock
prima uomo
simply dubbed "Beef" (Gerrit Graham
) in the lead of Winslow's Faust with Phoenix as a backup singer. Beef is revealed to the media at a press conference where all cameras and recording devices are strictly banned, as per Swan's policy.
After days of isolation, the Phantom completes Faust, Swan having gotten him hooked on uppers
in the process. Swan steals the completed cantata while ordering his minions to seal the Phantom up inside the recording studio with a brick wall. However, when the Phantom awakens that night to realizes he has been betrayed again he manages to escape in a fit of fury. The Phantom then confronts Beef (in a comic allusion to the shower scene in Psycho) and threatens to kill him if he performs. Beef tries to flee, but is stopped by Philbin, who suggests to Beef that it was all a drug-induced hallucination
. Onstage the glam-rock band The Undeads (formerly The Beach Bums), costumed to resemble the sonambulist from The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari
, sing of the ultimate man, appearing to dismember audience members (actually planted actors with dummy limbs) and making a show of appearing to turn the parts into Beef, now costumed as a glitter-clad Frankenstein's monster
. As Beef performs a completely rewritten glam-rock version of Winslow's "Old Souls", the Phantom, hidden in the rafters, strikes and electrocutes Beef (to the great delight of the crowd) with a lightning-bolt-shaped neon sign. Horrified, Philbin orders Phoenix onstage as a replacement. Phoenix, singing the true version of Winslow's music at last, is an immediate sensation with the audience. As they continue to cheer for Beef outside as his dead body is loaded into an ambulance, Swan now realizes the potential of the situation.
In Phoenix's dressing room, Swan arrives and seduces Phoenix, telling her of her future stardom. As she leaves, she is nearly overwhelmed by the zealous crowd, but is quickly carted away by the Phantom. On the roof, the Phantom tells Phoenix his true identity. He implores Phoenix to leave the Paradise so Swan won't destroy her like he has destroyed everything else. Phoenix does not believe him and, fearing the Phantom, flees. At the Swanage, the Phantom observes Swan and Phoenix locked in a tight embrace. Heartbroken, he commits suicide by stabbing himself through the heart with his own knife. However, the Phantom awakens from death to see Swan standing over him. Pulling the knife out, Swan tells the Phantom that he cannot die because he is locked to the blood contract he had signed earlier: The Phantom cannot die until Swan himself has died. With that knowledge, the Phantom attempts to stab Swan through the heart, but Swan is unharmed and merely pulls the knife away replying, "I'm under contract, too!"
Rolling Stone
announces the upcoming wedding between Swan and Phoenix during Fausts finale. While everyone prepares, the Phantom sneaks into Swan's private taping room to watch the tape containing the blood contract. Watching the tape, the Phantom then learns that Swan made a pact with the devil
over twenty years ago: Swan will remain youthful forever unless the videotaped recording of his contract is destroyed. Future photos, videos and recordings of Swan will age and fester in his place, explaining why he abhors being caught on film. The tape goes on to reveal footage of Winslow signing his contract with Swan and finally a new one Swan made with Phoenix when she was stoned, promising him "her voice" upon her death (presumably to finally overcome Swan's voice's wretched sound when recorded, as per his own contract). Then, on a live TV camera, the Phantom observes a hit man assembling a rifle and realizes Swan is planning to have Phoenix assassinated during the ceremony. The Phantom destroys all the recordings by setting them on fire and heads off to the wedding between Phoenix and Swan.
The wedding is in full swing onstage, with Philbin officiating and Swan wearing gloves and a silver mask of his own face to prevent being properly filmed. The Phantom manages to throw off the assassin's aim to stop him from hitting Phoenix, causing him to shoot and kill Philbin instead. With the tapes destroyed and Swan now mortal once again, the Phantom swings down onto the stage and rips off Swan's mask, finally exposing him as a monster on live television. Swan's face is now hideous, burning away like the tapes and contracts. Realizing what's happening, a crazed Swan gropes for Phoenix's throat, demanding she give him her voice, beginning to strangle her. The Phantom intervenes and stabs Swan repeatedly in the chest with the metal beak of a backup dancer's bird-shaped headpiece. The moment he does, his own fatal wound reopens.
