'The False Magistrate' is silent end for Fantomas

The False Magistrate (1914)
Starring: René Navarre, Germaine Pelisse, Mesnery, Suzanne Le Bret, Laurent Morleas, Georges Melchior, and Edmond Breon

Director: Louis Feuillade

Rating: Seven of Ten Stars

A scheme concocted by Inspector Juve (Breon) to make sure the evil mastermind Fantomas (Navarre) is executed for his many crimes and murders goes awry, and Fantomas instead escapes the grasp of law enforcement yet again. Through a series of lucky breaks, Fantomas manages to take over the identity of an investigating magistrate and sets about committing more crimes, now under the cover of law. 

"The False Magistrate" was the last entry in the original silent movie "Fantomas" series. Sadly, it survives only in a degraded and fragmented state. Even the best available restoration features several severely damaged sequences and relies on several added intertitles that provide summaries of what happened in sections of the film that don't even exist anymore. Normally, I would not write a review of a film in this state, but there are a couple of reasons why I make an exception here.

First, I'd already declared I was going to review all five films in this series, without knowing the actual state of the final one. It was included in a set of DVDs that held all the films, and I was so impressed with the first entry in the Louis Feuillade that I couldn't imagine a reason why I wouldn't want to cover all of them.

Secondly, and far more importantly, "The False Magistrate" may actually end up as a better film for its missing pieces. Clearly, some of the elements would have been nice to have--such as the summarized scenes that establish Rose the Maid (Suzanne Le Bret) as being connected with Fantomas's gang, and just more of the gang members in general--but I am almost 100 percent certain that we're better off not having anything but highlights remaining from the plot-threads involving Juve and Fandor, because what we're left with is some of the dumbest stuff in the entire series.

While I complained about the absolutely mind-numbingly silly ending to "Fantomas vs. Fantomas" (1914), this opens with Juve embarking on something even dumber. And it isn't even silly--just dumb--and a prime example of bad writing every way you look at.

Basically, Juve lets Fantomas escape from prison by taking his place. The scheme is clever and even more cleverly executed (through the return of the fat suit used in "Juve vs. Fantomas" (1913)), but what isn't so clever is that no one notices that the party of visiting dignitaries that Juve snuck in with has one less member leaving than when they arrived; nor does any of the guards notice for weeks that someone else is in Fantomas' cell. It gets even worse, because by letting Fantomas back out into the world, Juve should be held accountable for the three murders he commits and the numerous lives he ruins during the course of this film. The less we see of Juve and Fandor in this film, the better off we probably are--although Fandor is the focus of one of the better scenes when he works with a pair of police detectives to trick and capture members of Fantomas' gang.

Setting aside the fact that the only reason there even is a story in this film beyond Fantomas's escape from prison is a series of tremendous coincidences, the fact that we get to see Fantomas engaging in a scheme that is both utterly evil and that also seems realistic. The way he uses his stolen identity as a powerful member of law enforcement to both extort the wealthy and bring renegade members of his gang firmly under his control is very fitting of is supposed criminal genius (unlike some of his activities in previous films). The gruesome way in which he punishes a disloyal gang member, and, for that matter, every murder he commits during the course of the film, also chillingly shows what a psychopath he is. 

Another strong part of "The False Magistrate" is the ending, both how Fantomas is captured and how he escapes (and, no, I don't consider it a spoiler to say that Fantomas escapes yet again... it's part of the genre). Unlike the previous three films, the ending here is nearly perfect.  

This post marks the end of "Fantomas Fridays" at Shades of Gray. But, since we have the DVD collection of Louis Feuillade's other legendary thriller series, "Les Vampires", in the To Be Watched pile, you can expect them to be replaced with "Feuillade Fridays" in the new year. We hope you'll be back!

Strong ideas, weak execution, and a bad ending

Fantomas vs. Fantomas (1914)
Starring: René Navarre, Georges Melchior, Renée Carl, Edmund Breon, and Laurnt Morleas
Director: Louis Feuillade

Rating: Five of Ten Stars

With Inspector Juve (Breon) imprisoned to pacify the public who as become convinced he is the criminal mastermind Fantomas, the real Fantomas (Navarre) works to turn Paris' muggers and petty criminals into his minions and revenue stream... even while launching a scheme to monitor and manipulate police activity from the inside and to assist him in an even more nefarious plot!

"Fantomas vs. Fantomas" is the fourth film in the original silent movie adaptations of the, at the time, hugely popular series of novels revolving around the mysterious criminal mastermind Fantomas and his dogged pursuers Inspector Juve and crusading reporter Fandor… and it's a bit of a mess.

