FILM FRENZY

William Finley and Paul Williams in Phantom of the Paradise (Photo: Fox)

By Matt Brunson

PHANTOM OF THE PARADISE (1974)
★★★ (out of four)
DIRECTED BY Brian De Palma
STARS Paul Williams, William Finley

The title clearly expresses its debt to Gaston Leroux’s The Phantom of the Opera, but Phantom of the Paradise also manages to include tips of the hat to Faust, Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray, Orson Welles’ Touch of Evil, Edgar Allan Poe, and, this being a Brian De Palma production, Alfred Hitchcock. With so much movie merriment going on, 20th Century Fox prepared for a box office hit; instead, the picture proved to be a resounding flop, only finding any sort of appreciation on the midnight movie circuit.

Admittedly, the film is ragged — especially by De Palma standards of the period — and falls apart during the frenzied finale, but it works as a satire of the rock operas so popular during the period. Paul Williams, who also wrote the tunes for the Oscar-nominated song score, plays Swan, a powerful record producer who steals the work of an aspiring musician named Winslow Leach (William Finley) and proceeds to destroy the latter’s life. After a series of incidents leaves Winslow both mentally and physically scarred, he reinvents himself as the Phantom, haunting Swan’s new music palace and loving a young singer named Phoenix (Jessica Harper) from afar.

Finley is sympathetic as the tormented Winslow, Jessica Harper (star of Dario Argento’s 1977 Suspiria) earns an “And Introducing” credit, and Gerrit Graham steals his too-few scenes as a rocker named Beef.

(Phantom of the Paradise will be screened as part of The Independent Picture House’s Grindhouse to the Arthouse 2! series at 9:45pm Friday, March 22, 9:45pm Saturday, March 23, and 7:40pm Wednesday, March 27, at the theater, located at 4237 Raleigh St. To purchase tickets or for more information, head here.)