As he is dying, Swan is carried around by the audience, who are driven to the point of hysteria and join in stabbing him. The dying Winslow also removes his mask to reveal his own face, and cheered on by the crowd, crawls on the floor towards the shocked Phoenix. Just as he holds out a hand to her, Swan dies, allowing Winslow to die of his own wound. As Winslow collapses, Phoenix finally recognizes him as the kind man she met in line. Phoenix rushes over and lies down next to him, crying and heartbroken as the audience raves. The closing credits feature a series of montages of the cast members, identifying each by name, commencing with the musical trio and concluding with Winslow/The Phantom. Most of the shots in these montages are from the film, but there are also several from outtake
s.
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, which still exists to this day.
The "Paradise" 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.
Sissy Spacek
was the film's set dresser, assisting her then-boyfriend-now-husband Jack Fisk
, the film's production designer. She would later star in De Palma's Carrie
.
Swan's record label in the film was originally to be called "Swan Song", but this was abandoned due to the existence of Led Zeppelin
's label Swan Song
in real life. Swan's label in the film became Death Records. In the scene where Swan holds a press conference to introduce Beef, the Death Records logo is superimposed over a Swan Song sign on the speaker's podium. A sign featuring the original unedited Swan Song logo can be seen in several scenes from within the Paradise including a towel Beef is wearing when he is getting into the shower on opening night, the tape player Winslow/The Phantom uses to discover Swan's secret deal on the night of his wedding to Phoenix and several brief shots of signs within The Paradise.
, Canada
where it stayed in local cinemas over four months continuously and over one year non-continuously until 1976. The soundtrack sold 20,000 copies in Winnipeg
alone, and it got Gold status
in Canada
.
A novelization of the film was written by Bjarne Rostaing. Apparently based on an early draft of the screenplay, the novel excludes the supernatural angle of the film.
The film was later shown on area IMAX
screens in the 1990s. A 2006 fan-organized festival, dubbed 'Phantompalooza', reunited the original cast and featured a concert by Paul Williams in the very theatre where the film played during its original run.
Musical film
The musical film is a film genre in which songs sung by the characters are interwoven into the narrative, sometimes accompanied by dancing. The songs usually advance the plot or develop the film's characters, though in some cases they serve merely as breaks in the storyline, often as elaborate...
written and directed by Brian De Palma
Brian De Palma
Brian Russell De Palma is an American film director and writer. In a career spanning over 40 years, he is probably best known for his suspense and crime thriller films, including such box office successes as the horror film Carrie, Dressed to Kill, Scarface, The Untouchables, and Mission:...
. The story is a loosely adapted mixture of The Phantom of the Opera
The Phantom of the Opera
Le Fantôme de l'Opéra is a novel by French writer Gaston Leroux. It was first published as a serialisation in "Le Gaulois" from September 23, 1909 to January 8, 1910...
, The Picture of Dorian Gray
The Picture of Dorian Gray
The Picture of Dorian Gray is the only published novel by Oscar Wilde, appearing as the lead story in Lippincott's Monthly Magazine on 20 June 1890, printed as the July 1890 issue of this magazine...
and Faust
Faust
Faust is the protagonist of a classic German legend; a highly successful scholar, but also dissatisfied with his life, and so makes a deal with the devil, exchanging his soul for unlimited knowledge and worldly pleasures. Faust's tale is the basis for many literary, artistic, cinematic, and musical...
and also briefly references Frankenstein
Frankenstein
Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus is a novel about a failed experiment that produced a monster, written by Mary Shelley, with inserts of poems by Percy Bysshe Shelley. Shelley started writing the story when she was eighteen, and the novel was published when she was twenty-one. The first...
and The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari is a 1920 silent horror film directed by Robert Wiene from a screenplay by Hans Janowitz and Carl Mayer. It is one of the most influential of German Expressionist films and is often considered one of the greatest horror movies of the silent era. This movie is cited as...
