Character actor William Finley was born on 20 September in 1940. He died at the age of 71 in 2012.
The weird thing about William Finley is that most people know his face. He had a very distinctive face. But he was in relatively few films. It’s just that he played notable characters in interesting films.
Two notable directors are strongly associated with Finley: Brian De Palma and Tobe Hooper.
He was in three of Hooper’s films: Eaten Alive, The Funhouse, and Night Terrors. He has small but notable parts in each. His role as Marco The Magnificent in The Funhouse is my favorite. Shout Factory released this scene to publicize its release — which is excellent. (It includes a 3-minute audio-only interview with Finley.)
Here is the scene:
(I don’t know why Shout Factory labels this video, “The Worst Magician Ever.” This is an effective trick with an outstanding performance. I love it!)
But William Finley had a much closer relationship with Brian De Palma. He was in eight of his films — mostly (again) small but notable roles. The major exception is Phantom of the Paradise, where he plays the title character.
What can I say about this film that I haven’t already said? I know! The music is much better than it was in Rockula. Now there’s a hot take!
So let’s celebrate William Finley’s birthday (and De Palma’s just eight days ago) by watching Phantom of the Paradise:
William Finley cropped from image at Celebrities Pictures under Fair Use.
I positively LOVE POTP. But the songs aren’t the best! The best one is the end-credit song (“The Hell of It”) which has a jaunty vibe to it.
Paul Williams is a talented dude (who I always assumed was gay, but he’s not, or not strictly). A lot of his best stuff, though, was where he was working with another writer to help him with the melodies; no shame that, many good songs were written that way. He was on his own here and the songs don’t have quite enough oomph. My favorite stuff of his was in the original Muppet Movie, where he worked with Kenneth Ascher; Ascher also did some work on Bat Out of Hell.
I think I saw POTP when I was 12 or so. I vaguely remember a babysitter sharing it and saying “this is the weirdest coolest movie.” I didn’t quite get it but I had a great time. It’s great to have older kids sharing weird stuff and not because they’re trying to gross you out, just because they think it’s strange and cool. I did that with some of my brothers and they dug it.
And Finley’s a hoot! My one big complaint with The Fury is that Finley’s only in it briefly. (More Finley, less Kirk Douglas, please.) But given that it’s the best Cassavetes role (the ending!) I won’t complain too much.
I think of Paul Williams more as a lyricist. And I think he was often too clever. I think a big part of why many hate Ishtar is that the songs he wrote are too good. He didn’t write terrible songs; he wrote bad songs that you could believe these guys would write. Long-term, that’s great. But it didn’t help at the time. (Not that it matters. People were always going to hate the film because of its budget.)
Finley is an amazing guy and I really don’t understand why he didn’t do more film work. I don’t have a good idea of what his career was. But he was amazing!
I’ll have to revisit The Fury. I saw it in the theater but don’t remember it well.
I think my love of horror goes back to staying up late with my brother and sister (4 and 6 years older) to watch Creature Features. Film watching is best done with others. I think streaming has made this problem worse.
And I agree with everything you said about Williams
Absolutely right about watching things with others and streaming making it worse!
Briefly, in the 1990s, I had moved back in with my Mom, and I loved watching MonsterVision on TNT with my kid brother (still in high school). Really so much fun. My brother then got into renting every splatter picture imaginable from the local Blockbuster! All the Basket Case movies and such. Like most splatter-movie fans, he’s a psycho killer… naw, like most splatter-movie fans, he’s a normal dude with a wife (his high school sweetheart) and three happy kids.
I suspect most cheesy splatter-movie fans are less psychologically messed-up than I am!
I generally find splatter films funny. This is a problem with many more recent ones that take themselves too seriously. Speaking of which, The Final Girls (2015) is a hoot!