Disc Reviews
Phantom Of The Paradise Blu-ray Review
Phantom of the Paradise for the uninitiated is a quasi-musical from 1974. Based on of course (very loosely) The Phantom of the Opera but also much more Faust with a hint of The Picture of Dorian Gray and Beauty and the Beast put in for good measure.
Winslow Leach (William Finley) a nerdy but talented song writer, who is composing an opus around the tragedy of Faust, finds himself auditioning his music for a bog time record company.
Record producer Swan (Paul Williams) decides to steal Leach’s work and locks the artist out. But Leach finds his way to the producer’s turf, and abruptly finds himself out on his rear eand and arrested for crimes he don’t commit. Pushed to the point of insanity while serving time, leach escapes and sets about destroying a record factory of Swan’s that produces the vinyl, but caught in the act is disfigured in the process and soon finds himself hiding out at Swan’s performance theatre “Paradise” under the masked guise of the Phantom.
It’s here that he and Swan come to a truce where Leach gets to write, Swan gets to put on a show. Of course, this particular contact comes with its own set of devil’s deeds and backstabbing – with plenty of music performances along the way.
The film stats in on a band (The Juicy fruits) playing an atypical greaser tune. Anyone who has a sudden fear of such a genre need not fear, for this is merely the opener. Anyone hoping for this to be a regular thing throughout is probably Andrew Dice Clay.
The backing band return later in the form of The Beach Bums and then finally The Undead. Each song the band plays gives each of the three members a chance to head up a song.
Paul William’s though is the man responsible for the music, and also plays the head villain of the piece Swan. Harming and egocentric to the last, Williams looks like a Truman Capote but sounds like a latter day Johnny Depp. He plays the devil in disguise very well, Coolly, calmly and even when required to play fast comedic beats it all comes out naturally.
Playing the phantom William Finley is affable enough when his character starts out on his naïve path but is reduced eventually to a gaping mouth and one giant bugging eye behind the mask. It’s a ridiculous outfit, but works surprisingly well, considering the level the performances and music s playing at. Jessica Harper co-stars and gets to show off her dance and song routines as Phoenix – the true talent that is best fitted to Winslow’s work.
A call out to Gerrit Graham must go out for his scene stealing vamping it up as Beef, the so-called rock hound diva set to headline the show. Graham surely gets some of the funniest 30 seconds committed to film with his sound testing of the big romantic number “Old Souls” in a ridiculous outfit, hump-dancing up the catwalk walk in a pair of platforms that get away from him.
But then he also gets to take part in another one of DePalma’s nods to psycho. DePalma fans know how much the director likes to nod at Hitchcock, and in particular the shower scene from Psycho which he has done time and time again – but on this occasion he adds the ultimate in your face exclamation that brings out the best of Phantom’s humour.
Ahead of its time – We considering that the world was yet to get Rocky Horror (not to mention Shock Treatment – which also featured Harper as Janet), Kiss, Alice Cooper and even Spinal Tap – yes the film is very much ahead of its time. There is even a lot of spoofery and wackiness that many may find in some of Troma’s better side of their catalogue.
Picture and sound are great. This is not remembered as DePalma’s biggest visual accomplishment – but there is so much here that he is experimenting with (The split screen, the fish eye camera, CCTV and brightly coloured sets) that make this a visual delight when seen after a high-def polish.
The extras are also plentiful. There is a 50 minute retrospective featuring all of the main leads and crew. Guillermo Del Torro has stepped in for a 70 minute interview with Paul Williams. There are also some smaller features looking at design, the Swan Song logo that originally featured in the film, the Phantom Doll and promotional material. The film can also be viewed with a soundtrack only score.
All of these features more than make this a must buy – and easily one of Arrow’s best DePalma releases to date. With the likes of Obsession, The Fury, Dressed To Kill and Blow Out already out there we should keep out fingers for other releases (Hello Sisters! Hello Body Double!).
Steven Hurst