Phantom of the Paradise
Short description
Phantom of the Paradise is a 1974 American musical horror-comedy directed by Brian De Palma, who wrote the screenplay with Louisa Rose. William Finley plays Winslow Leach, a singer-songwriter whose music is stolen by Swan, a powerful record producer played by Paul Williams. Swan uses the songs for the opening of the Paradise, a rock palace built to launch his label. Winslow is imprisoned, escapes, and is left disfigured in an accident, afterwards hiding behind a mask and haunting the Paradise while seeking revenge on Swan and protecting Phoenix, a young performer played by Jessica Harper.
The film retells the Faust legend through a rock-opera story, with elements recalling The Phantom of the Opera, and includes musical numbers performed by acts such as the Juicy Fruits, the Beach Bums and the Undeads. It was produced by Edward R. Pressman and released by 20th Century Fox.
Phantom of the Paradise was De Palma's fourth feature, arriving between Sisters in 1973 and Carrie in 1976, a period in which he moved toward wider recognition. The credited cast runs to 68 performers. Made for about 1 million dollars, the film found only a modest theatrical audience at the time but later drew a devoted following. On IMDb it holds a rating of 7.3 from 66 reviews, while on TMDB it scores 7.5 from 780 votes, indicating that critics and audiences regard it similarly.
What's left behind the scenes
- According to William Finley (1940-2012), the press that disfigured his character Winslow Leach was filmed at a real pressing plant. He was very worried, but was assured there was no danger. The press was fitted with soft padding and braces to prevent an accident. However, the press turned out to be quite powerful, and the braces failed. Finley was saved from having his head crushed only by his reaction speed, but his frightened scream in the scene was entirely genuine.
- “The Electronics Room,” where Finley’s character composes the cantata, and where Swan regains his voice, was actually a recording studio, and the walls with numerous buttons were in fact a large custom-built Moog electronic synthesizer.
- The artist for the painting was Jack Fisk, and his friend Sissy Spacek helped him with the decorations (they soon married). According to Spacek, once, entirely due to her, a tunnel set was lost for an entire day of filming. Furthermore, Spacek auditioned for the role of Phoenix, but the role went to Jessica Harper.
- The logo of the record company “Death Records” at the airport replaced the originally depicted logo of “Swan Song Records.” This was done to avoid a lawsuit with the label of the band “Led Zeppelin.” The film’s producers were convinced that if the case went to court, they would prevail, but it was decided that it was better to finish the film quickly than to get bogged down in legal proceedings. Similarly, at the beginning of the film, the words “The Juicy Fruits” were overlaid on the awning above the entrance (architecturally called a marquee) to cover the words “Swan Song.” Initially, the words “Swan Song” were supposed to be everywhere, as producer Swan considered himself the center of the universe. This idea was later abandoned, but the words “Swan Song” remained visible here and there, in particular, on Bif’s towel as performed by Gerrit Graham.
- A total of four lawsuits were filed against the film separately, including one from the film company “Universal Pictures,” whose authors claimed that the film was too similar to early adaptations of “The Phantom of the Opera” based on the 1909 novel of the same name by Gaston Leroux (1868-1927).
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