Like the previous film in the series, "The Murderous Corpse", this one has Fantomas and his foes matching wits over several over-lapping schemes, some of which are clever, but all of which end up in a big tangle that blow up into a big mess due to a mix of Fantomas' arrogance and psychopathy.

Like "The Murderous Corpse", this "Fantomas vs. Fantomas" is crammed with great story ideas, but none are executed to the fullest extent of their promise and each might have been better served as the basis for their own film, or at least given more space to develop. Juve's unjust imprisonment and Fantomas' efforts to frame him even harder provide a couple of interesting plot-points, especially since twists linked to it ends up ruining every one of Fantomas' schemes in the film. However, for long stretches of the film, Juve is completely forgotten, because so many other things have to be set up.

The same is true of Fantomas' effort to control and exploit the petty street criminals and muggers of Paris--which starts as a chance encounter when a robbery endangers one of his many false identities. As with Juve's imprisonment and Fantomas' trying to take advantage of it, this endeavor ends up not coming off as the mastermind had hoped. In this case, the failure is linked entirely to Fantomas's greed and arrogance; but it's a storyline that drops from the film for its entire middle section, with a couple of oblique, nonsensical tie-ins with Fantomas' main scheme for this film.

And this main scheme is really where the entire film should have been focused (with perhaps Juve's imprisonment or Fantomas' dealings with the street gangs serving as a subplot). Here, Fantomas is endeavoring to defraud the wealthy and powerful of France by encouraging them to contribute to a bounty fund and then faking his own capture at the hands of an American detective who is actually one of Fantomas himself in one of his many fake identities. One of the best part of the film revolves around the fund-raising ball that Fantomas forces his high society accomplice Lady Beltham (Renee Carl) to host, and which he himself attends--"disguised" as Fantomas. Also attending, and also wearing Fantomas costumes, is crusading reporter Fandor (Georges Melchior) and an undercover police officer. Both Fandor and police assumed that the arrogant Fantamas wouldn't pass up the chance to attend the ball, and that he would become enraged at the sight of someone daring to impersonate him... and they assumed correctly.

 Ultimately, the actions Fantomas takes at the charity ball end up undoing all of his schemes in this film. It was a great idea, and the dominos that fall are all cleverly lined up... but the great idea is clumsily executed and almost ruined by some truly stupid plot conveniences, one of which feels like the writers just said, "Well, we're out of space and time, so let's just do this truly dumb, utterly nonsensical thing to let Fantomas escape to menace the heroes another day!"

Truly, the final seconds of "Fantomas vs. Fantomas" are among the dumbest thing I've ever seen in an film that was supposed to be taken seriously. If this had been a comedy, it would have been perfect; here, it just comes across as lazy, moronic, and startling for all the wrong reasons. It almost ruins the entire film. (On the upside, it all but made me forget about how confusing I find the relationship between Lady Beltham and Fantomas, a point I've mentioned in two previous reviews of this series and which continues in this one.)

Perhaps in 1914 this jumble of great ideas and plot threads that culminate in pure idiocy made more sense; it's based on a novel (maybe more than one?) that viewers were almost certainly familiar with and the writers and director may have left things out because he knew this. To 21st century viewers, the result is a bit lacking, and it feels like a major drop in quality from the first "Fantomas" film and a plunge from the high point of "Juve vs. Fantomas".

 

One final note: I saw another reviewer comment that "Fantomas vs. Fantomas" is a favorite among fans of this series? How? Why? What am I missing? Feel free to enlighten by leaving a comment if you feel so inclined!

The third Fantômas film suffers from too much of a good thing

Fantômas III: The Murderous Corpse (aka "The Deadly Corpse" and "The Dead Man Who Killed") (1913)
Starring: Georges Melchior, René Navarre, Fabienne Fabrèges, Edmund Breon, Luitz-Morat, Jane Farber, Marie Dorly, Naudier, and Renée Carl
Director: Louis Feuillade
Rating: Six of Ten Stars

Fandor (Melchoir) attempts to solve the mystery of how the fingerprints of a man who died in prison are showing up at crime scenes. Meanwhile, Fantômas (Navarre) is murdering, stealing, and undertaking a stock swindling scheme, all without fear of detection now that his nemesis Inspector Juve (Breon) is missing and presumed dead.

"The Deadly Corpse" is the longest Fantomas chapter so far, but it would have been better served if it had been shorter. While a few scenes are padded with characters meandering about and not much happening, the bigger problem is that the film is crammed too full of sinister Fantômas-ing.