. Initially, it was a box office failure and was panned by some critics, but it was nominated for an Academy Award and a Golden Globe and has since acquired a significant cult following.
Plot
The story follows music composerComposer
A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...
/singer Winslow Leach (William Finley
William Finley (actor)
William Finley is an American actor who has appeared in the films Simon, Silent Rage, Phantom of the Paradise, Sisters, Obsession and The Wedding Party. Finley has had a long film relationship with director Brian De Palma, beginning with the student films "Woton's Wake", and "Murder a la Mod"...
), who is seen by Satan
Satan
Satan , "the opposer", is the title of various entities, both human and divine, who challenge the faith of humans in the Hebrew Bible...
ic record producer
Record producer
A record producer is an individual working within the music industry, whose job is to oversee and manage the recording of an artist's music...
Swan (Paul Williams
Paul Williams (songwriter)
Paul Hamilton Williams, Jr. is an Academy Award-winning American composer, musician, songwriter, and actor. He is perhaps best known for popular songs performed by a number of acts in the 1970s including Three Dog Night's "An Old Fashioned Love Song", Helen Reddy's "You and Me Against the World",...
) during his performance as a back-up act to the nostalgia
Nostalgia
The term nostalgia describes a yearning for the past, often in idealized form.The word is a learned formation of a Greek compound, consisting of , meaning "returning home", a Homeric word, and , meaning "pain, ache"...
band The Juicy Fruits, whom Swan produces. Swan is deeply moved by Winslow's song, and, deeming Winslow's music as the perfect music to open "The Paradise" – Swan's highly anticipated new concert hall – has his right-hand man Arnold Philbin (George Memmoli
George Memmoli
George Memmoli was a New York City born actor. Memmoli was a friend and frequent collaborator of director Martin Scorsese, providing memorable appearances in Mean Streets , New York, New York , and contributed to a documentary focused on a mutual friend of Scorsese's and Memmoli's - American Boy:...
) steal it. When Winslow arrives at Death Records, Swan's record label, he is thrown out. When he sneaks into "The Swanage", Swan's private mansion, to find out what's going on, he observes several women all rehearsing his music for an audition. One of them is Phoenix (Jessica Harper
Jessica Harper
Jessica Harper is an American actress and producer, as well as a singer and author of children's music and books.-Early life:...
), an aspiring singer, whom Winslow deems perfect for his music and the two quickly fall for one another. Winslow is told of Swan's plan to open the Paradise with Winslow's music. When Winslow sneaks in once more, Swan orders he be thrown out again and for his minions to beat up Winslow and frame him for drug dealing.
Winslow is given a life sentence in Sing Sing
Sing Sing
Sing Sing Correctional Facility is a maximum security prison operated by the New York State Department of Correctional Services in the town of Ossining, New York...
Prison. In prison, Winslow's teeth are extracted as part of an experimental prisoner program funded by the Swan Foundation. His teeth are now replaced with shiny metal ones. Six months later, Winslow hears on the radio, while assembling tiddlywinks games in the prison rehab center, that The Juicy Fruits, whom he hates, have made an anticipated hit record of his music with Swan's backing. Winslow goes berserk, punches out a guard and escapes from prison in a delivery box driven off prison property. He breaks into the Death Records building and tears the place up. He then breaks into Swan's record factory where he sets out to destroy a record press
Record press
A record press is a machine for manufacturing vinyl records. It is essentially a hydraulic press with a closing force of 100 tons and is fitted with moulds. Labels and a vinyl pattie are placed in the mould cavity while the moulds are being steam-heated with an ideal steam pressure of 140-170psi...
. When a guard catches him fiddling with the record press, Winslow slips and the record press catches his sleeve, tumbling him head first into the record press which crushes and burns his face and destroys his vocal cords
Vocal folds
The vocal folds, also known commonly as vocal cords, are composed of twin infoldings of mucous membrane stretched horizontally across the larynx...
