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William Finley in Phantom of the Paradise (1974)

Goofs

Phantom of the Paradise

Edit

Continuity

After the car blows up on stage and he sees the Phantom for the first time, Swan is sitting watching his tape wearing a black suit with a red shirt. When he comes out of the room and sees Winslow, he is wearing a tan suit with a white shirt.
There are only two scenes in the film where you can actually see Winslow's scars under the mask, specifically on his chin. One is when he first attacks Swan in the hallway. The other is with Phoenix on the roof. At all other times in the film, there is no scarring visible anywhere on his face.
When Winslow is visiting the Death Records building for the first time, Swan Song Enterprises is visible above the doors. Swan Song was apparently changed to Death Records by the producers to avoid legal hassles with Led Zeppelin's Swan Song label.
When Swan is talking to the Devil in the mirror, Swan takes the contract from him. However, when the Devil says the words "in blood", he is still holding the contract.
During Beef's rehearsal, an Undead member grabs his bandmate's bandaged hand and brings it to his own ear, as if to drown out Beef's singing. In the next shot, both Undead members have their arms at their sides.

Anachronisms

Videotape was still only in the experimental development phase in 1953, when Swan records his suicide note/contract, and at that it was only capable of black and white images. Color, broadcast quality videotape of the kind depicted here was not available until the late 1950s.

Audio/visual unsynchronised

As Phoenix is about to begin singing at her audition for Swan, the drummer does an 8-count intro with his drumsticks. However, you can see he doesn't begin to actually click his drumsticks until the third count/click.
When Beef comes alive, his song and voice and lips don't always "come together." Also, his voice is heard, mainly in guttural terms, but he is not singing.

Crew or equipment visible

There's a shadow of the camera and the cameraman visible on the blue car at the end of the "bomb in the trunk" sequence.
The cameraman's foot can be seen moving on the mirror behind Swan, as Winslow leaves the hallway.

Plot holes

In the film within the film of Swan's "suicide", the Devil tells Swan that the image of him on the tape will age instead of him. Yet when the Phantom watches the tape, there is no difference in the appearance between the Swan on film or the Swan in "reality".
Winslow stabs himself but doesn't die because Swan explains that because he's under contract, he cannot die until Swan dies. Winslow then stabs at Swan to no avail as Swan explains "I'm under contract too!" Yet when Winslow burns his taped contract with the Devil and his face starts to melt and age, his stab wound he got from Winslow doesn't open up and start bleeding like Winslow's does.

Character error

In the bathtub, Swan mentions that Saturday, November 19, 1953, was the day he wanted to commit suicide. November 19, 1953 was on a Thursday.

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William Finley in Phantom of the Paradise (1974)
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