Fantômas: In the Shadow of the Guillotine

Fantomas is a kind of French Moriarty, an arch-criminal, leader of a huge rag-tag band of villains, who can evade arrest by two policemen holding each of his arms simply by shaking his wrists and knocking them both out. I ask you, what chance has an honest copper got? The film actually seems quite ambivalent about him at times, and you suspect there is a sneaking admiration for him on the filmmakers' part, despite his incredibly ruthless streak (in one episode he uncouples a train carriage and sends its passengers to their death so that they can't act as witnesses against a robbery he has committed on board; in another incredible sequence he leaves a fellow villain stranded inside a church bell to await certain death the next time it is rung).

The story lines of this French pre-WWI serial are fairly simplistic and don't stand up to even cursory scrutiny but, as a time capsule from a bygone age, the films are fascinating. Louis Feuillade's style of direction is basic to say the least and, for such a renowned early name from French cinema, something of a disappointment. The camera never moves, and every shot appears purely functional and nothing more. Perhaps I'm missing something, or perhaps I'm expecting more than I should from a piece of work nearly one hundred years old, but his style makes things drag at times. The film only really comes alive when Feuillade takes his camera outside to capture scenes of both rural and urban France. The film makes as much use of letters as it does intertitles to drive the story on and, considering the hindrance of it being a silent film, it's a device that works quite well.

Fantomas will only be of interest to the movie buff rather than the film fan. The art of storytelling has moved on – or, given the impression of advancement that gives, perhaps changed is a better word – and even the most patient of filmgoers will find that the pace drags at times. Nevertheless, given its place in film history, it's an important film that is worth checking out.

And it's also worth watching just for the final get-out-of jail card played by the wily Fantomas…

Movie serials, consisting of multiple episodes with the same characters ending in cliffhangers, leaving viewers in suspense so they would gladly pay to see the next one, were becoming popular in the early 1910's. The first serial in cinema to some degree was Edison Studio's 1912 "What Happened To Mary." Although the serial consisted of 12 one-reelers, no chapter ended in a cliffhanger.

France's Gaumont Studios gets the crown for producing the first serial with dangling suspenseful endings to each episode. Gaumont bought the rights to Marcel Allain and Pierre Souvestre's very popular crime books (32 books in all) "Fantomas," published beginning in 1911. The studio's director, Louis Feuillade ("A Roman Orgy--1911), was assigned to direct a five-part serial based on the criminal portrayed in the books. Each episode concluded either in suspense or unanswered questions of what would happen next.

"Fantomas" is cinema's first crime serial portraying movie's first super-villain, a slick criminal as well as leader of a gang of masked thieves. The serial kicked off in May 1913, with the release of "In The Shadow of the Guillotine." That followed with "Juve vs. Fantomas" "The Murderous Corpse," "Fantomas vs. Fantomas," and lastly "The False Magistrate." The entire series totaled five hours and 30 minutes, with each episode was one hour to 90 minutes long. All are available for viewing.

The work of Feuillade, as seen in his 1911's "A Roman Orgy," is fluid but not innovative. His camera sits filming a tableaux of exciting action, which doesn't linger too long on a sequence. The serials' pacing in editing also gives the episodes a rapid pulse of showing events unfolding, something other early movie makers were continually learning to grasp. With a diabolical villain who was a bridge between the 19th century Victorian criminal and the 20th century serial killer, "Fantomas" entertained audiences with his numerous disguises and trickery, performing almost implausible escapes from his arch nemesis, Police Inspector Juve.

The serial would go on to inspire a wave of crime and adventure serials in the next decade, most notably Fritz Lang's "Dr. Mabuse." Feuillade himself would go on in a couple of years to write and direct his masterpiece, the much-heralded "Les Vampires," which influenced such notable directors as Alfred Hitchcock and Luis Bunuel.

The story of Fantomas's exploits and adventures are also those of the woman he loves and 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. Fantomas is a series of five short films produced in the golden age of silent film in France, 1913 to 1914. Each episode continues the story of the criminal Fantomas has he evades Inspector Juve time and time again. These films were directed by Louis Feuillade and produced by the Gaumont studios. Critics and fans worldwide have enjoyed these films and the mystery/detective novels they were based on.

A multiple-reel drama in which there are good situations and well handled. M. Navarre plays a dual role and does splendid work. Opposite him is the Gaumont's famous leading woman, Mme. Renee Carl; she justifies every expectation. The story is of a bold thief, of the gentleman sort, who commits a robbery. He has also committed a murder. After his arrest and conviction, the wife of the murdered man, in love with the thief, bribes the keepers of the latter to bring him to her home, a short distance from the prison. It is the night preceding his execution. The same evening, a famous actor gives a representation of the condemned man in his cell. The impersonator is decoyed to the house of the woman after the murderer has arrived. He is still in his convincing make-up. After the woman has drugged him, the jailers take him back to his cell. As he is being prepared for the execution, a detective discovers that the man still under the influence of the drug is not the murderer. The final curtain is to the effect that "Henceforth it is Juve (the detective) versus Fantomas." So we may expect a continuance of the story at a later time. The picture will interest. - The Moving Picture World, June 28, 1913

Fantômas - À l'ombre de la guillotine (1913)

*** (out of 4)

The first of a five film series has Rene Vacarre playing Fantomas, the mastermind French thief who breaks into the hotel of a princess and steals some priceless jewelry. Inspector Jive (Edmund Breon) finally manages to catch Fantomas but he plans an escape hours before heading to the guillotine. FANTOMAS: IN THE SHADOW OF THE GUILLOTINE isn't a masterpiece by any stretch of the imagination but at just 54-minutes the thing is entertaining enough to make it worth viewing if you enjoy silent cinema. I think the one thing this picture shows is that during this era the American cinema was still miles ahead of the French and even when Feuillade was considered the country's greatest director at this time. As with many of his earlier pictures, the director usually tells the story in simple medium shots and he really doesn't use any noticeable editing to try and build up any suspense or drama. The director pretty much just tells the story without any real flair or style and while this might kill some films from this period, Feuillade at least keeps the story moving at a nice pace to where it never gets boring. The film is basically broken down into three sections. The first dealing with the hotel robbery, the second with Fantomas' arrest and the third his eventual escape. The first segment was actually the most entertaining as the sets were rather interesting to look at and we get a unique opening showing an elevator climbing several floors. The trick editing is obvious but this sequence still has a unique look to it. The third story has a very far-fetched idea to get Fantomas out of jail but it somewhat works in a cliffhanger-like fashion. Vacarre is wonderful in his role(s) as he's certainly photogenic and manages to make you believe he could actually pull all of this stuff off. I was also impressed with Breon even though he's featured a lot less.