Fantomas (film, 1913)

In the film, Fantomas appears in three guises: a stranger with a beard and a tuxedo (the same disguise as that of Dr. Shalek from the second series of Juve vs. Fantomas), in the form of a security guard, and in the guise of a gentleman named Goern.

First part: Robbery at the Royal Palace Hotel.

Princess Dunidoff arrives at the royal court hotel of Paris . The sequence of her movement through a series of adjacent rooms is shown - a hall, a lobby, an elevator, a corridor and her room. The following shows the appearance of a stranger with a beard and in a tuxedo in the princess's room, where he opens a desk drawer, and then, with a sound behind the scenes, hides behind a window curtain. After the return of the princess in a long nightgown, a stranger with a beard and a tuxedo calmly goes out to her and appears to be a clean business card . All this time he has been collecting money and valuables from the table. Only after he kissed her and went out she called the hotel security post, from where the night watchman sent a security guard upstairs. But a stranger with a beard and a tuxedo attacks him in the corridor of the fourth floor, and goes into the lobby in the guise of a guard. Further in the film, the princess is shown, who examines a blank business card, and the name Fantomas appears on it.

Part Two: The Disappearance of Lord Beltam.

Inspector Juve and reporter Fandor are investigating the disappearance of Lord Baltham. Inspector Juve goes to the villa of Lady Beltam (the wife of Lord Beltam). In the meantime, Lady Beltam was hosting a certain Goern, a friend of Lord Beltam, who came to her under the pretext of finding out how things were with Lord Beltam. When Juve enters the living room of the villa, Lady Beltam hides Guern, however, forgetting his hat in the living room. While she hides Goerne, Juve, examining the hat left, sees a mark on the wrong side in the form of the letter G, meaning the name Goerne. When Lady Beltam appeared in the living room, he asked her for her husband’s notebook with the addresses of his acquaintances. Juve found her address with a name in the letter G and went to the address st. Lever, 147 with a search. However, Goern sent via pneumatic mail a message about the cancellation of the delivery of luggage by the loaders to his apartment. But the Loaders had already managed to deliver the luggage before the message reached their director. When the loaders came back to pick up their luggage, Inspector Juve was already in Gurn's apartment. Having searched her, he with the gendarme found the corpse of the disappeared Lord Beltam and also clean business cards. When the name FANTOMAS began to appear on them, Juve realized that Gern was the very same Fantomas who had robbed Princess Dunidoff. Realizing that Görn was settling in Lady Beltam’s villa, Juve appeared there and arrested him. Six months later, Goern was sentenced to death.

Third part: At the scaffold.

Lady Beltam bribed two prison guards, one of whom was called Nibe to arrange a date with Goern in a house near Sante Prison. At that time, in the Bolshoi Balagan theater in the drama Blood Spot, which was based on the adventures of Goern-Fantomas, a certain actor Valgran played the role of Goern every evening, making an amazing make-up for him. Lady Beltam took advantage of the fact that she was given the opportunity to arrange a date with Goern in a house near the prison and summoned the actor Valgran, made up for Goern, to meet. And Gurn at this time, hiding in the next room, was waiting. Lady Beltam gave actor Valgran tea with sugar. And the drug was mixed in sugar in advance. And when the guards came for Gurn, and took the actor Valgran, Valgran could not really explain anything, being in a braked state. In the morning, in the Prison Chancellery, the so-called Görn was brought into proper shape, so that later they would be sent to execution. But Inspector Juve, who was there, noticed the substitution and released the actor in time. From now on, Inspector Juve will be obsessed with only one thing - to catch Fantomas.

“... he ( Feyad ) has a poetic perception of real life and nature, and even more - the poetry of the streets of Paris, which gave Balzac art so much. These roofs, on which the bandit escapes, are fanned with deep lyricism ... Gray walls, shutters, pavements, fiacres, heavy crowbars, old-fashioned taxis ... ”( Georges Sadul ^[1] )

“... In Fantomas Feyad leads the story clearly and confidently. The action is swift in it, and the syntax is very simple; no repetitions, no lengths. His handwriting resembles Voltaire’s hand - it’s a real French style ... ”( Georges Sadoule ^[1] )

Fantomas was very popular after the release of the movie in France, and instantly made René Navarre, who played Fantomas, a celebrity. ^[2] . When Navarre appeared on the street, he was immediately surrounded by a crowd. ^[one]

In a recent critique of Fantomas, Peter Schofer noted that, contrary to the contemporary understanding of the series, Fantomas was not understood by the audience at the time as a suspense film . The audience, prepared by a recently published in the newspapers and very popular series of novels, was familiar with the plot, characters and the ending of the story, and watched the film in anticipation of how the plot was realized, as opposed to watching it, expecting what would happen next ^[2] .

• Rene Navarre - Fantomas, Tom Bob et al.
• Edmond Breon - Inspector Juve
• Georges Melchior - reporter Jerome Fandor
• Rene Carl - Lady Beltam
• Jeanne Faber - Princess Sonia Dunidoff
• Nadier - Nibe
• Wolbert - actor Valgran
• Mollar - Valgran's dresser
• Yvette Andreyor - Josephine

In the years 1913 - 1914 Feyad released five episodes of the film:

• 1913 - Fantômas
• 1913 - Juve vs. Fantômas / Juve Contre Fantômas
• 1913 - The Dead Killer / Le Mort Qui Tue
• 1914 - Fantomas vs Fantomas / Fantômas contre Fantômas
• 1914 - Referee / Le Faux Magistrat