Fantômas contre Fantômas (1914) and Le faux magistrat (1914)

Fantômas contre Fantômas/Fantomas Against Fantomas (Louis Feuillade, 1914) and Le faux magistrat/The False Magistrate (Louis Feuillade, 1914) were the fourth and fifth of the five episodes of the mastermind criminal serial Fantômas (1913-1914), produced by Gaumont and based on the eponymous stories by Pierre Souvestre and Marcel Allain. Fantômas, the master of crime, terrorises Paris. Inspector Juve (Edmund Breon) and journalist Jérôme Fandor (Georges Melchior) take up the fight against him. Like in the previous two weeks, EFSP presents two series of six vintage Spanish minicards by Reclam Films in Mallorca.

Fantômas contre Fantômas (1914)

Spanish minicard by Reclam Films, Mallorca, card 1 of 6. Photo: Gaumont. Edmund Breon in Fantômas contre Fantômas (Louis Feuillade, 1914), the fourth episode of the serial Fantomas. Juve is falsely accused of being Fantomas and is arrested. Sitting on the right, the juge d'instruction Fuselier.


Spanish minicard by Reclam Films, Mallorca, card 2 of 6. Photo: Gaumont. Scene from Fantômas contre Fantômas (Louis Feuillade, 1914). During the charity ball given by Lady Beltham, three men show up as Man in Black - only one of them is the real Fantomas. The second is Fandor, the third - visible here at the police station - a police officer. On the right, we see the actor Maury, who plays the Head of the Sureté.


Spanish minicard by Reclam Films, Mallorca, card 3 of 6. Photo: Gaumont. René Navarre in Fantômas contre Fantômas (Louis Feuillade, Gaumont 1914). Fantomas presents himself to the police as the American private detective Tom Bob, while the police find the corps of the robbed bank messenger behind a newly made wall.

Fantômas contre Fantômas/Fantomas Against Fantomas (1914) opens with Fandor (Georges Melchior) overhearing other café customers talking about a newspaper item which speculates that Inspector Juve (Edmund Breon) and Fantômas are the same person and notes that Juve has been arrested as a "witness". Cut to the room of Père Moche (Fantômas in disguise, of course), where he is turning over rent receipts to a bank messenger. The messenger goes upstairs to collect the rent from Paulet and Nini, a pimp (it's implied) and his woman. When Nini opens the door (blocking the camera's view) Paulet smashes the messenger over the head with a hammer — we see only the messenger's body falling forward into their apartment after the impact. In the confusion, Père Moche sneaks upstairs, grabs the messenger's satchel, and returns to his office to put it in his safe. When Paulet and Nini confront him (Paulet attempts to stab him), Père Moche disarms Paulet and then offers to help them out of their predicament. Later, a new tenant is having her apartment partitioned because one of the rooms is too big. We see a new workman enter the room where the newly plastered wall has just been finished. He drives a nail into the wall — and blood runs out! The police are called, the wall is torn open and the bank messenger's body is revealed. When the workman is questioned he hands the police a calling card: he is "Tom Bob, Private Investigator, New York."

We then see "Tom Bob" visit Lady Beltham (Renée Carl), now married to a Duke. She recognises him as Gurn/Fantômas (René Navarre), and he compels her to write an announcement of a charity ball to raise funds to capture Fantômas. On the night of the ball, we see Fandor disguising himself as Fantômas in his Man in Black costume: black bodysuit and hood. Also, a policeman had the same idea. When Lady Beltham greets her guests she experiences consternation when she has to welcome two "Fantômases." And on their heels comes another Man in Black, whom she recognizes to her horror as the true Fantômas.

During the dancing, the policeman and the true Fantômas collide and go outside to settle the matter. Fandor follows at a distance. Suddenly Fantômas rushes back to get his cloak, wounded in the right arm. Fandor discovers the policeman's body with a knife protruding from its chest, but too late — Fantômas has escaped. The police chief realises that if Juve and Fantômas are the same person, the jailed Juve will be wounded on his right arm. The chief goes to the jail, where Juve is found drugged and, indeed, wounded on his right arm. On being awakened, he demands that they assemble the prison guards. Juve recognises the guard who drugged him, and a vial of narcotic and a bloody knife are found in the guard's pockets. Juve is cleared of suspicion of being Fantômas and is secretly released.

In some ruins on the outskirts of Paris Fandor discovers Père Moche and a gang of Apaches arguing over money. As Fandor watches from his hiding place Père Moche produces a letter from Fantômas to appease the gang, and they reluctantly leave. Then Père Moche pulls a strongbox from a nearby well and takes it into an abandoned building. Fandor follows and sees him pry up a flagstone and hide the strong box underneath it. Père Moche leaves the building, unknowingly locking Fandor inside. Cut to police headquarters where a group of workmen are filing through Juve's office to reach some scaffolding outside the window — when suddenly they attack Juve and tie him up. Juve is taken by the gang to the hideout, where Fandor has concealed himself in an empty wine cask. The gang dumps Juve next to the cask and starts arguing about what to do with him. Juve hears Fandor's voice coming from the cask, directing him to pretend to be Fantômas and reveal that the strongbox is hidden under the flagstone. The ruse works.

Meanwhile, Tom Bob is bringing the cops to Père Moche's hideout. The gang has outlived its usefulness, and Fantômas wants all the money for himself. Juve convinces the gang inside the hideout that the approaching cops are more Apaches in disguise. When the gang opens the door, they are all captured. But when Tom Bob spots Juve and Fandor, he slips away unnoticed. He goes to Lady Beltham's villa, where he demands the money collected in the charity ball subscription. As he leaves with the money, he's seized by Juve and Fandor. But Fantômas has one more trick up his sleeve. As Juve and Fandor walk on either side of him, holding his arms, he shoves them into concealed pits dug on either side of the footpath and escapes yet again.


