The New Beverly did it again last night, with Edgar Wright launching his two-week film festival with the double-feature screening of Bugsy Malone and Phantom of the Paradise, as well as some killer surprises, to a near sold-out crowd.

After a trio of musical trailers (I’m hoping the audience’s reaction to the Jesus Christ Superstar inspires the New Beverly to consider a screening…), the evening started with Bugsy Malone. Fun movie! For some reason I’d always remembered it as being somewhat boring - I had high demands as a child - so I was happy to totally get into it, and have a blast watching it. Paul Williams really is an incredible songwriter - My Name is Tallulah is a particularly catchy ditty. And, um, some incredibly racy lyrics there, considering it’s being sung by a 13-year-old…

Then again, she had just come off playing cinema’s greatest child hooker…

After the movie, Edgar Wright introduced Paul Williams to a cheering crowd. Their Q&A session may have been the most sincere I’ve ever attended - Paul Williams was incredibly gracious, sharing stories and singing bars of his music, taking questions from the audience and continually praising both Malone and the next film on the roster, Phantom of the Paradise. Edgar Wright clearly has great affection for his inspirations, and I look forward to his Q&A’s to come in the next two weeks.

After the Q&A Wright announced that Quentin Tarantino would be on hand to introduce a surprise third film (which Wright hinted “rhymes with Fishtar…”), and after a trio of DePalma trailers, we were all treated to a fantastic print of Phantom of the Paradise. That movie really doesn’t get old - actually, it seems to get better with age. It’s hard for that movie to become dated because it’s so friggin’ bizarre. Then again, there is all that 70’s hair…

By the time Phantom of the Paradise ended it was past one in the morning. I briefly considered staying for Ishtar - I’ve still never seen it, and I hear it’s not as bad as it’s reputed to be - but I decided to stay for Quentin’s intro and then head out.

SO glad I did - Quentin, in usual hyper mode, expressed his deep affinity for the film, and shared his adventure of going out to see it opening weekend in Manhattan Beach (naturally…) and enjoying the hell out of it. It was great seeing Edgar Wright, Paul Williams, and Quentin Tarantino all sharing a stage, chatting like old friends, no pretense, all clearly crazy about film.

…and yes, to fully express his love of the music of Ishtar (also written by Paul Williams, hence its inclusion in the lineup), Quentin sang a bar from the film’s “Hot Fudge Love”. It was almost enough to inspire me to stay. Almost.

I drove home visualizing what might happen if Quentin Tarantino and Paul Williams got together to write a musical film about the Manson Family. I visualized a whole choreographed number at Spahn Ranch - hippies twirling, gowns flowing. It was like Fame meets Marat/Sade. Madness!

Edgar Wright will be back this Wednesday night with Timothy Dalton himself (and quite possibly Pygar himself, John Philip Law…) to screen Flash Gordon and Danger Diabolik. Another can’t miss night at the New Beverly.