Horror-Fantasy Rock Opera Faust, with music by Paul Williams. Stolen music. Prison violence. Diabolic contracts. Beef. This Brian de Palma movie has everything you’re looking for, even if you didn’t know you were looking for it.
This movie opens with a bouncy, 50’s pop number called Goodbye, Eddie, Goodbye. Fictional 50’s nostalgia band The Juicy Fruits sing a sinister song about a rock singer, Eddie, committing suicide to boost his record sales and pay for his sister’s life-saving operation. They aren’t even shy about the subject matter; the lead singer wraps the microphone cord around his arm and pretends to inject it into his veins. This sets the mood of the rest of the movie: if it’s dressed up, no one will ever care what your music is actually about.
In a booth overlooking the stage sits the mysterious Swan, producer of the Juicy Fruits, and Philbin, a fat band promoter and Swan’s right-hand man. The next act, a dorky-looking guy named Winslow Leech, comes on, and the janitors don’t even bother to wait for him to get off the stage before they start cleaning the place. Swan tunes in, however, to his music, and decides it’s the sound he wants to open his new “rock palace,” a concert hall called the Paradise, so he sends Philbin down to have a chat with the gangly singer.
Winslow proves to be extremely temperamental about his music, an extensive cantata about Faust which he won’t let anyone else sing. He even throws Philbin against the wall at the very suggestion that the Juicy Fruits might get their hands on it. He agrees, however, like a shmuck, to let Philbin take some of the sheet music to show Swan if they promise call him back in a month’s time. They, of course, don’t. A month passes and, not only do they not bother calling him, but when he visits Swan’s music label, the awesomely-named Death Records, they throw him out on his ass.
Eventually, after snooping around Swan’s personal mansion and finding girls auditioning with his music, Winslow meets Phoenix, one of the auditioners. He is enchanted with her voice and gives her some pointers on the material, but soon enough, he is beaten to a bloody pulp by Swan’s goons and framed for crimes he didn’t commit. A swift trial later, he got locked up in Sing Sing (GET IT?) where, forced into an involuntary medical experimentation program for inmates aimed at saving tax dollars, all his teeth are removed and replaced with metal.
The final insult came when, one day, while working on a jailhouse assembly line, the swinging sounds of the Juicy Fruits singing their new smash hit, Faust, came floating over the prison guard’s radio, and Winslow finally lost his shit. Overpowering the guards with the sheer power of his nerd rage, he escaped Sing Sing, broke into Death Records, and smashed everything he could get his hands on. His spree was ended, however, when he got his head stuck in the very record press that was pumping out the Juicy Fruits albums. His head a smoldering mound of flesh, he clawed his way across a dock and fell into the river. The papers pronounced him dead but, barely alive, a wretched husk of a man without a voice eventually crawled his way out of the river into the newly finished Paradise and, to hide his hideous, disfigured face, donned a cloak and mask he found in a dressing room. Winslow Leech was dead, but the Phantom was born.
The Phantom then did what any mask-and-cape-wearing freak hiding in a grimy concert hall cause his teeth were ripped out for singing about Faust would do. He snuck onto the stage of the paradise during a rehearsal and set a bomb that murdered everyone in the shitty new band hired to sing his rewritten music. Rewritten to be all about carburetors, I might add, because it wasn’t classy enough to appeal to the masses yet.
Swan being no one’s fool, though, and having spotted a caped, cackling madman fleeing from the explosion, knew exactly what happened. When Winslow came for him later that night, while he was sneaking into a totally sweet secret door set into a bank of mirrors, Swan didn’t even break a sweat offering him a job helping him fix the cantata for a singer of Winslow’s choice. Otherwise Winslow’s only contribution to the world of music would be a forgotten Juicy Fruits song and a shitty pop song about cars. Having him bent over a barrel by the one thing he wants more than revenge, Swan makes Winslow sign an enormous contract, full of nonsense clauses that don’t begin to approach sense, in his own blood.
After the auditions, though, Swan, being the irrepressible asshole he is, went ahead and hired someone completely different to actually perform the music. A classy guy named Beef for a classy label like Death Records. He keeps Winslow locked in a room, though, hooked up to complex audio equipment that gives him a voice again while he furiously rewrites the music he thinks Phoenix is going to sing. He hardly notices, however, as he gets caught up in the music itself and the cocktail of pills he gets whenever Swan visits.
Eventually, much like Faust before him, Winslow has to come to terms with the fact that he sold his soul to Swan, his very-own, personal devil, to achieve musical immortality. The movie takes a dark turn, however, and then it gets weird.
Phantom of the Paradise was a commercial flop, like other movies that would go on to gather a cult following, but it was unique in that it was a smash hit in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Why Winnipeg? No one really knows, not even the guys over at the Swan Archive, the Winnipeg-based online museum of pictures, collectibles, and a detailed, scene-by-scene, frame-by-frame analysis of the movie. You can also go over there to read about the two massive cast reunions that happened there over the last decade. I kid you not; it’s as awesome as it sounds.
Phantom of the Paradise has gathered a big cult following over the years, and it is a somewhat unique blend of classic tales with a grimy, 70’s, American pop slant to them. The movie is often compared to the Rocky Horror Picture Show, and it’s a comparison I’ve made myself over the years, but it’s nowhere near fair to the Phantom’s reputation. In my honest opinion, and as someone who is a raging Rocky Horror fan, the Phantom of the Paradise is a way, way better movie in so many ways. Also, the fiendish Swan is played by Paul Williams. You know, the guy who wrote the Rainbow Connection.
This one can be hard to find, but when you do, it’ll be well worth the search. It’s one of my personal favorites.
5/5 Servings of Medium Rare, USDA-Approved Beef
Plot 1, since this is an epic blending of classic stories.
Narrative 1, as this movie effortless pulls you into the plot and holds your attention.
Characterization 1, as I was totally mesmerized by Paul Williams.
Production 1, as there are layers to the cinematography you might not catch on the first watch.
Sump’n Sump’n 1, because I’m still singing the soundtrack in my shower.
Lotus Reviews 
Being from Winnipeg, it was an honor to meet the people I grew up with….face to face, and in the very theater we saw them on screen.
Swan Archives actually isn’t from Winnipeg but from a California guy who wishes he was from the Peg. Especially during those glory days of the 70’s. He WAS, however, exceedingly helpful in getting the full out cast reunion for phan pal 2.
I’d always be happy to invite William Finley to a BBQ, but I’d never let him cook! Ha, ha.