Spanish minicard by Reclam Films, Mallorca, card 4 of 6. Photo: Gaumont. Scene from Fantômas contre Fantômas (Louis Feuillade, 1914). Fantomas' gang, dressed as workmen, tie up the policemen, including the juge d'instruction Fuselier, and kidnap Juve (Edmund Breon).


Spanish minicard by Reclam Films, Mallorca, card 5 of 6. Photo: Gaumont. Edmund Breon as Inspector Juve in Fantômas contre Fantômas (Louis Feuillade, 1914). The juge d'instruction Fuselier discovers Juve has the same wound as Fantomas. Afterward, it is discovered the corrupt guard Nibet, Fantomas's crony, set him up.


Spanish minicard by Reclam Films, Mallorca, card 6 of 6. Photo: Gaumont. Renée Carl as Lady Beltham and René Navarre as Fantomas in Fantômas contre Fantômas (Louis Feuillade, 1914). At Lady Beltham's villa, Fantomas demands the money collected in the charity ball subscription.

Le faux magistrat (1914)

Spanish minicard by Reclam Films, Mallorca, card 1 of 6. Photo: Gaumont. Scene from Le faux magistrat/The False Magistrate (Louis Feuillade, 1914), the fifth episode of the serial Fantomas. Pretending to be judge Pradier, Fantômas (René Navarre) orders the arrested gang members Paulet and L'Elève to make sure Juve will be killed.


Spanish minicard by Reclam Films, Mallorca, card 2 of 6. Photo: Gaumont. Scene from Le faux magistrat/The False Magistrate (Louis Feuillade, 1914). Ribonard (Martial) hides in the church bell. He cheats on Fantomas, keeping the stolen jewels for himself. He has strapped himself on the clapper with his suspenders. But when the bell is tolled, he is killed, causing a rain of jewels and blood to fall down the assembly. In the film, this picture has a horizontal format.


Spanish minicard by Reclam Films, Mallorca, card 3 of 6. Photo: Gaumont. Scene from Le faux magistrat/The False Magistrate (Louis Feuillade, 1914). Pradier/Fantomas (René Navarre) uses paper to make the hats fit of the murdered real Pradier. Fandor discovers this. and finds out Fantomas is after Juve travelling from Louvain to Saint-Calais - and thus, Juve is in danger. The close shot of the action on this card is not visible in the restored print of the film - only a long shot of the action is visible.

In Le faux magistrat/The False Magistrate (Louis Feuillade, 1914), the Marquis de Tergall (Mesnery) decides to sell his wife's jewels to pay his debts. His eavesdropping maid Rosa (Suzanne Le Bret) overhears the Marquis setting up a meeting with a jeweller the next day in Room 30 of the Saint-Calais Hotel. As the Marquis arrives with the jewels in Room 30 at the appointed hour, he sees a priest leaving Room 29 next door. The jeweller arrives and produces a check for 250,000 francs. The Marquis is displeased — he wants cash. The jeweller invites him to cash the check at his bank, just five minutes away. In the meantime, the jeweller places the box containing the gems in a drawer in a bureau. When the Marquis returns, cash in hand, and passing another priest coming out of room 29, the meeting seems to have concluded— until the jeweller reaches into the drawer, opens the jewel box, and finds it empty. He accuses the Marquis and calls the police.

When Room 29 is searched a hole in the wall connecting to Room 30 is discovered, and the bureau also has a hole in the back. While these discoveries are being made, the true priest who lives in Room 29 comes in and immediately falls under suspicion. He is cleared when two women show up carrying a bundle of priests' vestments that had been thrown from a train leaving Saint-Calais. Since it is now clear that neither the priest nor the Marquis was involved, the Marquis mounts his bicycle [!] and decides to take a shortcut home through the woods. But he doesn't notice the rope stretched across the trail and is knocked to the ground. Two apaches, Ribonard (Jean-François Martial) and Paulet - in other sources he is called Bébé - (Laurent Morléas), rush out of the bushes and rob him of the 250,000 francs. The Marquis' maid Rosa, Paulet's friend, keeps the stolen money.

1. Le Prisonnier de Louvain (The Prisoner of Leuven)
Cut to Juve telling Fandor that Fantômas is in jail in Belgium. (You may remember that at the end of the previous film, Fantômas contre Fantômas, Fantômas had escaped. But Feuillade did not adapt books seven through eleven, and in the eleventh novel, 'L'arrestation de Fantômas' (The arrest of Fantômas), Fantômas had finally been captured by Juve and Fandor — but in Belgium, where there is no death penalty.) Juve tells Fandor of his plan to spring Fantômas from jail in Belgium so that he can be rearrested in France and finally executed for his crimes. Juve's plan involves substituting himself for Fantômas (not the first time in the series that they've switched roles). The exchange takes place, and Fantômas, dressed in a smuggled guard's uniform, walks out of the prison unchallenged and is immediately tailed by two French policemen. We get to see Navarre and the policemen walking outside the Louvain prison, through the city centre of Louvain (Place du Vieux-Marché), and at its railway station. This was just a few months before the German army would burn down the city centre, although the railway station and the prison still exist today.

2. Monsieur Pradier, juge d'instruction (Mr. Pradier, investigating judge)
After a change of clothes, Fantômas takes a train for Paris, but while stretching his legs at a way station, he spots the detectives. He shakes them by re-entering his compartment but passing through the train and out the other side into the baggage car of a train on the next track. A passenger on the second train, a judge named Charles Pradier who is travelling to his new posting at Saint-Calais, is stretching his legs on the platform. The train begins to move before he can return to his compartment, and he jumps into the baggage car as it pulls out. Fantômas spots an opportunity and murders Pradier, flinging his body out of the moving train as it passes over a river; there's a gruesome shot of Pradier's hand as if grasping for life, slowly slipping under the water. Fantômas presents himself in Saint-Calais as the new judge Pradier.

