‘Phantom of the Paradise’: How Brian De Palma’s Flop Rock Opera Became A Cult Classic

If you happened to live in Winnipeg in the mid-1970s, you may well have thought that Brian De Palma’s Phantom of the Paradise was a box office smash akin to The Godfather, Chinatown, or any other hit that stemmed from the burgeoning movement known as New Hollywood. After all, it played on and off in the Canadian city for an entire year and became such a favorite that it later spawned its own Phantompalooza festival.

In the rest of North America, however, the audacious rock opera—which skewered The Picture of Dorian Gray, Faust, and, as its name suggests, Gaston Leroux’s classic novel—was a commercial flop: Although some of the critical response was kind (“You practically get a kinetic charge from the breakneck wit he put into it,” The New Yorker’s esteemed Pauline Kael enthused about De Palma’s direction), Phantom of the Paradise was largely ignored by regular cinemagoers when it opened on Halloween in 1974. 

As the years passed, however, Phantom of the Paradise was reevaluated—and many concluded that the folks in Winnipeg were onto something. Today, the film is viewed as a cult classic with a long legacy.

“Dream It Never Ends”

The concept of Phantom of the Paradise wasn’t exactly a straight-forward sell. The tale of a composer who “sold his soul for rock and roll” wildly veers from industry satire to classic horror to musical parody and back again. Although De Palma initially hoped for stars the caliber of The Rolling Stones and The Who to provide the soundtrack, he ended up going with Carpenters/Three Dog Night hitmaker Paul Williams (de Palma also cast him as lead villain on noting his comparison to Napoleon). And while the director himself would soon join the Hollywood elite with the two-time Oscar-nominated Carrie (whose star, Sissy Spacek, worked as a set dresser on Phantom), his biggest film at that point had been Sisters, a morbid thriller about a murderous conjoined twin. 

Those who did jump on board Phantom of the Paradise, however, were rewarded with an idiosyncratic flight of fancy that embodied the old adage “they don’t make ’em like this anymore.” Williams in particular proved to be a revelation as the film’s central villain, Swan. Channeling Phil Spector at his most unhinged, and the unscrupulousness of the music business as a whole, the record producer exudes pure wickedness every time he slithers into shot. 

Swan’s first dastardly deed is to promise aspiring singer-songwriter Winslow Leach (stage actor William Finley) the world after hearing his original song “Faust”—in which Leach sings “For one love who would sing my song / And fill this emptiness in me … Dream each other’s smile / And dream it never ends”—only to steal it for his latest female protégé, ignore all his calls, and then frame him for dealing drugs, resulting in a lifelong sentence at Sing Sing prison.

Of course, this also proves to be the origin of Leach’s murderous alter-ego: He escapes from prison, burns the right side of his face at the HQ of Swan’s aptly-named Death Records, and appears to drown in the East River. Then, the vengeful (and apparently invincible) Leach heads to Swan’s hip and happening nightspot The Paradise, where he dons an owl-esque mask and black leather cape raided from the costume department and attempts to bomb the resident band now playing his material before confronting Swan. 

It’s here where Phantom of the Paradise starts to lean heavily into its key influences. Leach, now rechristened The Phantom, essentially signs a Faustian pact with his tormentor, and after he’s stabbed in the back again, he haunts The Paradise just like the more familiar Phantom did the Palais Garnier Opera House.

A Film Ahead of Its Time

De Palma pulls off all the kills in Phantom of the Paradise with both style and wit; see how the crowd, in a darkly comical scene, interprets The Phantom’s mid-performance electrocution of his drug-addled replacement Beef, played by Gerrit Graham as part of the show. The film also looks as spellbinding as its sounds, drawing upon everything from the German expressionism of Grand Guignol to the eroticism of Italian giallo (Dario Argento would later cast Phantom of the Paradise’s Phoenix, actress Jessica Harper, in Suspiria) and vivid colors of American comic books.

The film was never afraid to borrow from the past. Yet in many ways, it was also ahead of its time—particularly in how it skewers the world of showbiz: A highly choreographed sequence about the industry’s casting couch antics takes on new meaning in the wake of the #MeToo movement, while an attempted assassination on live TV—of which Swan declares, “That’s entertainment”—speaks to today’s glamorization of true crime.

On a lighter note, Phantom of the Paradise was also the first big screen rock opera to be set within the rock world, arriving a year before the film version of The Who’s Tommy, two years before The Rocky Horror Picture Show, and decades before the likes of Hedwig and the Angry Inch and Tenacious D and the Pick of Destiny. Meanwhile, one could also argue that its opening number, The Juicy Fruits’ doo-wop parody “Goodbye Eddie Goodbye,” foreshadowed the nostalgia boom that often saw the 1980s in thrall to the ’50s.

"It’s amazing he would pick the guy who co-wrote ‘We’ve Only Just Begun’ to pen songs for a film that was supposed to be depicting the future of rock,” Williams later told Esquire. “But Brian saw something in my music that made him think I could span the various kinds of genres in the film. Plus, the great treat for me was that I was able to satirize the kinds of music I love, like the Beach Boys and ’50s stuff.”

Unfortunately, De Palma also proved to be bang on the money about the film’s lack of success: He told Filmmakers Newsletter in a pre-release interview that film studios didn’t know how to embrace the modern music market, and also predicted discontent from fans expecting to see an authentic depiction of the rock and roll world. “We weren’t making a movie for sophisticated rock people,” he said. “That’s why I think we’ll get a lot of backlash from music people who’ll say, ‘This isn't Alice Cooper or Mick Jagger.’ ”  

The Legacy of Phantom of the Paradise

While Phantom of the Paradise remains a lesser known entry in De Palma’s wide-ranging filmography, it’s since become a much more cherished one. There’s Winnipeg’s Phantompalooza festivals, of course, which Graham, Finley, and Williams attended in the mid-’00s. Directors like Edgar Wright and Guillermo del Toro have also cited it as a favorite; the latter is such a fan that he recruited Williams for his Pan’s Labyrinth musical. And it’s been hailed as a formative influence by electronic maestros Daft Punk: Thomas Bangalter and Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo first bonded as teens over dozens of viewings. (The film might also explain their leather-clad, helmet-headed appearance.) 

In 2018, Phantom of the Paradise got a one-off transfer from the screen to the stage at New York underground venue The Secret Loft. A year later, the documentary Phantom of Winnipeg explored why it’s become such a phenomenon in the Canadian city.

And let’s not forget Phantom of the Paradise arrived 14 years before The Phantom of the Opera opened on London’s West End. Sure, Andrew Lloyd Webber’s slightly more faithful adaptation might not have disfigured its antihero by sandwiching his head between a record press. Nor did it have him threatening his rival in the shower with a toilet plunger. But it may well have shown the impresario that the early 20th century novel could work in musical form. 

Some might even argue that Phantom of the Paradise boasts the superior songbook. After all, its original score picked up nominations at both the Academy Awards and the Golden Globes. And its inspired pastiches of surf pop (The Beach Bums’ “Upholstery”), and glam rock (Beef’s “Life at Last”) are more likely to stick in the memory than many of Webber’s Opera ballads.

“I’m really, really pleased with the movie, and I’m overwhelmed at the way it’s grown through the years,” Williams told Billboard in 2019. “The big philosophical/spiritual lesson, I suppose, is don’t write something off as a failure too quickly.”

Read More About Movies: