
            Winslow Leach (William Finley) is an up-and-coming songwriter and composer who is seen by satanic record producer Swan (Paul Williams) during his performance as a back-up act to the nostalgia band The Juicy Fruits, whom Swan produces. Swan is deeply moved by Winslow's song and deemed Winslow's music as the perfect music to open "The Paradise", Swan's highly anticipated new concert hall. Swan sends his loyal right-hand man Arnold Philbin (George Memmoli) to steal Winslow's song and claim it as his own. When Winslow arrives at Death Records, Swan's record label, he is thrown out.Winslow sneaks into Swan's private mansion, "The Swanage", to find out what's going on, he observes several women all rehearsing his music for an audition. One of them is an aspiring singer, Phoenix (Jessica Harper), whom Winslow deems perfect for his music and the two quickly fall for each other. Winslow is told of Swan's plan to open the Paradise with Winslow's music. When Winslow sneaks in once more, Swan orders he be thrown out again and for his minions to beat up Winslow and frame him for drug dealing. Winslow is given a life sentence (from more of Swan's manipulation of the legal system) and is sent to Sing Sing Prison. Winslow's teeth are extracted and now replaced with shiny metal ones as part of an experimental prisoner program funded by the Swan Foundation.Six months later, Winslow hears on the radio, while assembling tiddlywinks games in the prison rehab center, that The Juicy Fruits, whom he hates, have made an anticipated hit record of his music with Swan's backing. Winslow goes berserk, punches out a guard and escapes from prison in a delivery box driven off prison property. He breaks into the Death Records building and tears the place up. He then breaks into Swan's record factory where he sets out to destroy a record press. When a guard catches him fiddling with the record press, Winslow slips and the record press catches his sleeve, tumbling him head first into the record press which crushes and burns his face and destroys his vocal cords. Bleeding profusely and with his face now severely mutilated, a disoriented Winslow makes his way to the edge of the East River and tumbles into the water. The newspaper reports the details of the night and that his body was not recovered.Sneaking into the Paradise, Winslow makes his way into the costume department where he dons a black leather costume, a long black cape (though he also wears a red one later in the movie) and a silver owl-like mask to cover his now deformed face, becoming the Phantom of the Paradise so he can terrorize Swan and his musicians. In a musical split-screen sequence, Winslow plants a time bomb on a prop convertible during a musical act and nearly kills The Beach Bums (formerly The Juicy Fruits, who have traded doo-wop for surf music). Seeing the Phantom on a security camera, Swan realizes there is an intruder about.The Phantom confronts Swan, who recognizes him as Winslow and offers the composer the chance to have his music produced his way. Auditions are held and the Phantom selects Phoenix for the lead. Later, in a secluded recording studio in the basement of the building, Swan provides the Phantom with an electronic voice-box, enabling him to speak and sing (with the voice of Paul Williams). Swan orders the Phantom to stop terrorizing the Paradise and rewrite his cantata for Phoenix. The Phantom reluctantly agrees on the condition that Phoenix is the lead singer and that Swan plays "what I write!" Swan promises and the Phantom signs a contract in blood.Swan is later shown bitterly listening to the recording session with Winslow: while he sounded normal at the time, the tapes mysterious play back Swan's voice as ragged, wicked and monstrous-sounding. While the Phantom remains in the recording studio rewriting his cantata, Swan breaks the deal by telling Philbin that he resents Phoenix's perfection for the lead role: "You know how I abhor perfection in anyone but myself." Swan replaces Phoenix with pill-popping, male glam-rock prima donna Beef (Gerrit Graham) in the lead of Winslow's Faust and moves Phoenix for the role of backup singer. Beef is revealed to the media at a press conference where all cameras and recording devices are strictly banned, as per Swan's policy.After days of isolation, the Phantom completes Faust, Swan having gotten him hooked on uppers in the process. Swan steals the completed cantata while ordering his minions to seal up the Phantom inside the recording studio with a brick wall. However, when the Phantom awakens that night and realizes he has been betrayed again, he manages to escape with deadly fury and kills Swan's guards. The Phantom then confronts Beef (in a comic allusion to the infamous shower scene in Psycho (1960)) and threatens to kill him if he performs. Beef tries to flee, but is stopped by Philbin outside the building, who suggests to Beef that this was all a drug-induced hallucination.Onstage, the glam-rock band The Undeads (the former Juicy Fruits/the Beach Bums), costumed to resemble the somnambulist from The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920), perform of the ultimate man, appearing to dismember audience members (actually planted actors with dummy limbs) and making a show of appearing to turn the parts into Beef, now costumed as a glitter-clad Frankenstein's monster. As Beef performs a completely rewritten glam-rock version of Winslow's song "Old Souls", hidden in the rafters, the Phantom strikes and electrocutes Beef with a lightning-bolt-shaped neon sign (to the great delight of the crowd).Horrified, Philbin orders Phoenix onstage as a replacement. Singing the slow true version of Winslow's music at last, Phoenix is an immediate sensation with the audience. As they continue to cheer for Beef outside as his dead body is loaded into an ambulance, Swan now realizes the potential of the situation. In Phoenix's dressing room, Swan arrives and seduces Phoenix after