In "The Deadly Corpse", Fantômas is basically engineering a stock manipulation scheme, but he goes about it with a ridiculously complicated web interconnected crimes--such as framing a guy for murder and then murdering him (as well as stealing his dead body), a jewel heist and some related extortion, and a second murder (for which he frames the missing dead man). All of these things are excellent ideas and very well presented in the film... but these good pieces add up to a less than satisfying whole. This would have been a much stronger film (not to mention shorter) if Fantômas had just done the heist and the second murder, or perhaps skipped the heist and just used the mystery of the how a dead man of the first kill could be committing murder to sensationalize the second the kill. Maybe my reaction is coming from being 100+ years of development of cinematic thriller tropes removed from this film, or maybe this film is a prime example of "too much of a good thing."

Another issue is the return of Lady Beltham (played by Renée Carl). The character's murky relationship to Fantômas in "Juve vs Fantomas" bothered me, but here I find it downright annoying. Even Fantômas seems surprised when she turns up on his doorstep to offer her assistance in his latest schemes, putting a lie to my notion that there was some twisted romantic relationship between the characters. Perhaps viewers in 1913 understood Lady Beltham's role in the over-arcing storyline of the series--these films were based on best-selling novels of the day, so the target audience already knew all the characters and how they were connected to each other--but I was left wondering why she was brought back instead of the far more interesting new female assistant that was introduced in the previous film (and who is nowhere in this one).

I was also bothered by the fact that this film is tinted, but I went on about my issues there extensively in my write up of"Juve vs Fantomas" so I won't repeat them here. 

Ultimately, "The Murderous Corpse" is a somewhat disappointing entry in the "Fantômas" series with a bunch of good components coming together to form a less-than-satisfying whole. Maybe things get better again in Part Four!

A genre-founding game of cat and mouse...

Juve vs Fantomas (1913)
Starring: Edmund Breon, Georges Melchior, René Navarre, Yvette Andréyor, and Renée Carl
Director: Louis Feuillade
Rating: Seven of Ten Stars

Fantômas (Navarre)--a psychopathic murderer, master of disguise and leader of a vast criminal enterprise--attempts to eliminate his dogged pursuers Police Inspector Juve (Breon) and journalist Fandor (Melchoir) while enacting a scheme to rob wine dealers of 150,000 Francs.

I have seen the Louis Feuillade-directed Fantômas material described alternatively as a serial and as series of sequels. Having watched now (finally) the second installment of the series, it's clearly a serial. While the first film delivered a complete story and stood relatively well on its own (read the review here), this one relies not only on prior knowledge of the characters featured, but on some degree of what happened in the previous film, but also ends with a number of unresolved plot elements.

Although "Juve vs. Fantômas" is part of a serial with no solid beginning and no end, it is made up of shorter, almost self-contained stories centered on either Fantômas and his gang schemes and heist attempts, or the back and forth between Juve & Fandor trying to catch Fantômas while Fantômas is trying to kill them.

From a genre history perspective, this is an interesting film to watch, because its chase scenes, shoot-outs, and general pacing and alignment of characters show how little the action and thriller genres have changed in the 110+ years since this "Juve vs. Fantômas" was released. The technology and techniques of filmmaking may have changed, but the pursuit scenes, confrontations between heroes and villains, shoot-outs--every story element really--could be transferred to a modern film with very little revision. (Okay, so Fantômas' method of escaping from Juve and Fandor when they nab him about halfway into the film would have to be completely reworked, but almost everything else would fit in a modern thriller. Oh... and me staying that Fantômas escapes from his pursuers is not a breach of my general policy of not providing spoilers; Fantômas will ALWAYS escape, because, although he's the villain, these films are more about what he and his crew are getting up to than the heroes that are trying to catch him.)

Highpoints of the film are the startling aftermath of Fantômas' gang robbing a wine broker they'd cat-fished; a shoot-out that's s equal parts thrilling and hilarious, with it being a very tense sequence that feels like heroes Juve and Fandor are in geuine peril, but funny due the way the gunmen trying to kill them pop up and down from cover; the scenes that underscore exactly how confident Fantômas is in his abilities to avoid capture, such as when he returns to finish his date at a nightclub with two lovely ladies after almost getting pinched at that very nightclub; and the entirety of cat-and-mouse game between Juve and  Fantômas that culminates in the film's final minutes that shocking cliffhanger.

On the downside, Fantômas' murky relationship with Lady Beltham (Renée Carl) continues from the first film, without any additional clarification of it. We're introduced to a new female assistant to Fantômas (Yvette Andréyor) at the beginning of the film--one who is a straight-up criminal like he, and who shares at least some of his talents for disguise, deceit, and being a social chameleon, and is all-around more interesting and even prettier than Lady Beltham--so I figured Fantômas had gotten all the use he could out of Beltham and moved on... but this is not the case. She is brought back into the story and cooperates with him for reasons even less comprehensible than her working with him before, and we get no further insight into why she cooperates with him or why he even reaches out to her. (Although I was a bit annoyed to see whatever it is that binds Fantômas and Beltham together, I hope she'll appear again in future installments, perhaps even get killed off and replaced by Josephine.)

