‘I went to the window and got stuck in the curtains.’
Murder disrupts a weekend house party at a noblewoman’s château. The investigating detective believes the man responsible is the notorious Fantômas, a figure so mysterious some do not even believe that he is real…
Talkie update of the popular French series of silent films taken from the successful novels written by Marcel Allain and Pierre Souvestre. This version comes from Hungarian writer-director Pál Fejös, working in collaboration with scriptwriter Anne Mauclair.
La marquise de Langrune (Marie-Laure) has assembled an eclectic group at her remote château for her latest weekend soirée. The nobility is represented by Princesse Sonia Danidoff (Anielka Elter), and Lord and Lady Beltham (Jean Worms and Tania Fédor), the law by magistrate Jean-Marie Bonnet (Roger Karl) and the clergy by Abbot Sicot (Maurice Schutz). The gathering is rounded out by Marie-Laure’s nephew, the young and enthusiastic Charles Rambert (George Rigaud). Worms is there to buy some property from Marie-Laure, but the old lady has been spooked by talk of the seemingly omnipotent thief Fantômas. Then the lights go out, and the group discover a note that promises death to one of them at midnight.
Marie-Laure is the unlucky recipient, strangled in her room, and suspicion falls on Rigaud. When L’inspecteur de police Paul Juve (Thomy Bourdelle) arrives on the scene, the young man disappears, along with his estranged father, who he was due to meet that weekend at the château. Princess Elter may be able to identify the killer after hearing his voice, but she has collapsed into a coma, and when she awakes, Fantômas is only too ready to take care of her.
The original series of five silent films directed by Louis Feuillade began with ‘Fantômas’ (1913) and all enjoyed great success in France. So a remake with the new addition of sound was a probable inevitability. However, both Feuillade and Fejös were faced with problems in adapting the source material. Original authors Allain and Souvestre had an unusual working method; they wrote alternate chapters of a novel without discussing the overall story. This approach led to multiple sub-plots, unresolved elements and rambling narratives.
Feuillade tackled this adaptation problem by omitting large parts of the novel’s early chapters and dropping some important characters altogether. Fejös took a somewhat smarter approach by gathering the essential characters together at the beginning and making them guests at Marie-Laure’s weekend house party, irrespective of how late they appear in the novel. This allows the drama a tighter focus, and it’s in these early scenes that the film is at its best. Hollywood’s ‘old dark house’ mysteries, such as ‘The Cat and the Canary’ (1927), were obviously an influence as Fejös’ camera sweeps down from his high-ceilinged sets, characters lurk at the end of dark corridors and sinister butler Firmin, played by the splendidly deadpan Gaston Modot, finds that rats have chewed through the electrical wiring.
Just when it appears that the film is mining a serious Agatha Christie vibe, Inspector Bourdelle makes the scene, and the action opens out and relocates to Paris. Although this is a good move, the switch to a police procedural does dissipate the suspense somewhat, and the film only recovers its momentum in the final act. This features Lord Beltham driving in a motor race on a banked track, and it’s a tightly edited, dynamic sequence featuring POV shots from inside one of the cars. The outcome of it is disappointing both in conception and execution, but the latter shortcoming should be considered in light of the technical limitations of the time.
One of the interesting aspects of the drama is the lack of competence displayed by Bourdelle and the official forces in general. It’s not played for comedy, but it’s plain from remarks made at the house party that the efforts to capture Fantômas are viewed as a bit of a joke by the public at large. Bourdelle is always one step behind his quarry, only able to put the pieces together in hindsight, with the actor often wearing a half-smile that seems to suggest he’s amused by it all rather than seriously engaged. His blundering is typified by the fate of Princess Elter, who comes home one night with four young admirers, only to be murdered by Fantômas after she’s left them at her door. The last we’d seen of her before was when she’d lapsed into a coma after hearing the villain speak. It might have been an idea for Bourdelle to question her when she woke up rather than letting her go out for a night on the town, but apparently not! It’s interesting to consider whether this characterisation inspired the casting of comic actor Louis de Funès in the 1960s rebooted series, which commenced with ‘Fantomas/Fantômas’ (1964), where the inspector was presented as a complete idiot.
Given the open-ended climax, it’s highly probable that a series was intended, but unfortunately, no further entries materialised. Subsequent films could have fleshed out Fantômas, providing him with some overarching agenda or plan, which is completely lacking here. As it is, he seems to be just a high-class thief, striking here and there and almost at random, rather than a nearly omnipotent criminal mastermind such as Dr Mabuse or your average Bond Villain. He dresses impressively, though, in what looks like a one-piece, black bodystocking, complete with mask, and Fejös maintains his incognito for most of the film, shooting the acting from behind when he’s out of uniform. Best of all, when the credits appear at the start of the film, the actor playing the part is identified with a mere ‘?’ in just the same way that Boris Karloff was tagged at the beginning of James Whale’s ‘Frankenstein’ (1931).
Fejos had a varied professional career that took in film and many other disciplines. After fighting in World War One in the Austro-Hungarian Army, he studied chemistry before working in the theatre and entering the film industry. After writing and directing several adventure films, he travelled to Vienna to work with legendary theatre director Max Reinhardt and to Berlin to study film under Fritz Lang. Emigrating to America, he qualified as a medical bacteriologist but, in 1927, used his own money to finance ‘The Last Moment’ (1927), which landed him a contract with Universal. There he directed a trio of films, including ‘The Last Performance’ (1929) starring Conrad Veidt and Mary Philbin, but was replaced on ‘Captain of the Guard’ (1930), which may have led to his return to Europe. There, he shot films in several countries, later switching to documentaries. In the 1940s, he gave up the film business to pursue archaeology, leading an expedition to Inca ruins in South America and, later, becoming President of the Wenner-Green Foundation. This organisation continues to support Anthropologists and their studies to this day.
It is a solid take on the source material, with some fine elements, but it lacks the crucial spark to take it to the next level.
Mark David Welsh 