3. Le Magistrat cambrioleur (The Burglar Magistrate)
One of the fake Pradier's first cases is the theft of the jewels and the robbery of the Marquis. Realising that his men are holding out on him, Fantômas appears to Paulet and Ribonard and demands that they turn over the jewels, or else. Meanwhile, the false Pradier has been invited to a hunting party at the Marquis's chateau. While there, he intercepts a compromising letter from the Marquise intended for another of the guests. The letter hints that the obstacles between the lovers will soon disappear. Feeling ill, the Marquis retires to his room to take a nap; the Marquise lights his gas fire and returns to the guests. But Pradier/Fantômas closes the gas cock, extinguishing the fire, then reopens it, filling the room with gas and suffocating the Marquis as he sleeps. Pradier/Fantômas blackmails the Marquise with the compromising letter for 500,000 francs; if she doesn't pay, she'll be accused of murdering the Marquis herself.

Fantômas meets Ribonard at the church, where the jewel box has been hidden in the bell. Fantômas holds the ladder while Ribonard climbs up into the bell and throws down the jewel box—then he kicks the ladder over, stranding Ribonard on the large clapper. (In an unseen shot, Ribonard must then strap himself to the clapper with his suspenders for safety.) Fantômas later discovers that the box is empty - he's been double-crossed. But he can't confront Ribonard, because he has to attend the funeral of the Marquis. When the bell is tolled at the funeral, Ribonard, still clinging to the clapper, is smashed against its sides and killed. As his lifeless body swings back and forth, "a rain of pearls, diamonds, rubies, and blood fell on the assembly" (as the intertitles put it). Pradier/Fantômas alertly gathers up the scattered jewels, "as evidence."

4. L'Extradé de Louvain (The Extradite of Leuven)
Fandor, alarmed by the events at Saint-Calais, arrives and stays at the same hotel as Pradier/Fantômas. He accidentally knocks his hat off the hatrack one day and notices that the brim is stuffed with paper. His suspicions are raised further when the dying Ribonard is cut down from the bell and whispers "Fantômas!" before expiring. On this basis, Juve (still believed by his Belgian jailers to be Fantômas) is extradited to France for the investigation. Pradier/Fantômas, realising that the net is closing in, frees two of his Apaches from jail, Paulet and L'Elève, and sends them to kill Juve when he arrives by train. Meanwhile, he pushes the Marquise to pay him his 500.000 and finds out the maid is carrying the money stolen from the Marquis, pressing her to give it all to him and having her arrested. But when the cronies ambush the prisoner, he turns out instead to be Fandor. Expecting an attack, he and his "guards" quickly subdue the Apaches, and Pradier/Fantômas is forced to sign an order returning his henchmen to jail. Since he'd just signed for their release, the suspicions of Fandor, the police and the gendarmes are confirmed.

The Marquise brings Pradier his money. When the 'prisoner from Louvain' is brought in, Navarre recognises Juve and knows he has to run. Yet, he is too late. Juve and Fandor have convinced the prosecutor Bernady to seal the building, and when Pradier/Fantômas tries to leave his office he is stopped by the police. Realising he's moments away from capture, Pradier/Fantômas writes an order and gives it to the head of the prison guard, telling him to keep it secret and follow it precisely. The man agrees and leaves as Juve and Fandor burst in. But Fantômas seems remarkably unphased, even as he's taken away in chains. And when Juve and Fandor go to the jail the next day, they discover why: Fantômas was released at midnight — on orders from Judge Pradier! "The prisoner is really Juve, not Fantômas, and has been arrested as a ruse." Once again, Fantômas has escaped, and the citizens of France must rest uneasily in their beds.


Spanish minicard by Reclam Films, Mallorca, card 4 of 6. Photo: Gaumont. Scene from Le faux magistrat/The False Magistrate (Louis Feuillade, 1914). After the hunting party, the guests of the Marquis de Tergall and his wife (Germaine Pelisse) don't know yet, that judge Pradier alias Fantomas (René Navarre) has gassed the Marquis.


Spanish minicard by Reclam Films, Mallorca, card 5 of 6. Photo: Gaumont. Scene from Le faux magistrat/The False Magistrate (Louis Feuillade, 1914). Fantomas (René Navarre), dressed as judge Pradier, blackmails the newly widowed Marquise (Germaine Pelisse).


Spanish minicard by Reclam Films, Mallorca, card 6 of 6. Photo: Gaumont. Scene from Le faux magistrat/The False Magistrate (Louis Feuillade, 1914). Juve (Edmund Breon) and Fandor (Georges Melchior) think they have finally caught Fantomas (René Navarre), but he will escape once more. This image, showing Fantomas in prison, the existing restored print lacks. It finishes with the showing of the release letter.

Sources: Robin Walz (Fantomas Lives) and IMDb.

Juve versus Fantômas (1913) and La Mort qui tue (1913)

Juve versus Fantômas/Juve contre Fantômas (Louis Feuillade, 1913) and Fantomas, La Mort qui tue/The Dead Man Who Killed (Louis Feuillade, 1913) were the second and third of the five episodes of the mastermind criminal serial Fantômas (1913-1914), produced by Gaumont and based on the eponymous stories by Pierre Souvestre and Marcel Allain. Fantômas, the master of crime, terrorises Paris. Inspector Juve (Edmund Breaon) and journalist Jérôme Fandor (Georges Melchior) take up the fight against him. Like, last week, when we did a post on the first episode EFSP presents two series of six vintage Spanish minicards by Reclam Films in Mallorca.

Juve versus Fantômas (1913)

Spanish minicard by Reclam Films, Mallorca, card no. 1. Photo: Gaumont. Fandor (Georges Melchior) and Inspector Juve (Edmund Breaon) in a scene from the serial Fantomas, second series, Juve versus Fantômas/ Juve contre Fantômas (Louis Feuillade, 1913). The shootout with the barrels of alcohol takes an ugly turn when the villains set the barrels on fire. Seen on their backs: Fandor and Juve.