. Bleeding profusely and with his face now severely mutilated, a very disoriented Winslow makes his way to the edge of the East River and tumbles into the water. The newspaper reports the details of the night and that his body was not recovered. Sneaking into the Paradise, Winslow makes his way into the costume department where he dons a black leather costume, a long, black cape (though later in the film he also wears a red one) and a silver, owl-like mask to cover his now scarred face, becoming the Phantom of the Paradise so he can terrorize Swan and his musicians. He plants a time bomb on a prop car and nearly kills The Beach Bums (formerly The Juicy Fruits). Swan, seeing the Phantom on a security camera, realizes there is an intruder about.
The Phantom confronts Swan who recognizes him as Winslow. Swan offers the composer the chance to have his music produced his way. Auditions are held and the Phantom selects Phoenix. Later, in a secluded recording studio, Swan provides the Phantom with an electronic voice-box, enabling him to speak and sing (but with the voice of Paul Williams
Paul Williams (songwriter)
Paul Hamilton Williams, Jr. is an Academy Award-winning American composer, musician, songwriter, and actor. He is perhaps best known for popular songs performed by a number of acts in the 1970s including Three Dog Night's "An Old Fashioned Love Song", Helen Reddy's "You and Me Against the World",...
). Swan asks the Phantom to rewrite his cantata for Phoenix. The Phantom reluctantly agrees on the condition that Phoenix is the lead singer and that Swan plays "what I write!" Swan promises and the Phantom signs a contract in blood. Swan is later shown bitterly listening to the recording session with Winslow: while he sounded normal at the time, the tapes mysterious play back Swan's voice as ragged, wicked and monstrous-sounding. While the Phantom remains in the recording studio rewriting his cantata, Swan breaks the deal by telling Philbin that he resents Phoenix's "perfection" for the lead role: "You know how I abhor perfection in anyone but myself." Swan puts a pill-popping, effeminate male glam rock
Glam rock
Glam rock is a style of rock and pop music that developed in the UK in the early 1970s, which was performed by singers and musicians who wore outrageous clothes, makeup and hairstyles, particularly platform-soled boots and glitter...
prima uomo
Prima donna
Originally used in opera or Commedia dell'arte companies, "prima donna" is Italian for "first lady." The term was used to designate the leading female singer in the opera company, the person to whom the prime roles would be given. The prima donna was normally, but not necessarily, a soprano...
simply dubbed "Beef" (Gerrit Graham
Gerrit Graham
Gerrit Graham is an American actor and songwriter. He's appeared in such films as Used Cars, TerrorVision, National Lampoon's Class Reunion, and Greetings, where he worked with Brian DePalma for the first time...
) in the lead of Winslow's Faust with Phoenix as a backup singer. Beef is revealed to the media at a press conference where all cameras and recording devices are strictly banned, as per Swan's policy.
After days of isolation, the Phantom completes Faust, Swan having gotten him hooked on uppers
Stimulant
Stimulants are psychoactive drugs which induce temporary improvements in either mental or physical function or both. Examples of these kinds of effects may include enhanced alertness, wakefulness, and locomotion, among others...
in the process. Swan steals the completed cantata while ordering his minions to seal the Phantom up inside the recording studio with a brick wall. However, when the Phantom awakens that night to realizes he has been betrayed again he manages to escape in a fit of fury. The Phantom then confronts Beef (in a comic allusion to the shower scene in Psycho) and threatens to kill him if he performs. Beef tries to flee, but is stopped by Philbin, who suggests to Beef that it was all a drug-induced hallucination
Hallucination
A hallucination, in the broadest sense of the word, is a perception in the absence of a stimulus. In a stricter sense, hallucinations are defined as perceptions in a conscious and awake state in the absence of external stimuli which have qualities of real perception, in that they are vivid,...