the show with promises of her future stardom. As she leaves, she is nearly overwhelmed by the zealous crowd, but is quickly spirited away by the Phantom. On the roof, the Phantom tells Phoenix his true identity and what Swan has done. He implores Phoenix to leave the Paradise so Swan won't destroy her like he has destroyed everything else. Fearing the Phantom, Phoenix does not believe him and escapes.At the Swanage, the Phantom secretly observes Swan and Phoenix locked in a tight embrace. Heartbroken, he commits suicide by stabbing himself through the heart with his Bowie knife. However, the Phantom awakens from death and sees Swan standing over him. Pulling the knife out, Swan tells the Phantom that he cannot die because he's locked to the blood contract he had signed earlier: The Phantom cannot die until Swan himself has died. With that knowledge, the Phantom attempts to stab Swan through the heart, but Swan is unharmed and merely pulls the knife away. Looking down at the Phantom, Swan hisses in an almost reptilian voice, "I'm under contract, too!"Rolling Stone announces the upcoming wedding between Swan and Phoenix during Faust's finale. While everyone prepares, the Phantom sneaks into Swan's private taping room to watch the tape containing the blood contract. Watching the tape, the Phantom then learns that Swan made a pact with the devil over 20 years ago (1953): Swan will remain youthful forever unless the videotaped recording of his contract is destroyed. Future photos, videos and recordings of Swan will age and fester in his place, explaining why he abhors being caught on film. The tape goes on to reveal footage of Winslow signing his contract with Swan and finally a new one Swan made with Phoenix when she was stoned, promising him "her voice" upon her death (presumably to finally overcome Swan's voice's wretched sound when recorded, as per his own contract). On a live television camera, the Phantom observes an assassin assembling a rifle and realizes Swan is planning to have Phoenix assassinated during the ceremony. The Phantom destroys most of the recordings by setting them on fire and heads off to the wedding between Swan and Phoenix.The wedding is in full swing onstage, with Philbin officiating and Swan wearing gloves and a silver mask of his own face to prevent being properly filmed. The Phantom manages to throw off the assassin's aim to stop him from hitting Phoenix, causing him to shoot and kill Philbin instead. With the tapes destroyed and Swan now mortal once again, the Phantom swings down onto the stage and rips off Swan's mask, finally exposing him as a monster on live television. Swan's face is now hideous, burning away like the tapes and contracts. Realizing what's happening, a crazed Swan gropes for Phoenix's throat, demanding she give him her voice, beginning to strangle her. The Phantom intervenes and stabs Swan repeatedly in the chest with the metal beak of a backup dancer's bird-shaped headpiece. The moment he does, his own fatal chest wound reopens.As he is dying, Swan is carried around by the audience, who are driven to the point of hysteria and join in stabbing him. The dying Winslow also removes his mask to reveal his own face, and cheered on by the crowd, crawls on the floor towards the shocked Phoenix. Just as he holds out a hand to her, Swan dies, allowing Winslow to die of his own wound. As Winslow succumbs, Phoenix finally recognizes him as the kind man she met in line at the Swanage. Phoenix rushes over and lies down next to him, crying and heartbroken as the audience raves.The closing credits feature a series of montages of the cast members, identifying each by name, commencing with the musical trio and concluding with Winslow/The Phantom. Most of the shots in these montages are from the movie, but there are also several from outtakes.
    

Phantom of the Paradise


            Danielle Breton (Margot Kidder) is a model and would-be-actress hired to pretend that she is a blind woman so that an inssurance seller Philip Woode (Lisle Wilson) would have to decide if he is going to look her undressing or not as part of The Peeping Toms, a hidden camera programme. He doesn't look to her at the changing rooms of his gym, so both win a price in the programme. Philip wins a dinner-for-two at the African Room restaurant, and Danielle wins a cutlery set. After the programme, Danielle and Philip seem to hit it on, so Philip invites her to the dinner.At the restaurant, they are interrupted by Danielle's ex-husband Emil Breton (William "Bill" Finlay), but Philip makes him be overthrown from the restaurant. Later, Danielle and Philip go to the former's apartment in Staten Island. The ex-husband follows them, so that Philip has to leave the apartment, make believe that he's leaving for good and then coming back through the back door. When he comes back, Philip opens the door with Danielle's keys, and at the same time he gives the cutlery gift - which Danielle had left in his car - to her. Philip and Danielle make love in the couch of the living room.The next morning Danielle wakes up and he isn't feeling that well. He goes to the medicine box in the bathroom and checks that there are only three red pills left. She takes one immediately and leaves the other two in a corner of the washbasin. However, when Philip also wakes up and dresses himself he throws the other two pills down the sink. Philip overhears Danielle and her sister Dominique fighting and arguing about him. Danielle says she isn't feeling that well, and would please Philip go for more red pills to the chemist's? Philip complies and loses more time because he wants to buy a present for Danielle and her twin sister Dominique, who is supposedly visiting Danielle - although during the game show she said that she was dead.Philip returns to the apartment and unlocks the door with Danielle's key again. She takes the big knife from the cutlery set and offers it to Danielle to cut up the birthday cake. However, she