Spanish minicard by Reclam Films, Mallorca, card no. 2. Photo: Gaumont. Edmund Breon as Inspector Juve, Georges Melchior as the reporter Fandor and Yvette Andreyor as Joséphine 'la pierreuse' (the hustler) in a scene from the serial Fantomas, second series, Juve versus Fantômas/ Juve contre Fantômas (Louis Feuillade, 1913). Juve and Fandor meet Joséphine at the fancy ball.


Spanish minicard by Reclam Films, Mallorca, card no. 3. Photo: Gaumont. Renée Carl as Lady Beltham in a scene from the serial Fantomas, second series, Juve versus Fantômas/Juve contre Fantômas (Louis Feuillade, 1913). Lady Beltham receives a letter from her old lover Gurn aka Fantomas.

Juve versus Fantômas/Juve contre Fantômas (Louis Feuillade, 1913) opens with shots of the leading actors and their disguises: René Navarre as himself (the actor), Dr. Chaleck (bearded), the gang-leader Loupart (moustache, bowler hat, and cigarette), and the "Man in Black" (the "true visage" of Fantômas...); Edmond Bréon as himself (the actor), Inspector Juve (moustache and bowler hat) and disguised as a businessman (mutton-chop sideburns and dress hat).

The Simplon Express Disaster: In his office, Inspector Juve ponders and signs a report to the Commissioner of Police. Welcoming the journalist Jérôme Fandor, Juve hands him the report, which refers to the discovery of a woman's body, crushed beyond recognition, in the house of Dr. Chaleck. Papers on the body identify it as Lady Beltham, but Juve is skeptical. (In the first Fantômas adventure, the Englishwoman assisted her criminal lover, Gurn (alias Fantômas), in both the murder of her husband, Lord Beltham, and the substitution of the actor Valgrand for the imprisoned Gurn on the eve of the criminal's execution. Juve engages Fandor to help him in the case. Outside on the street, Dr. Chaleck (alias Fantômas) gets into a taxi, shadowed by Juve and Fandor who follow in another cab. But it is the bandit Loupart (another alias of Fantômas) who reemerges from the taxi. Loupart approaches Joséphine-la-Pierreuse, a street prostitute and the bandit's mistress, who passes him a note. Juve and Fandor split up, each pursuing one of the two suspicious characters.

Fantomas & Josephine: Loupart reads the note, which explains that Joséphine will be meeting a courier from a wine merchant at the Gare de Lyon. The courier, holding 150,000 francs, believes that they'll be going on a tryst—of course, he'll be robbed instead. Loupart gets into a cab, but when Juve tries to follow in a second cab, a member of Loupart's gang jumps on the back of the taxi and punctures the rear tire. Juve loses the trail. But Fandor shadows Joséphine more successfully through the Métro [with location shots inside a moving Métro train!] and to her apartment. From a café, Fandor sends off a quick note to Juve. At the Gare de Lyon, Joséphine meets Martialle, the courier. They enter a train compartment, and Fandor follows, taking the neighbouring compartment. Two of Loupart's accomplices stroll the corridor...The train pulls out. Loupart appears in the corridor, encountering Fandor, whom the criminal recognizes.

To make their robbery easier, one of Loupart's men detaches the coach from the rest of the train. Donning black masks, Loupart and his gang rob Martialle at gunpoint (a couple members of his gang rob Fandor at the same time, for good measure and to keep the journalist out of the picture). After the criminals depart, Fandor and Martialle realize that the coach is coasting back down the mountainside and they leap out. In horror, they watch as the next train along the line, the Simplon express, crashes into the loose car. Meanwhile, Loupart and company escape to a waiting car. Joséphine discovers a letter from Martialle's employers among the robbed possessions, explaining that the 150 thousand-franc notes carried by the courier have each been cut in half, with the other halves to be delivered later. Their theft is foiled! But Loupart has a plan. En route by car, he stops at a post office and sends Juve a false telegram from "Fandor" setting a meeting for the wharves near the wine warehouse at 11 pm that night.

At the Bercy Warehouse: Juve receives the telegram, but he is also contacted by the real Fandor, whom Loupart/Fantômas believes has died in the Simplon express crash. Therefore, Juve and Fandor appear in the scene together, prepared for some sort of mischief from Fantômas, but uncertain what form their challenge will take. Juve and Fandor surreptitiously crawl among barrels of spirits stacked along the banks of the Seine near the Bercy warehouse. But, it's an ambush! Loupart/ Fantômas's men, hidden among the barrels, open fire upon the detective and journalist. Then, the bandit's gang set fire to the barrels of liquor, trapping Juve and Fandor. To escape the flames and smoke, the two heroes climb into an empty barrel, roll down into the water, and swim away to safety across the river.

At the Crocodile: Joséphine dines at the elegant Montmartre restaurant "The Crocodile" with a young man who liberally imbibes champagne (and subsequently falls asleep at the table). By a stroke of fortune, Juve and Fandor not only dine at the same restaurant but are seated at the adjoining table. Recognizing Joséphine, Fandor and Juve confront her and demand to know the whereabouts of Loupart/ Chaleck/ Fantômas. Finding herself compromised, the prostitute reveals another coincidence—Dr. Chaleck is dining in the next room! Overjoyed at his luck, Juve dances a little jig with Joséphine... Through the maître d'hôtel, Juve proposes that Chaleck meet him outside the restaurant. Surprisingly, Chaleck/Fantômas accepts. Retrieving his overcoat from the cloakroom, Chaleck steps out of the restaurant and into the hands of Juve and Fandor. The detective and Journalist each firmly secure the arms of Chaleck, when—he bolts free! Stunned, Juve and Fandor discover artificial limbs attached to Chaleck's overcoat—they've been outsmarted by Fantômas once again. The archcriminal tips his hat as he hops into the back of a cab, and disappears around the corner. Momentarily, Chaleck resumes his place at the restaurant, celebrating his latest escape with champagne.

