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FANTOMAS
The FANTOMAS
books were a classic series devoted to France’s legendary genius of crime, also
the subject of this five part film serial from 1913-14. An unapologetically
lurid mélange of vice, deception, captures and escapes, this irresistible swirl
of pure sensationalism has a running time of nearly six hours yet still left me
wanting more.
The Package
The tawdry but irresistible FANTOMAS novels by Marcel Allain and Pierre
Souvestre, initiated in 1911, were a phenomenon in their native France, even if
they’re largely unknown in the US (only a handful were translated into
English). Their prime draw was the title character, the “King of the Night”, a
staunchly amoral quick-change artist who was always assisted in dastardly deeds
by his mistress Lady Beltham and opposed by the indomitable Inspector Juve and
the latter’s newspaper reporter sidekick Fandor. The books were especially
cherished by poets and surrealists and remain popular with critics and select
audiences today (check out the English language Fantomas tribute website at
www.fantomas-lives.com).
Unsurprisingly, Fantomas has been the subject of quite a few film
adaptations over the years, but only the original 1913-14 silents by Louis
Feuillade measure up (or so I’m told, at least)—in the words of critic John
Ashbery, they are “more like the novels than the novels themselves”. Feuillade
is best known for later—and better—crime serials like BARRABAS (1919), JUDEX
(1916) and his supreme masterpiece LES VAMPIRES (1915-16). The FANTOMAS films
can be seen today primarily as dry runs for the above, but still deserve a
viewing, if not two or three.
The Stor(ies)
In the first segment, FANTOMAS, A
L’OMBRE DE LA GUILLOTINE, master criminal Fantomas robs the Princess Daniduff
but is caught by Inspector Juve and put in jail. Through an extremely complex
series of complications, Fantomas’ accomplices manage to convince the celebrated
actor Valgrand to make himself up like Fantomas and visit the criminal’s
mistress Lady Beltham. Once he arrives she drugs him while Fantomas is busted
out of prison. Valgrand in turn is put in the cell and nearly executed in
Fantomas’s place, but Juve, present at the execution, recognizes Valgrand’s true
identity and manages to save him at the last minute.
The series continues with JUVE CONTRE FANTOMAS, in which Fantomas and his
accomplices rob a train and cause it to collide with another. Juve and his
trusty sidekick Fandor manage to track Fantomas and his gang to a dock laden
with explosives and are nearly blown up for their troubles, narrowly escaping
into the ocean. Later they capture Fantomas at a party but he escapes their
clutches and lets a poisonous snake loose in Juve’s bedroom. Juve and Fandor in
turn raid the house of Lady Beltham just as, it turns out, Fantomas is cavorting
inside…but as usual he’s too quick for them. Fantomas immerses himself in a
water barrel, breathing through a bottle with a hole in its bottom; later he
escapes and blows the house up while Juve and company are still inside.
In LE MORT QUI TUE we learn that Fandor has survived the blast and, as the
episode opens, is recuperating in a hospital—Juve, alas, appears to have
perished. Fantomas is still at large, of course: he raids a police precinct and
is arrested, but escapes from jail (again). Fandor, now fully recovered,
receives a suspicious letter and has a tiff with Fantomas’ gang, managing to
escape into the ocean (again). Next Fantomas and his accomplices ransack the
home of a rich woman and pump gas into her room (to kill her and make it look
like suicide). Fandor discovers the rich woman’s body and revives her, later
hiding in a basket in her house as Fantomas and co. break in for more mischief.
Later on Fandor discovers Juve is in fact alive and has infiltrated Fantomas’
gang in disguise. He and Fandor bust Fantomas, who’s posing as a bank manager,
but the latter nevertheless manages to escape through hidden doors.
FANTOMAS CONTRE FANTOMAS finds Fantomas posing as an American detective
named Tom Bob. At a Halloween ball Fandor dresses like Fantomas, in black cat
burglar get-up, but discovers there’s another guy at the ball dressed in the
same manner. Thinking the other guy’s the real Fantomas, Fandor takes him
outside…but the real Fantomas, also dressed in cat burglar get-up, enters
and kills one of his imposters, thinking he’s offing Fandor (got that?). From
there Fantomas, in his guise as Det. Tom Bob, infiltrates the police department,
kidnaps Juve and takes him back to his lair. It turns out, however, that Fandor
is already hiding out at the lair and together he and Juve manage to trick
Fantomas’s accomplices into the clutches of cops waiting outside their place.
Juve and Fandor subsequently nab Tom Bob, a.k.a. Fantomas, but fall into traps
in the ground while Fantomas gets away.
LE FAUX MAGISTRAT closes out the series. There’s a robbery in a rich man’s
hotel room and the police subsequently discover a hole in the room’s wall
leading into an empty room next door. (Much of the episode’s subsequent footage
has been lost, filled in with text and still shots) Later, a man enters a jail
cell and exchanges clothes with the inmate…who, it turns out, is Fantomas, who
proceeds to board a train where he meets up with the prestigious Judge Pradier.
Fantomas kills the bearded Pradier and assumes his identity, complete with fake
glasses and facial hair. In the guise of Judge Pradier, Fantomas is able to
release his accomplices from jail, at least until Juve and Fandor begin to
suspect his true identity and manage to capture Fantomas in the act of switching
clothes—and identities—yet again.
The Direction
Viewers of Louis Feuillade’s later LES VAMPIRES, his best known and most
widely available work in the US, will recognize FANTOMAS’ style: shadowy
exploits amidst turn-of-the-century Parisian street life. If the exteriors of
Feuillade’s films feel documentary-like, that’s because they were shot on actual
locations. FANTOMAS isn’t quite as accomplished as LES VAMPIRES, doubtless
because Feuillade was still learning his craft. The lengthy wide shots that
comprise nearly the entire film and Feuillade’s method of cutting on action and
close-ups are a long way from the innovations of D.W. Griffith (whose seminal
BRITH OF A NATION was still a couple years in the future) and furthermore lack
the depth and inventiveness of Feuillade’s later work.
Where FANTOMAS excels is in its sheer narrative drive. A prolific writer,
Feuillade extolled the virtues of “novelistic fiction” and put his storytelling
prowess to excellent use here. His pictorial skills were equally potent,
imparting a number of unforgettably eerie, surreal images: a bleeding wall, a
man caught inside a church bell and an apparently never-ending series of trap
doors and hidden passages that always seem to appear in the most mundane
settings.
Vital Statistics
FANTOMAS
Gaumont
Director: Louis Feuillade
Producer: Romeo Bosetti
Screenplay: Louis Feuillade
(Based on novels by Marcel Allain and Pierre Souvestre)
Cast: Rene Navarre, Edmond Breon, Georges Melchior, Renee Carl, Yvette Andreyor,
Volbert, Andre Luguet, Luitz Morat, Jane Faber, Fabienne Fabreges, Laurent
Morales, Martial, Germaine Pelisse, Suzanne Le Bret