When the 1970s are brought up as the golden age for the rarefied subgenre that is the rock opera, the mind usually, and rightly, turns to The Rocky Horror Picture Show and Tim Curry’s headlining performance as Dr. Frank-N-Furter.
However, what if I told you there was another example that, if not superior, gives that classic midnight movie a run for its money in terms of execution and noteworthy names rocking out? You might wonder if that’s even possible. Well, bear with me and I just might convince you it is more than possible.
We begin with one of the most renowned filmmakers before he hadn’t made his name on Scarface and The Untouchables. Serial Hitchcock homage artist Brian De Palma once tried to break through with an ill-fated effort that road the coattails of Rocky Horror and The Who/Ken Russell opus Tommy.
That effort was 1974’s The Phantom Of The Paradise – a baroque film that may be third-sting in status compared to those other two musicals but is in a class all by itself in every other respect. As you can gather from the title, it has elements of The Phantom of the Opera though the story’s literary grafts don’t stop there.
There is also clear borrowing from Faust and The Picture of Dorian Gray that facilitates a not-so-subtle indictment of the music industry machine. This is epitomized by the actions of the predatory record mogul who literally sold his soul for success. His name is simply Swan, and he was played by real-life songwriter and actor Paul Williams.
Unlike his graceful namesake species, Swan is more of an opportunistic bird of prey who outright steals music from starving artist Winslow Leach (William Finley). As a struggling nerdy nobody and idealistic fella, Winslow trusts Swan a little too easily and becomes the scarred masked Phantom of the piece as a result.
Left for dead and with no other option, Winslow signs a contract to write more music for Swan which he passes along to acts at his new venue – “The Paradise” of the title. The deceit proves too much to bear, so Winslow has enough, and furiously disrupts Swan’s shows by any means, including an ‘electrifying’ murder.
His desperate measures aren’t strictly for himself and his art’s benefit. Winslow is also trying to protect the angelic singer Phoenix (Jessica Harper) who has become his muse and the object of his affection, placing her squarely in Swan’s sights as a potential contracted talent – and blushing bride.
Phantom Of The Paradise came and went without doing for De Palma what he had hoped, but this little rock opera (that could) still developed a following and left a lasting legacy in ways you can’t imagine (and in places you wouldn’t, such as Winnipeg where they celebrate it as a masterpiece every year).
The person it did the most for was Williams who became more in-demand as a songwriter afterward. Not only did he star in it, but he wrote all the music, which was no small feat for an individual, diminutive in stature and achievements, ergo not reputed for rock & roll bonafides.
“I don’t think there’s a worse choice to write the songs for Phantom than me, based on the songs I’d done at that point,” Williams said when speaking to MovieMaker, who caught up with him at this year’s Overlook Film Festival. Prior to working with De Palma, he showed his softer side, writing hits for The Carpenters and appearing on Johnny Carson.
“I can understand Jim Henson going, ‘I want to work with you because of your humor on The Tonight Show’ – but if you listen to the songs I wrote for The Carpenters, I didn’t make sense for a rock opera,” he added. “But for Brian to have chosen me, I don’t know… somebody was whispering to him. It was one of the best jobs I ever had in my life.”
It may have been the freedom that Williams enjoyed. He was able to stretch his creativity by dabbling in a few different variances and tempos of rock music in vogue at the time, and he wrote the songs on the soundtrack around his performance schedule.
“I wrote them during my first casino booking at Harrah’s in Lake Tahoe opening for Liza Minnelli’s show Liza with a Z. I was doing two shows a night, and during the day, I’m writing songs for Winslow’s character. It poured out of me, you know,” he said.
Arguably, the most memorable track is “The Hell of It” which plays over the end credits, bookending the whole story in a perfectly reflective ode to the tragic cast of characters, particularly Swan as Williams explained.
“That was our editor Paul Hirsch’s idea to use it at the end, which I thought was great. The song is about Beef (Gerrit Graham), and at some point, it became about Swan or who I became. I love the way it was used at the end. It was just a great creative moment from Paul,” he recalled.
Beef, played by veteran stage and character actor Gerrit Graham (known to Trek fans for playing the suicidal Q, AKA “Quinn,” on Voyager), was positioned by De Palma as a fleeting yet integral part of the story through his quasi-rivalry with Winslow.
It doesn’t last long, though. Beef and his band The Undead fail one time too many to heed the warnings of Winslow and leave his music for Phoenix. Their fearful leader winds up paying with his life in the ‘shocking’ fashion alluded to earlier.
The death scene for Beef kind of symbolizes the film’s fate in the short term, considering it was virtually forgotten for years. However, it sent out ripples that reaped rewards for decades to come – for Williams, especially, and his greatest work in the aftermath.
“So much of the career that I have today belongs to the advocates and lovers of Phantom of the Paradise. They’ve kept it alive and the people along the way who loved it have offered me jobs. That’s how I wound up working with Daft Punk. That’s how I wound up with Edgar Wright. It’s just amazing, so I’m nothing but grateful,” said Williams.
If he is remembered for anything else, he will always be the definitive Penguin for a generation that grew up watching Batman cartoons of the 90s. Williams didn’t stay away from DC for good once those shows wrapped. He crossed the multiverse in 2020 to voice Brainiac in Superman: Red Son – adding The Man of Steel to his resume below The Dark Knight.
None of that happens without one cult classic that’s 50 years old as of 2024. Do yourself a favor and watch it or rewatch it to understand why, and see what’s so special about Phantom of the Paradise. To say you’re missing out is the understatement of the last half century – and maybe the real “Hell of It.”
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