The Haunted Villa: Lady Beltham receives an unexpected letter from Gurn/Fantômas. Unable to keep her resolve not to see her murderous lover, she goes to the rendezvous. She is startled by the appearance of Dr. Chaleck in her room, but Fantômas quickly reassures her that he is actually Gurn, her lover, in disguise. Despite her revulsion toward the criminal, the English mistress succumbs to the will of Gurn/Fantômas, and she agrees to meet him at her deserted villa every Tuesday at midnight. Juve and Fandor, disguised as businessmen, visit Lady Beltham's deserted villa under the pretence of buying the property. The caretaker lets them in, and shows them around the "haunted villa." Upstairs, the disguised inspector discovers a pen covered with fresh ink—in an empty house? The caretaker insists that the house is haunted, which he confirms by the voices he hears at night coming through the heating vents. Juve insists on seeing the basement, where he discovers a large furnace connected to the heating vents, as well as a rainwater cistern.

The following Tuesday, when Lady Beltham arrives for her appointed rendezvous with Gurn/Fantômas, she is followed by Juve and Fandor. Crawling into the heating vent, the detective and journalist overhear the conversation of the criminal lovers. They learn about Fantômas's plan to kill Juve, while the detective sleeps, with his "silent executioner." Bracing himself for a certain, but unknown, assassin, Juve straps protective corsets on his abdomen and arms before going to bed. Close by, Fandor hides in a wicker trunk at the foot of Juve's bed, as the detective awaits his killer. In the darkness, the silent executioner—a boa constrictor—arrives. In a frenzied battle with his would-be murderer, Juve escapes, as Fandor emerges from his hiding place, stumbling about in the "darkness" (indicated at the time by tinting the film blue), absolutely no help at all. Once again, Fantômas is foiled...

The Cistern/The Man In Black: Finally, Fantômas appears in the villa in his "true visage"—that is, 'en cagoule', the "Man in Black" dressed in black tights, shirt, gloves and hood. Still, the Lord of Terror senses that something is amiss at the villa, and he prepares himself for any confrontation with the police by wiring the house with dynamite. Hoping to surprise Fantômas, Juve and Fandor arrive at the villa with the police. But the Man in Black refuses to give in to his enemies. Pursued through the house, in a brilliant escape, Fantômas hides underwater in the basement cistern, breathing through a wine bottle whose bottom he punctured on the drying rack. When Juve fails to find Fantômas in the basement, he has the police light a fire in the furnace in order to "smoke out" the archcriminal. After Juve and the police leave the basement, Fantômas reemerges from the cistern. He crawls out a basement window and runs to the neighbouring workshed, where he throws the electrical switch which ignites the dynamite and blows up the house. In triumph, the Lord of Terror stretches his arms to the sky in a gesture of victory. "But are Juve and Fandor really dead?" The next episode will tell...


Spanish minicard by Reclam Films, Mallorca, card no. 4. Photo: Gaumont. Georges Melchior as Fandor and Edmund Breon as Inspector Juve in a scene from the serial Fantomas, second series, Juve versus Fantômas/Juve contre Fantômas (Louis Feuillade, 1913). Warned a 'silent executioner' will attack Juve, he has armed himself with a belt of spikes, while Fandor hides in a basket. Indeed, a giant boa constrictor attacks Juve.


Spanish minicard by Reclam Films, Mallorca, card no. 5. Photo: Gaumont. Georges Melchior as Fandor and Edmund Breon as Inspector Juve in a scene from the serial Fantomas, second series, Juve versus Fantômas/Juve contre Fantômas (Louis Feuillade, 1913). Juve and Fandor inspect the cistern in the Haunted Villa.


Spanish minicard by Reclam Films, Mallorca, card no. 6. Photo: Gaumont. René Navarre as Fantomas in a scene from the serial Fantomas, second series, Juve versus Fantômas/Juve contre Fantômas (Louis Feuillade, 1913). Fantomas aka The Man in Black dynamites the villa in which Juve and Fandor are.

La Mort qui tue (1913)

Spanish minicard by Reclam Films, Mallorca, card no. 1. Photo: Gaumont. Scene from the third episode of the French silent crime serial Fantomas, La Mort qui tue/The Dead Man Who Killed (Louis Feuillade, 1913). Fandor (Georges Melchior) has hidden in a trunk and discovers the body of Thomery.


Spanish minicard by Reclam Films, Mallorca, card no. 2. Photo: Gaumont. Scene from the third episode of the French silent crime serial Fantomas, La Mort qui tue/The Dead Man Who Killed (Louis Feuillade, 1913). Fantomas (René Navarre), dressed as the Black Man, is about to chloroform the painter Jacques Dollon (André Luguet).


Spanish minicard by Reclam Films, Mallorca, card no. 3. Photo: Gaumont. Scene from the third episode of the French silent crime serial Fantomas, La Mort qui tue/The Dead Man Who Killed (Louis Feuillade, 1913). A devastated Elisabeth Dollon (Fabienne Fabrèges) hears from the judge that her husband apparently has killed a baroness and is arrested. On the left, Fandor (Georges Melchior) assists.

The six episodes of the next Fantômas sequel, La Mort qui tue/The Dead Man Who Killed (Louis Feuillade, November 1913), make it one of the longest in the series, and in reprising characters and situations from the earlier films, it is even more grisly in its violence. After Juve and Fandor escape the destruction of Lady Beltham's villa (not without injury), it is the journalist who now pursues the archcriminal, but with no more success than Juve had. As before, Fantômas's exploits take him and his pursuer through several different levels of French society.

In the first episode, Fantômas chloroforms a painter named Jacques Dollon (André Luguet) in order to set him up for the murder of a wealthy baroness he has killed. In prison, the guard Nibet (Naudier) stabs Dollon to death, and Fantômas takes away the body in order to remove the skin of its right hand—for a human glove. Here, Juve, disguised as a clochard, has to rescue Fandor who has followed Fantômas to a Seine sewer inlet (where Dollon's body is dumped). Princes Danidoff (Jane Faber), whom we saw in the first episode, returns in the third episode, to give a party for her fiancé Thomery (Luitz-Morat), a sugar-plantation owner, and promptly is robbed of her jewels again by Fantômas, disguised as a banker named Nanteuil—but on her neck (she has been rendered unconscious) is a fingerprint that turns out to be Dollon's.