On the presentation side, a near-constant annoyance for me was the fact that this film was tinted. Outdoor daylight scenes were tinted yellow or green (I can't tell which for sure due to being somewhat colorblind), outdoor night scenes being blue, and scenes involving fires, explosions, and fiery crashes (of which there are several) being tinted red. Scenes that take place indoors were tinted inconsistently, sometimes just in the native black and whit, but other-times in yellow/green or blue, depending on whether the light is on or not. I understand that this wasn't an uncommon practice back when this film was made, but it annoys me whenever I come across it. Maybe it's my color blindness or maybe it's just my love of the black-and-white medium (which is tied to my color blindness, according to at least two different wags I know), but I view it as a strike against a film, no matter how much I otherwise enjoy it. It's especially annoying to me when the tinting is applied inconsistently like it's done here.

In the end though, the good parts of "Juve vs. Fantômas" vastly outweigh the bad parts--and the finale makes up for any and all sins committed during its run-time. I will have to implement Fantômas Fridays for the rest of November so I can see how things turn out! 

If you have an interest in the history of film and where genre conventions come from, or if you just want to enjoy a fast-paced, old-timey crime drama, I think you'll find watching "Juve vs. Fantômas".

Witness the birth of cinematic genres with 'Fantômas: In the Shadow of the Guillotine'

Fantômas: In the Shadow of the Guillotine (1913)
Starring: René Navarre, Edmund Breon, Renée Carl, André Volbert, and Jane Faber
Director: Louis Feuillade
Rating: Six of Ten Stars

Inspector Juve (Breon) finally captures the coldblooded, murderous master theif Fantômas (Navarre) and sees him given the death sentence. Can the villain with a thousand faces pull off one more impossible escape and cheat Death itself?

If you love movies, there are some films you should watch just because of the important place they occupy in the development of film. That is especially true these days when so many classic and important films are available from so many different sources, conveniently and cheaply (or even free).

Among the movies I've felt I really should watch are the silent thrillers from Louis Feuillade, because they are, without exageration, the foundation for everything that followed in that film genre. Although I've had complete DVD collections of both Feuillade's "Fantômas" and "The Vampires" series sitting in my "To Be Watched" pile for quite some time, I put off watching them because I have generally not enjoyed feature-length silent films dramas and thrillers. However, since I recently watched and loved "Seven Footprints to Satan" and "Nevada", I thought I'd finally get around to plugging a hole in my film history education.

I almost wish I hadn't waited this long to see "Fantômas: In the Shadow of the Guillotine", because it's a really good movie that's help up well. Also, as someone who loves detective films, horror movies, and crime dramas, it was fascinating to see how the elements that make up those genres appearance in their infancy... and how little has changed over the past century of cinematic story-telling.

Despite having many of the hallmarks and flaws of one of these early films--a static camera and actors that over-emote to a ridiculous degree--Feuillade keeps things moving with such a rapid pace that these problems don't become too annoying. Possibly due to this rapid pace, Feuillade mostly avoids the thing that kills my interest in many of these early dramas/thrillers--scenes that drag on and on and on, while the actors mill about, overacting. There are only two scenes in the film that go on a little longer than is good, and I think that I may have felt that way about one of them because I knew where the scene was going and I was eager for it to get there so I could enjoy the pay-off.)

The only real complaint I can mount about this thoroughly enjoyable film is that the relationship between Fantômas and a woman who provides him assistance is too murky for the film's own good. She may be his long-time lover, she may related to him and his criminal enterprises in some other way... but it's never explained. The only thing we know for sure is that Fantômas murdered her husband and that the name of an identity he was using was included in the husband's address book. That may even have been Fantômas's actual identity for all the audience knows. It could be that the movie-goers of 1913 knew all about the connection between the two characters, because this film was an adaptation of a hugely popular novel of the day, and director Feuillade could just have assume that the audience already knew how the two characters were tied to each other. Still--it annoys me when this assumption is made with adaptations of properties I'm familiar with, so even if this was the case, it kept me from giving this film Seven Stars (on my Ten Star scale).

If you have an interest in the history of film and where genre conventions come from, or if you just want to enjoy a fast-paced, old-timey crime drama, I think you'll find watching "Fantômas: In the Shadow of the Guillotine" is time well spent.