I put this down as a first time viewing only then to find it already listed in my 1974 list. Either I thought I’d seen it when I started that list because I’d listened to the soundtrack so many times, or, as I found to my disappointment here, maybe it just didn’t make as big an impression on me as I thought it would. Don’t get me wrong, there are flashes of good stuff in the movie, but in the end, it really never lives up to its sources (Faust, Dorian Grey, Phantom of the Opera), its music (Paul Williams’ great songs “Faust”, “The Hell of It”, “Beauty and the Beast” – he even turns in a fine performance, the best in the movie, as the devilish Swan), and overall it feels too much like Brian De Palma is still finding his feet as a film maker. That said, it’s pretty much the definition of a cult movie, and I’ll certainly watch it again, possibly wedged between Grease 2 and Shock Treatment (which, no matter what else you read, I promise it resembles more than The Rocky Horror Picture Show). I’ll always listen to the songs more, though.

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