Lady Beltham then returns in the next episode, to deliver a ransom note for the jewels to Thomery, who is lured to an empty apartment and garroted by Fantômas's gang. In the fifth episode, Fantômas searches the Pension Bourrat, where Elizabeth Dollon (Fabienne Fabrèges) is staying, trying to recover an enigmatic list she found earlier in her brother's cell, and Fandor arrives just in time to save her from being asphyxiated—and sends her to a convent for protection. Then, hidden in a packing basket of her belongings which Fantômas has requisitioned, he is transported to the gang's hideout and discovers Thomery's body. Finally, Fandor links up again with Juve, and they confront Nanteuil, thinking that they have Fantômas at last—but he vanishes before their eyes (and guns) through a secret wall panel door.

From this narrative summary, the six episodes of Le mort qui tue would seem to correspond closely to the film's six reels. According to the National Film Archive's print, however, which covers only the last three episodes and has Czech intertitles (All of the Fantômas films were restored in 1995-1996 by Gaumont Studios, with the assistance of the French Government), this film, too, either carried the action across at least some of the reel breaks or else used the reel break to heighten suspense near the end of an episode. One break in the NFA print, for instance, comes just after Fantômas exits from Elizabeth's room at the pension, after having drugged her coffee and turned on the gas; the next opens with Fandor breaking into the room to turn off the gas and open a window.

Yet, if Le mort qui tue resembles its predecessors in this use of reel breaks, its mode of representation is slightly different. Most of the scenes, for instance, are shot in studio decors, and frequent intertitles either link or interrupt the AS ("American Shot" - from the knees up), LS (Long Shot) or FS (Full Shot), LS tableaux. Some of the decors, especially the ones with less depth, are quite spare, but this is used to good effect for moments like the garroting—where Thomery steps from a background painted-flat hallway into an empty room, through a central doorway on either side of which two hooded figures stand poised. One of the film's more interesting features, however, is the greater number of cut-in CUs (Close-Ups) and ECUs (Extreme Close-Ups) of objects, which prove more deceptive than revealing.

In episode three, for instance, the CU photograph of the fingerprint lifted from the princess's neck baffles her guests, and the ECU of the pearls that Lady Beltham shows Thomery deceives him into believing that the ransom exchange is genuine—in both cases, by contrast, the spectator can conclude that this is Fantômas's handiwork. Curiously, another cut-in close shot briefly positions the spectator as superior to Fantômas — when Elizabeth stuffs the list into the back of a blotter, which he later overlooks in his search of her room. Yet, a cut-in CU of his hand turning the gas lever then threatens to take revenge on her for the sleight of hand, as well as on any spectator tempted to identify with her. These CUs culminate in the last scene as Juve rips the glove of human skin from Fantômas's hand—only to have him disappear through the wall, secreted beneath one more fake exterior.


Spanish minicard by Reclam Films, Mallorca, card no. 4. Photo: Gaumont. Scene from the third episode of the French silent crime serial Fantomas, La Mort qui tue/The Dead Man Who Killed (Louis Feuillade, 1913). Princess Danidoff (Jane Faber) is kissed by her fiancé, the rich Thomery (Luitz-Morat), but Fantomas (the moustached man on the left), dressed as the banker Nanteuil, has more eyes for her jewels.


Spanish minicard by Reclam Films, Mallorca, card no. 5. Photo: Gaumont. Scene from the third episode of the French silent crime serial Fantomas, La Mort qui tue/The Dead Man Who Killed (Louis Feuillade, 1913). The prison warden discovers the disappearance of Dollon and scoffs at the guards. On the right Dollon's wife Elisabeth (Fabienne Fabrèges) and Fandor (Georges Melchior) assist.


Spanish minicard by Reclam Films, Mallorca, card no. 6. Photo: Gaumont. Scene from the third episode of the French silent crime serial Fantomas, La Mort qui tue/The Dead Man Who Killed (Louis Feuillade, 1913). Fantomas (René Navarre) is held at gunpoint by Inspector Juve (Edmund Breon) and Fandor (Georges Melchior), but manages to escape - again - through a hidden door in the wall behind him.

Sources: Robin Walz (Fantomas lives), Richard Abel (The Ciné Goes To Town: French Cinema 1896-1914), and IMDb.

Fantômas (1913)

Fantômas/Fantomas (Louis Feuillade, 1913) was the first of the five episodes of the mastermind criminal serial Fantômas (1913-1914), produced by Gaumont and based on the eponymous stories by Pierre Souvestre and Marcel Allain. Fantômas, the master of crime, terrorises Paris. Inspector Juve and journalist Jérôme Fandor take up the fight against him. The full title of the episode was 'Fantômas I: À l'ombre de la guillotine' (Fantômas: In the Shadow of the Guillotine).


French postcard by Centre Pompidou for the exhibition 'Fantômas et compagnie', 24 April - 27 May 2002.


Spanish minicard series by Reclam Films, Mallorca. Photo: Gaumont. Publicity still for Fantômas (Louis Feuillade, 1913), First episode, card 1 of 6.

The plot of the card: It is early in the morning. Princess Sonia Danidoff (Jane Faber) returns to her hotel room at the Royal Palace Hotel. She holds an envelope with 120.000 francs.


Spanish minicard series by Reclam Films, Mallorca. Photo: Gaumont. Publicity still for Fantômas (Louis Feuillade, 1913), First episode, card 2 of 6.

With a fake beard, Fantômas (René Navarre) observes Princess Danidoff (Jane Faber) in her hotel suite. He will rob her of her pearls and money and leave her a business card that only afterwards reveals its name: Fantômas.

