Phantom of the Paradise (1974)

In the 1970’s, rock movies and horror movies were a genre in Hollywood movie making that came back. There was a youth audience and those movies were remade. Brian DePalma, fresh off the early success of “Sisters”, was given the right to make his rock musical fantasy movie, “Phantom of the Paradise” the following year in 1974.

DePalma worked together with actor and friend, William Finley, who played the hero and showed up in quite a bit of DePalma and other horror films of the day. The movie also stars Paul Williams, always the crooner of the 1970’s as the villain, Swan and introduced a young Jessica Harper, an underrated actress of off Hollywood movies.

“Phantom” is a combination of rock movie, concert movie, demented fantasy and 1970’s style revenge movie where nothing is real and isn’t going to be. The visuals are amazing if you give it a look with distorting lenses, exaggerated faces, jokes on the color of the film, camera swoops and weird angles that work out. This movie is also a visual experience that’s worth it.

It is basically the “Phantom of the Opera” of the old silent and Hollywood movies dressed up as a 1970’s revenge/rock movie. It is very well done, despite a certain juvenility and shortness in some scenes. It’s a perfect rock movie.

It takes a likeable hero played by Finley and puts him through a false arrest, undeserved prison time, and even death after which he comes back for revenge. Revenge movies were a big staple of the 1970’s, they probably still are, and DePalma’s is one of the better ones.

Every scene has a comic book look on purpose as well as camera angles. You know you are watching a 1970’s “head” movie and it actually works. There is also a healthy sense of satirical humor about the music business it depicts by a film maker who understands entertainment. The scenes with the Juicy Fruits, a made up band from the movie who come in and out of the story, was very comedically well done and on point.

In DePalma’s film, they have various forms of their band journeying from sequence to sequence and they are worth watching for the comedy they bring.

This is definitely patterned after MAD magazine and the satirical TV shows of the time. Baby boomer conscious humor was beginning to come in and this was one of the first efforts at it along with various other comic movies.

“Saturday Night Live” was a year and a half away and that type of humor was coming in. It’s simply exaggerated sketch and parodic comedy arriving. And yes, it is very funny as a comedic movie. All the way from the exaggerated costumes and rock concerts to the horrible singer played by Gerrit Graham, also a DePalma staple actor.

You can dismiss this movie and its fluff but it’s very well done, every part of it, before he burst out in Hollywood, with “Carrie”, not as good a movie but that’s not the point.

There are great site gags, great games with the camera, a sense that nothing is real and it’s not going to be, and a great use of New York/New Jersey locations. There is a sense that nothing is going to go well here, even for the hero, and it makes the movie a great gag. Maybe it’s not the best fantasy or revenge movie but it’s up there.

the hero

the hero