Judex (1963)

User Rating:

7.4/10   

Director:

Georges Franju

Writers:

Arthur Bernède (1916 screenplays)
Louis Feuillade (1916 screenplays)

Release Date:

4 December 1963 (France)

Genre:

Action | Crime | Drama

Plot:

Favraux, an unscrupulous banker, receives a threatening note, signed by "Judex", demanding that he pay back the people he has swindled...

Plot Keywords:

Banker | Remake | Masquerade | Kidnapping | One Word Title

Cast

Channing Pollock	...	Judex / Vallieres
Francine Bergé	...	Diana Monti / Marie Verdier
Edith Scob	...	Jacqueline Favraux
Théo Sarapo	...	Morales
Sylva Koscina	...	Daisy
René Génin	...	Pierre Kerjean
Roger Fradet	...	Leon
André Méliès	...	Doctor
Philippe Mareuil	...	Amaury de la Rochefontaine
Luigi Cortese	...	Pierrot
Benjamin Boda	...	Réglisse
Jean-Jacques Rémy
Jean Degrave	...	Notary
Ketty France	...	Jeanne-Marie Bontemps
André Tomasi

Also Known As:

L'uomo in nero (Italy)

Runtime:

104 min

Country:

France | Italy

Language:

French

Color:

Black and White

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Finland:K-16

Filming Locations:

Musée Jacquemart André de Châalis, Fontaine Châalis, Oise, France

Company:

Comptoir Français du Film Production (CFFP)

Trivia:

Visa d'exploitation en France #27668

Movie Connections:

Remake of Judex (1916)

Haunting, sublime crime drama

Franju's evocation of a lost innocent era of French silent cinema is a real gem, and a much neglected film. The film creates an air of gentle menace from the opening scenes featuring a bird-masked magician at a masked ball. We soon learn that he is, in fact, Judex, the legendary crime-fighter. He soon becomes engaged in a battle with a cat-suited female criminal. The plot itself is one-dimensional comic-strip stuff, as the above suggests, but what constantly impresses is the poetic set-pieces Franju sets up, particularly a burglary at a country house swathed in mists. The show is continually stolen by Francine Berge, as the criminal - she seems a not-too-distant relation of Diana Rigg in television's "The Avengers", at least in dress sense - and this highlights a slight problem. The hero, played by American magician Channing Pollock, is bland by comparison, as is Edith Scob's heroine-in-distress. It seems that the bad girls get all the fun! Overall, this is the type of film that doesn't get made any more, yet doesn't seem dated. Franju's more famous "Les Yeux Sans Visage" is, in terms of mood, very similar, as is Cocteau's breathtaking fairy tale, "La Belle Et La Bete". The sixties British horror, "The Haunting", also pulls the same trick of showing little by achieving everything through mood alone. Do try to see all of these if you get the chance.