A sensational success

Léon Gaumont acquired the film rights of the Fantômas novels by Pierre Souvestre and Marcel Allain in 1913 for 6,000 francs. He commissioned director Louis Feuillade with the realisation. This film adaptation, Fantômas (Louis Feuillade, 1913), was a sensational success. It made René Navarre, who played the title role, overnight a star.

As the magazine, Le Petit Journal wrote, the first part 'Fantômas. A l'ombre de la guillotine' attracted 80,000 cinema-goers to the Gaumont Palace, which was the largest cinema in the world with 3,400 seats.

Critics attributed this partly to the popularity of the so-called Bonnot Gang, a group of anarchists who shook France and Belgium with their spectacular robberies in 1911-1912 and whose modern equipment including automatic rifles and automobiles made them far superior to the police forces.

The technical arms race between the Fantômas' gang and the Paris Sûreté such as surveillance techniques, biometrics, and the use of getaway cars, actually plays an essential role in the series.

But more abstract reasons for the fascination with which the series was received are also cited.


Spanish minicard series by Reclam Films, Mallorca. Photo: Gaumont. Publicity still for Fantômas (Louis Feuillade, 1913), First episode, card 3 of 6.

Inspector Juve (Edmund Bréon) confronts Lady Beltham, Fantômas' mistress (Renée Carl). After the theft, Inspector Juve pays a visit to Lady Beltham. Finding a name in an address book, he asks: Who is Mr. Gurn? She tells Fantomas afterwards, who sends three suitcases to Johannesburg. Juve discovers in one of the suitcases the corps of Lord Beltham. He discovers Gurn is Fantomas.


Spanish minicard series by Reclam Films, Mallorca. Photo: Gaumont. Publicity still for Fantômas (Louis Feuillade, 1913), First episode, card 4 of 6.

On his knees, Inspector Juve (Edmund Breon). When Gurn alias Fantômas (René Navarre) exits his house, Juve and his police arrest Fantômas. Six months after he is condemned to death. Lady Beltham reads the news and is shocked.

Crime as art

American film critic Jonathan Rosenbaum: "Probably more to the point are the notions of crime as art and art as metaphysics that inspired such poets as Robert Desnos and Jacques Prévert, whereby cop and crook become periodically interchangeable and staid appearances deceive almost by definition, providing the early template for Feuillade's master serials."

In particular, the relationship between law enforcement officers and criminals or citizens, with its political implications, makes Louis Feuillade so modern.

German film scholar Thomas Brandlmeier: "Inspector Juve and the anarcho-breaker Fantômas are the classic schizophrenic pair of state citizen and private citizen. The journalist Fandor, the justice fanatic with the quill pen, acts as the paranoid petit bourgeois around whom the wild mummery rages.'

After the first episode, Fantômas (Louis Feuillade, 1913), four sequels followed: Fantômas II: Juve contre Fantômas/Juve Against Fantomas (Louis Feuillade, 1913), Fantomas III: Le mort qui tue/Fantômas: The Dead Man Who Killed (Louis Feuillade, 1913), Fantômas IV: Fantômas contre Fantômas/Fantomas Against Fantomas (Louis Feuillade, 1914), and Fantômas V: Le faux magistrat/Fantômas: The False Magistrate (Louis Feuillade, 1914).

The series consists of five episodes, each an hour to an hour and a half in length, which end in cliffhangers. Episodes one and three end with Fantômas making a last-minute escape, and the end of the second entry has Fantômas blowing up Lady Beltham's manor house with Juve and Fandor, the two heroes, still inside. The subsequent episodes begin with a recap of the story that has gone before. Each film is further divided into three or more chapters that do not end in cliffhangers.

The five episodes, initially released throughout 1913–1914, were restored under the direction of Jacques Champreaux and released in this new form in 2006. The entire first episode, possibly with some gaps. can be watched on the Wikipedia page dedicated to the serial.


Spanish minicard series by Reclam Films, Mallorca. Photo: Gaumont. Publicity still for Fantômas (Louis Feuillade, 1913), First episode, card 5 of 6.

When the guard Nibet (Naudier) makes his nightly round at the Santé prison he is bribed by Lady Beltham to give Fantomas (René Navarre) a letter. Fantômas gives him her address, promising him to make him rich. Lady Beltham indeed loads Nibet with money if he will help her see Fantômas once more.


Spanish minicard series by Reclam Films, Mallorca. Photo: Gaumont. Publicity still for Fantômas (Louis Feuillade, 1913), First episode, card 6 of 6.

The famous actor Valgrand (André Volbert) has copied for his show the head and outfit of the soon to be decapitated Gurn/Fantomas (René Navarre). After his stage show, he receives a letter from an unknown woman. It is Lady Beltham (René Carl), who invites him to come to her in his attire for the show. She has rented a room opposite the prison. With the help of Nibet (Naudier) and his colleague, Fantomas is secretly freed (the guards think only for a short rendezvous). But Lady Beltham drugs the actor, who is then put in prison instead of Fantomas. The guillotine is built, and Valgrand is about to be killed to Lady Beltham's horror. But Juve just in time unmasks the fake Fantomas as Valgrand. Juve now only has one obsession: to recapture Fantomas.

Sources: Wikipedia (English and German), and IMDb.

And Happy Birthday, Ivo!

René Navarre

René Navarre (1877-1968) was a star of the French silent cinema. He appeared in 109 films between 1910 and 1946. Navarre is best remembered as the mysterious master criminal Fantômas in the legendary serial by Louis Feuillade.


French postcard. Photo: DIX, Paris.


French postcard by Cinémagazine, no. 109.

Master criminal

Victor René Navarre was born in Limoges in 1877. At 16, he debuted on stage at the Théâtre de Montmartre in Victorien Sardou’s play 'Patrie' (Homeland). For 15 years he would perform everywhere, in Paris and all over the country.

