70s Music/Films

I just caught two 70s films I hadn't seen in years. Both of them are good ideas that fail for similar reasons.

Phantom Of The Paradise is Brian De Palma's fairly imaginative rock verson of Phantom Of The Opera with some Faust thrown in for good measure. Ultimately, it doesn't work. For one thing, the casting (with the exception of Jessica Harper as the ingenue) is weak. Nor has the film dated well. De Palma favorite Gerrit Graham as Beef might have seemed outrageous in 1974, but by the end of the decade his act would be almost tame.

But really it's two words that explain the failure of the film: Paul Williams. Not only is he creepy (in a bad way) as the villian, Swan, but his score--oh, his score. Over the years I've caught this musical maybe four or five times, and there's not a decent song in the bunch. I've never been a big fan of William's hits ("We've Only Just Begun," "Just An Old Fashioned Love Song," "Rainbow Connection," etc.) but it's as if he saved his worst stuff for Phantom. If the score worked, this film might even have been a classic. Instead, it's barely watchable.

Then there's FM, which starts well, with a Steely Dan title song. The plot is also pretty cool. A small, underdog, avowedly non-commercial radio station rises to the top by letting the disk jockeys play what they want. The trouble is the tunes they choose are so lame. The film was released in 1978 when all sorts of exciting new music was bubbling up, but all this station plays is corporate rock. Their idea of a coup is broadcasting a Linda Ronstadt concert live.

Michael Brandon stars as Dugan, the lead DJ and station manager. He apparently did a lot TV and movie work back then, but this is the only thing I've ever seen him in. This is odd, since the supporting cast is full of well-known faces such as Martin Mull, Cleavon Little, Alex Karras and Eileen Brennan.

Predictably, the suits want to commercialize the station. Hey, great, I was up for a good David versus Goliath fight. But the whole thing becomes a joke once you hear the songs the crew plays: "Cold As Ice," "More Than A Feeling," "Life In The Fast Lane." Exactly how would the new guys make things worse?