. Onstage the glam-rock band The Undeads (formerly The Beach Bums), costumed to resemble the sonambulist from The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari is a 1920 silent horror film directed by Robert Wiene from a screenplay by Hans Janowitz and Carl Mayer. It is one of the most influential of German Expressionist films and is often considered one of the greatest horror movies of the silent era. This movie is cited as...
, sing of the ultimate man, appearing to dismember audience members (actually planted actors with dummy limbs) and making a show of appearing to turn the parts into Beef, now costumed as a glitter-clad Frankenstein's monster
Frankenstein's monster
Frankenstein's monster is a fictional character that first appeared in Mary Shelley's novel, Frankenstein, or The Modern Prometheus. The creature is often erroneously referred to as "Frankenstein", but in the novel the creature has no name...
. As Beef performs a completely rewritten glam-rock version of Winslow's "Old Souls", the Phantom, hidden in the rafters, strikes and electrocutes Beef (to the great delight of the crowd) with a lightning-bolt-shaped neon sign. Horrified, Philbin orders Phoenix onstage as a replacement. Phoenix, singing the true version of Winslow's music at last, is an immediate sensation with the audience. As they continue to cheer for Beef outside as his dead body is loaded into an ambulance, Swan now realizes the potential of the situation.
In Phoenix's dressing room, Swan arrives and seduces Phoenix, telling her of her future stardom. As she leaves, she is nearly overwhelmed by the zealous crowd, but is quickly carted away by the Phantom. On the roof, the Phantom tells Phoenix his true identity. He implores Phoenix to leave the Paradise so Swan won't destroy her like he has destroyed everything else. Phoenix does not believe him and, fearing the Phantom, flees. At the Swanage, the Phantom observes Swan and Phoenix locked in a tight embrace. Heartbroken, he commits suicide by stabbing himself through the heart with his own knife. However, the Phantom awakens from death to see Swan standing over him. Pulling the knife out, Swan tells the Phantom that he cannot die because he is locked to the blood contract he had signed earlier: The Phantom cannot die until Swan himself has died. With that knowledge, the Phantom attempts to stab Swan through the heart, but Swan is unharmed and merely pulls the knife away replying, "I'm under contract, too!"
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...
announces the upcoming wedding between Swan and Phoenix during Fausts finale. While everyone prepares, the Phantom sneaks into Swan's private taping room to watch the tape containing the blood contract. Watching the tape, the Phantom then learns that Swan made a pact with the devil
Deal with the Devil
Deal With The Devil is the fifth studio album by the American heavy metal band Lizzy Borden released in 2000 .A return to form, featuring a cover by Todd McFarlane.2 covers were recorded...
over twenty years ago: Swan will remain youthful forever unless the videotaped recording of his contract is destroyed. Future photos, videos and recordings of Swan will age and fester in his place, explaining why he abhors being caught on film. The tape goes on to reveal footage of Winslow signing his contract with Swan and finally a new one Swan made with Phoenix when she was stoned, promising him "her voice" upon her death (presumably to finally overcome Swan's voice's wretched sound when recorded, as per his own contract). Then, on a live TV camera, the Phantom observes a hit man assembling a rifle and realizes Swan is planning to have Phoenix assassinated during the ceremony. The Phantom destroys all the recordings by setting them on fire and heads off to the wedding between Phoenix and Swan.
The wedding is in full swing onstage, with Philbin officiating and Swan wearing gloves and a silver mask of his own face to prevent being properly filmed. The Phantom manages to throw off the assassin's aim to stop him from hitting Phoenix, causing him to shoot and kill Philbin instead. With the tapes destroyed and Swan now mortal once again, the Phantom swings down onto the stage and rips off Swan's mask, finally exposing him as a monster on live television. Swan's face is now hideous, burning away like the tapes and contracts. Realizing what's happening, a crazed Swan gropes for Phoenix's throat, demanding she give him her voice, beginning to strangle her. The Phantom intervenes and stabs Swan repeatedly in the chest with the metal beak of a backup dancer's bird-shaped headpiece. The moment he does, his own fatal wound reopens.