In late 1909, he started to work for the Gaumont film company. Navarre became part of the regular cast of Gaumont dramas and comedies, directed by Albert Capellani, Georges Denola, Etienne Arnaud, Michel Carré, Georges-André Lacroix, Henri Fescourt, Léonce Perret, and above all, Louis Feuillade.

He often performed next to child star Clement Mary, the future René Dary, in Feuillade’s series of Bébé. He also played detective Jean Dervieux in Le proscrit/The Outlaw (Louis Feuillade, 1912) and various other shorts in 1912-1913.

Feuillade immortalised Navarre by offering him the role of the master criminal in Fantômas (Louis Feuillade, 1913-1914), a serial based on the dime novels by Marcel Allain. This enormously popular serial had five episodes: Fantômas – A’ l’ombre de la guillotine/Fantômas - In the Shadow of the Guillotine, Juve contre Fantômas/Juve Against Fantômas, Le mort qui tue/The Dead Man Who Killed, Fantômas contre Fantômas/Fantômas Against Fantômas, and Le faux magistrat/The False Magistrate.

The story of Fantômas's exploits and adventures is also the story of the woman he loves and of the men trying to catch him. In a time when films still used novelty to draw crowds these shorts entertained audiences with exhilarating escapes, astounding disguises, and taboo violence. Next to Fantômas and the head of police Juve (Edmund Breon), there were three supporting characters, the journalist Jerome Fandor (Georges Melchior), Fantomas’ mistress Lady Beltham (Renée Carl) and princess Danidoff (Jane Faber) who returned in almost every episode.


Spanish mini-card (collector card) by Reclam Films, Mallorca. Photo: Gaumont. René Navarre as Fantomas in a scene from the serial Fantomas, second series, Juve versus Fantômas/Juve contre Fantômas (Louis Feuillade, 1913), card no. 6. Fantomas aka The Man in Black dynamites the villa in which Juve and Fandor are.


Spanish mini-card (collector card) by Reclam Films, Mallorca. Photo: Gaumont. Renée Carl as Lady Beltham and René Navarre as Fantomas in Fantômas contre Fantômas (Louis Feuillade, 1914), the fourth episode of the serial Fantomas, card 6 of 6. At Lady Beltham's villa, Fantomas demands the money collected in the charity ball subscription.

Vidocq

When the Great War broke out, René Navarre was conscripted, interrupting the Fantomas series. He could return to the studios in 1915, having become a star.

He first did Le grand souffle/The Great Breath for Gaston Ravel and then decided to found his own production company, Films-René-Navarre, and to direct his own films.

In 1916 he co-directed with Gérard Bourgois Christophe Colomb/Christopher Columbus, starring Georges Wague and Jean Garat. The following year he produced four animation films by Emile Cohl and Benjamin Rabier but after a quarrel with Cohl, the series was interrupted.

In September 1919 Navarre founded the company Société des Cinéromans, which until 1922 produced eight prestigious productions based on scripts by Gaston Leroux and Arthur Bernède, such as Tue-la-mort/Kill the Dead Man (René Navarre, 1920) with Navarre in the title role, Jacqueline Arly and Madeleine Aile, L’aiglonne (René Navarre, Emile Keppens, 1921) with Cyprian Gilles and Suzy Prim, Vidocq (Jean Kemm, 1923) with Navarre in the title role, Jean Chouan (Luitz-Morat, 1925) with Navarre and Maurice Schutz in the title role, and the serial Belphégor/The Phantasm of the Louvre (Henri Desfontaines, 1927).

In 1920, producer Serge Sandberg appointed him manager of the Studios de la Victorine in Nice. He also continued with his Films René Navarre and produced Ferragus (Gaston Ravel, 1923) in which he had the title role, next to Stewart Rome.



French postcard (both sides). Photos: Société des Cinéromans. René Navarre, Gina Manès and many others in the French silent film Le 7 de trèfle/Le sept de trèfle (1921), directed by René Navarre. The film was scripted by Gaston Leroux (The Phantom of the Opera). It was a serial with 12 episodes, released in France on 16 September 1921. This card promotes its screening at the Toulouse-based cinema Olympia, 13, rue St Bernard. It still exists as Cinema ABC.


French postcard for Production Charles Le Fraper, Paris. Photo: L. Pierson. Publicity still for Judex (Maurice Champreux, 1934).

Forgotten

The arrival of sound film drastically cut René Navarre’s career short. His performance was considered too theatrical.

He had to be satisfied with minor parts, as in Jean Gabin’s debut Mephisto (Henri Debain, Georges Vinter, 1930). He also played supporting parts in a sound version of Fantômas (Paul Féjos, 1932), and that of Judex (Maurice Champreux, 1933).

In 1937 Léon Mathot gave him the role of Monsieur Charles in Chéri-Bibi (Léon Mathot, 1938), in which Pierre Fresnay played the title role. Other small parts Navarre played were in La route enchantée/The Enchanted Road (Pierre Caron, 1938) with Charles Trenet, and in Brazza ou l’épopée du Congo/Brazza of the Epic of the Congo (Léon Poirier, 1939).

After a last performance in Les surprises de la radio/The Surprises of the Radio (Marcel Aboulker, 1940), he quit the screen altogether. René Navarre was married to the actress Nelly Palmer and subsequently to Elmire Vautier. He had with both actresses a child. Nelly Palmer prematurely died in 1916. The marriage to Vautier ended in a divorce.

In 1968, the man who as Fantômas had frightened millions, died forgotten in Azay-sur-Cher, France. René Navarre was 90.


Scenes from Erreur tragique/Tragic Error (Louis Feuillade, 1913) with Suzanne Grandais and René Navarre. Music: Patrick Laviosa. Source: tonytony9292 (YouTube).


DVD Trailer of Fantômas (1913-1914). Source: Kino International / Kino Classics (YouTube).

Sources: Philippe Pelletier (CinéArtistes - French), Wikipedia and IMDb.

This post was last updated on 7 April 2025. With thanks to Marlène Pilaete.