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Phantom of the Paradise

733 votes

Singer-songwriter Winslow Leach seeks revenge on the nefarious music producer Swan, who steals both Winslow's music and his favorite singer for the grand opening of Swan's new rock palace, the Paradise.

Status: Released

Released Date: 1974-10-31

Runtime: 92 mins

Director: Brian De Palma

Writer: Brian De Palma, Louisa Rose

Spoken language: English

Genres: Music, Comedy, Horror

Original title: Phantom of the Paradise

Production Companies: Harbor Productions, Pressman-Williams

Production Countries: United States of America

Cast

Winslow Leach / The Phantom

William Finley

Paul Williams

Jessica Harper

George Memmoli

Gerrit Graham

The Juicy Fruits / The Beach Bums / The Undeads

Archie Hahn

The Juicy Fruits / The Beach Bums / The Undeads

Jeffrey Comanor

The Juicy Fruits / The Beach Bums / The Undeads

Peter Elbling

Colin Cameron

David Garland

Gary Mallaber

Art Munson

Mary Margaret Amato

Rand Bridges

Reviews

Geronimo1967

William Finley as the eponymous character and Paul Williams as the duplicitous record producer "Swan" both ham up enjoyably in this update of the Gaston Leroux novel. "Finley" is writing a cantata, parts of which are overheard by the unscrupulous "Swan" who gets his sidekick "Philbin" (George Memmoli) to pinch the score. Next thing, auditions are ongoing and the poor old writer has been well and truly sidelined. He's determined to wreak his revenge, a determination amplified after an accident sees him hideously disfigured. With chaos ensuing all around, "Swan" decides to try and make a peace with his nemesis - but pretty soon it's clear that's never going to work and as the opening night of the rock club "The Paradise" looms ever closer, you have to wonder if you'd really want a ticket after all. It's good fun this film with some entertaining performances at the top, Jessica Harper holds her own as the feisty chanteuse "Phoenix" and there's just about enough menacing megalomania to prevent it descending into farce. It's quite easy to see how many subsequent films or concepts it may have spawned as it takes much from musical theatre and high drama and mingles them into something that's a sort of an hybrid of the "Man from U.N.C.L.E" and "Jesus Christ Superstar". Williams also wrote much of the of the original soundtrack with a few power ballads packed in to keep the pace moving along and it's worth sticking about for the credits. It has dated, but I still enjoyed it.

2024-09-20

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