As he is dying, Swan is carried around by the audience, who are driven to the point of hysteria and join in stabbing him. The dying Winslow also removes his mask to reveal his own face, and cheered on by the crowd, crawls on the floor towards the shocked Phoenix. Just as he holds out a hand to her, Swan dies, allowing Winslow to die of his own wound. As Winslow collapses, Phoenix finally recognizes him as the kind man she met in line. Phoenix rushes over and lies down next to him, crying and heartbroken as the audience raves. The closing credits feature a series of montages of the cast members, identifying each by name, commencing with the musical trio and concluding with Winslow/The Phantom. Most of the shots in these montages are from the film, but there are also several from outtake
Outtake
An outtake is a portion of a work that is removed in the editing process and not included in the work's final, publicly released version. In the digital era, significant outtakes have been appended to CD and DVD reissues of many albums and films as bonus tracks or features, in film often, but not...
s.
Cast
- Paul WilliamsPaul Williams (songwriter)Paul Hamilton Williams, Jr. is an Academy Award-winning American composer, musician, songwriter, and actor. He is perhaps best known for popular songs performed by a number of acts in the 1970s including Three Dog Night's "An Old Fashioned Love Song", Helen Reddy's "You and Me Against the World",...
as Swan /Singing Voice of The Phantom - William FinleyWilliam Finley (actor)William Finley is an American actor who has appeared in the films Simon, Silent Rage, Phantom of the Paradise, Sisters, Obsession and The Wedding Party. Finley has had a long film relationship with director Brian De Palma, beginning with the student films "Woton's Wake", and "Murder a la Mod"...
as Winslow Leach/The Phantom - Jessica HarperJessica HarperJessica Harper is an American actress and producer, as well as a singer and author of children's music and books.-Early life:...
as Phoenix - Gerrit GrahamGerrit GrahamGerrit Graham is an American actor and songwriter. He's appeared in such films as Used Cars, TerrorVision, National Lampoon's Class Reunion, and Greetings, where he worked with Brian DePalma for the first time...
(Raymond Louis KennedyRaymond Louis KennedyRaymond Louis Kennedy is a singer, songwriter, musician and record producer based in Los Angeles, California. His works span multiple genres including R&B, pop, rock, jazz, fusion, acid rock, country and many others...
, singing), as Beef - George MemmoliGeorge MemmoliGeorge Memmoli was a New York City born actor. Memmoli was a friend and frequent collaborator of director Martin Scorsese, providing memorable appearances in Mean Streets , New York, New York , and contributed to a documentary focused on a mutual friend of Scorsese's and Memmoli's - American Boy:...
as Philbin - Archie HahnArchie Hahn (actor)Archie Hahn is an American character actor and improviser best known for his appearances on the British version of Whose Line is it Anyway?. He is also well known for appearing in This Is Spinal Tap, Phantom of the Paradise, and many Joe Dante films...
, Jeffrey Comanor, and Harold Oblong as The Juicy Fruits / The Beach Bums / The Undeads - Rod SerlingRod SerlingRodman Edward "Rod" Serling was an American screenwriter, novelist, television producer, and narrator best known for his live television dramas of the 1950s and his science fiction anthology TV series, The Twilight Zone. Serling was active in politics, both on and off the screen and helped form...
(uncredited) as Introductory voice
Musical numbers
The film's soundtrack album features all songs excluding "Never Thought I'd Get to Meet the Devil". Words and music 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 Undeads
- "Life at Last" – Beef
- "Old Souls" – Phoenix
- "The Hell of It" – Swan
Production
The record press in which Finley's Winslow character was disfigured was a real pressing plant (an 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
Record Plant Studios
The Record Plant was a series of three famous recording studios which were founded by Gary Kellgren and Chris Stone, beginning in New York City in 1968. The next year, Kellgren and Stone opened a second studio in Los Angeles. In 1972, the company expanded again with a third location in Sausalito,...
. The walls covered with knobs are in reality an oversize custom-built electronic synthesizer dubbed TONTO, which still exists to this day.
