Fantômas: The False Magistrate

...Or else it would have become repetitive and routine.In this movie,Fantomas has lost all his mystery and looks like an unkind Arsene Lupin,another hero famous for his imposture and his humor,a humor Fantomas is completely devoid of.Some scenes are lacking and are replaced by lines on the screen.

In the third and in the fourth movie ,Juve had taken a back sit to what was happening on the screen.In the fifth opus,he is almost absent,and for the first time ,Fandor is not much more present than he is.Fantomas is in the foreground :it's less suspenseful cause we always know what he is up to.

Fantomas is in jail in Belgium .He's got a life sentence but Juve wants him to be guillotined (Feuillade was politically very right-wing)so he helps him to escape so he will get put inside when he crosses the boarder.Of course,you can't think of everything and things do not turn as expected .

"Le Faux Magistrat" involves stolen jewels ,blackmail and ruffians.The scene with the bell in the steeple is really great and is worthy of Hitchcock.

That said ,although I know I 'm going to be torn into pieces,I do not think that the Fantomas saga is made of great films.They are good entertaining flicks ,with ,occasionnally, scenes that are truly excellent.Abel Gance and Maurice Tourneur were already around and they easily surpassed Feuillade.