Winslow Leach (William Finley) is a composer who gets a “lucky” break when wunderkind, megastar record producer Swan (Paul Williams) happens to hear him playing one night. Swan steals his music and plans on using it to open The Paradise, Swan’s new nightclub. While Swan is auditioning singers to perform Leach’s music, we are introduced to Phoenix (Jessica Harper). Most of the women there are willing to sleep with Swan’s head lackey, Philbin, for a chance at stardom, Phoenix is adamantly not. During these auditions, the disenfranchised Leach steals his way in and meets Phoenix. He instantly falls in love with her voice and declares she should be the only one to sing his music. In a chain of misfortune, Leach becomes disfigured and decides to don a mask while also deciding to take up residence in The Paradise. If this is sounding like a beloved, well-known musical (or two), well, just go with it. There are some pretty spectacular things that happen in the middle section of the film, that I really wish the movie ended at this point because the last third can be a mess.

There is little doubt this movie was directed by Brian De Palma; it has his hallmarks throughout, most notably during The Beach Bums’ (one of his ersatz groups) performance of “Upholstery”. De Palma splits the screen in half where each side is one complete take. One side is the performance of the band while the other is the action going on backstage. It’s a remarkable take and it is worth watching the movie for this scene alone.