Phantom of the Paradise

Phantom of the Paradise (1974) uses Faust, The Phantom of the Opera and Dorian Gray at once. A young composer, Winslow, is destroyed by the music producer who steals his cantata; he is imprisoned, loses his voice, has his face crushed in a press, and comes back masked. He takes up residence in the roof of the producer's new concert hall, the Paradise. Brian De Palma wrote and directed. Paul Williams wrote the songs and plays the producer, Swan. There was a legal problem with a name. The producer's record label was called Swan Song Enterprises in the film, and the name had to be removed before release because of Led Zeppelin's Swan Song Records. The footage could not be fully cleaned; the old name is still visible in several scenes. It failed in America, opening in Los Angeles on 31 October 1974 and taking 18,455 dollars in its first weekend. Then something strange happened in Canada. It opened in Winnipeg on Boxing Day 1974 and ran eighteen weeks at the Garrick Theatre until 2 May 1975, followed by short return engagements. The often repeated claim that it ran continuously for more than a year is not true. In Winnipeg alone the soundtrack sold 20,000 copies and was certified gold in Canada. Paul Williams was nominated for the Academy Award and the Golden Globe for Original Score. It runs 92 minutes. Good for: musical crossed with horror, seventies rock aesthetics, and De Palma. Less good for: the tone shifts constantly and the moves between comedy and tragedy are abrupt. Some scenes are deliberately ugly. The one significant woman is written largely as a prize between two men.