The "Paradise" concert scenes were filmed at the Majestic Theater
Majestic Theatre (Dallas, Texas)
The Majestic Theatre is a performing arts theater in the City Center District of Downtown Dallas. It is the last remnant of Theater Row, the city's historic entertainment center on Elm Street, and is a contributing property in the Harwood Historic District...
in Dallas, Texas. The "extras" in the audience had responded to an open cattle call for locals interested in being in the film.
Sissy Spacek
Sissy Spacek
Sissy Spacek is an American actress and singer. She came to international prominence for her for role as Carrie White in Brian De Palma's 1976 horror film Carrie for which she earned her first Academy Award nomination...
was the film's set dresser, assisting her then-boyfriend-now-husband Jack Fisk
Jack Fisk
Jack Fisk is an American movie industry professional, frequently working as either a production designer or art director on Hollywood movies.Fisk met Sissy Spacek when working on Terrence Malick's 1973 movie Badlands...
, the film's production designer. She would later star in De Palma's Carrie
Carrie (film)
Carrie is a 1976 American supernatural horror film directed by Brian De Palma and written by Lawrence D. Cohen, based on the novel Carrie by Stephen King. The film and the novel tell the story of a socially outcast teenage girl, Carrie White, who discovers she possesses latent psionic power which...
.
Swan's record label in the film was originally to be called "Swan Song", but this was abandoned due to the existence of Led Zeppelin
Led Zeppelin
Led Zeppelin were an English rock band, active in the late 1960s and throughout the 1970s. Formed in 1968, they consisted of guitarist Jimmy Page, singer Robert Plant, bassist/keyboardist John Paul Jones, and drummer John Bonham...
's label Swan Song
Swan Song Records
Swan Song Records was a record label launched by the English rock band Led Zeppelin on 10 May 1974. 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...
in real life. Swan's label in the film became Death Records. In the scene where Swan holds a press conference to introduce Beef, the Death Records logo is superimposed over a Swan Song sign on the speaker's podium. A sign featuring the original unedited Swan Song logo can be seen in several scenes from within the Paradise including a towel Beef is wearing when he is getting into the shower on opening night, the tape player Winslow/The Phantom uses to discover Swan's secret deal on the night of his wedding to Phoenix and several brief shots of signs within The Paradise.
Release
Curiously, the film's major market during its theatrical release was in WinnipegWinnipeg
Winnipeg is the capital and largest city of Manitoba, Canada, and is the primary municipality of the Winnipeg Capital Region, with more than half of Manitoba's population. It is located near the longitudinal centre of North America, at the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine Rivers .The name...
, Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
where it stayed in local cinemas over four months continuously and over one year non-continuously until 1976. The soundtrack sold 20,000 copies in Winnipeg
Winnipeg
Winnipeg is the capital and largest city of Manitoba, Canada, and is the primary municipality of the Winnipeg Capital Region, with more than half of Manitoba's population. It is located near the longitudinal centre of North America, at the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine Rivers .The name...
alone, and it got Gold status
Music recording sales certification
Music recording sales certification is a system of certifying that a music recording has shipped or sold a certain number of copies, where the threshold quantity varies by type and by nation or territory .Almost all countries follow variations of the RIAA certification categories,...
in Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
.
A novelization of the film was written by Bjarne Rostaing. Apparently based on an early draft of the screenplay, the novel excludes the supernatural angle of the film.
The film was later shown on area IMAX
IMAX
IMAX is a motion picture film format and a set of proprietary cinema projection standards created by the Canadian company IMAX Corporation. IMAX has the capacity to record and display images of far greater size and resolution than conventional film systems...
screens in the 1990s. A 2006 fan-organized festival, dubbed 'Phantompalooza', reunited the original cast and featured a concert by Paul Williams in the very theatre where the film played during its original run.
External links
- Detailed fansite: Swan Archives
- Detailed article: Why Winnipeg? The 1975 Phantom Phenomenon