uses the knife to viciously kill him. Philip crawls trying to call her neighbour's attention - her wind is a bit higher but close enough for both tenants to see each other. Philip even tries to write HELP with her own blood in the window.The neighbour is Grace Collier (Jennifer Salt) a journalist who usually writes about the state of things in Staten Island, sometimes to criticize the police officers and their use of violence. So Detective Kelly (Dolph Sweet) is not very kind towards Grace's agitation. Meanwhile, Danielle wakes up confused and dazzled. She has tried to talk to her doctor, who promises to bring her more of the red pills.Emil comes up to the apartment. Danielle opens the door up, still feeling sleepy. When Emil points to the corpse behind, Danielle says that Dominique was there. Emil, who is at the same time Danielle's doctor and the provider of pills, cleans the apartment up while Danielle dresses up.They put the corpse inside the bed-sofa. Emil laves and takes the bloodied knife away. When Detective Kelly and Grace appear, there is not a stain in sight. Danielle is kind, and the only remains of the corpse is a red stain on the back of the fouton where Grace is sitting down. Danielle justifies the double sets of matching clothes due to her job as model, because if one of them gets stained, they would have a completely equal outfit available. Grace finds the cake in the fridge. Also, Danielle had said that she lives on her own, and that's the opportunity for Grace to prove that she is lying. However, Grace falls down and smashes the cake against detective Kelly's leg. Emil appears, saying that they are separating but that they are not still divorced.Detective Kelly tells Grace not to disturb him or Danielle again with that matter. The only clue Grace has got at this moment is that she has read the name of the bakery where Philip bought that cake. She had a date with her mother, annoying Mrs Collier (Mary Davenport), who mentions a new open-door psychiatrict hospital which has been opend in Staten Island. But Grace is not listening to her. When they arrive to the bakery, she jumps to ask the shop assistants (Olympia Dukakis and Justine Johnston), but the only thing that she learns is that there was a black man who had bought that particular cake dedicated to Danielle and Dominique on their birthdays.Grace hires a private detective called Joseph Larch (Charles Durning), who says that the only possibility of hiding a body is within the sofa. Grace tells him that he has found the Blanchion Siamese twins, but the detective says that he didn't see any twins, he has only found a place in which a human body could be hidden without the police finding it.Grace talks to a doctor, Arthur McLennen (Barnard Hughes) who studied the case of the Blanchion Siamese twins, the first set of twins of Canadian origin. Dr Pierre Milius - Emil's younger persona - appears on a news report talking about the delicate psychological mental equilibrium of one of them. As teenagers, Danielle is shy, but Dominique is more talkative and shows off more. McLennen says that, because of the official silence, he had bribed one of the nurses who helped during the surgery, and that nurse told him that there complications had arisen during the process, resulting in Dominique's death.Larch keeps on watching the strange movements in Danielle's apartment. Grace follows Danielle to the hospital sight. There, she overhears a discussion of Emil and Danielle having a row, because she's fed-up of being controlled. She sees how she puts an injection to her, forcibly. Grace tries to use the phone, but one of the interns doesn't let her. Arlene (Cathy Berry), the crazy patient, says that viri and bacteria go through the telephone line, and that she got sick because of answering the phone. A hospital attendant (Burt Richards) asks his boss to see to the problem. Emil tells Jansen, the hospital attendant, that she's the new patient, Margaret, and that she should be put in a room. Grace tries to explain, but it's useless, she's not believed. Emil hypnotises her so that she will believe that everything was a strange dream of hers.Grace appears now on the dreams /reminiscences about Danielle's life while attached to Dominique. Danielle suffered because when she started to be in love with her doctor, she realised that her twin sister will not accept the risk of surgery, and that she will not accept her being in love with somebody else either.Grace wakes up and screams. Danielle also wakes up, dazed. She wants Dominique back, but she is also afraid of her attacking Emil. Emil says that, every time he tried to make love to Danielle, Danielle became Dominique, furious and enraged. Danielle tries to run away from Danielle, He shows her the knife, still bloodstained. Danielle - possibly thinking she's Dominique - picks up a scalpel and cuts Emil's skin. Emil tries to kill Danielle but he bleeds to death instead. All t his happens in the presence of a dizzy Grace who wakes up in time to see Danielle hugging to a dead Emil, still bleeding. Grace screams.Emil is taken away in an ambulance, dead. Danielle denies that she has killed anyone in her life, and she also states that her sister died last Spring. Grace Collier is taken away, dazed and confused.Some time afterwards, Kelly tries to talk to recovering Grace. Danielle has confessed to killing Emil, but he admits that they have problems to detect who the black man could be. However, Grace repeats what Emil has taught her through hypnotism: that she couldn't have possibly seen such a corpse because there was no murder to begin with, and her mother supports him.The shrouded sofa appears in a semi-abandoned semi-dereclict countryside train stating, with a cow chewing peacefully nearby. Detective Kelly watches the sofa, thinking that some day the culprit will arrive to get rid of the sofa and the body for good.
    

William Finley

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