Director: Andre
Hunebell Year: 1964 - 1967 Rating: Various Country: France
Fantomas (1964) – 7.0
Enjoyable though rather light treatment of the Fantomas character from French
literature. This is the first in a trilogy of Fantomas films that turn the
books into campy Bondesque adventure stories. If you are not familiar with
Fantomas he was the villain - the man of a thousand disguises - whose capers
were created by Marcel Allain and Pierre Souvestre beginning in 1911 and
going for some 43 novels. But unlike a number of other books of the time
that were took a sympathetic the view of the criminal - Fantomas was not
a Gentleman Thief as was The Saint or The Lone Wolf for example. Fantomas
was a true psychopath with no compassion and unrelenting cruelty. On his
trail was usually the policeman Juve and the journalist Fandor.
The same goes for the film in which the blue faced Fantomas - the blue face
being a creation of the film - plans his crimes from his bizarrely decorated
lair and has no compunction about killing. Against him are Juve and Fandor,
but none of this is taken too seriously - Juve is portrayed as a near Inspector
Clouseau character and Fandor often seems more interested in women than catching
Fantomas. The final third of the film is basically one long chase and done
reasonably well. Not fabulous by any means but I look forward to the next
two films.
Fantomas Unleashed (1965) – 6.0
The first in this trilogy - Fantomas (1964) had an enjoyable mix of comedy
and suspense but in this second film they decide very firmly to go with comedy
as the focus shifts to the Inspector Clouseau like Juve with his gadgets
and incompetence. There is very little of the blue faced Fantomas. It involves
his dastardly plan to kidnap scientists to produce a machine that can do
mass hypnosis. Fantomas has a very cool lair again but he is becoming much
too benign.
Jean Marais who plays the journalist Fandor was one of France's great classical
actors having worked with Jean Cocteau in The Beauty and the Beast, Les Parents
Terribles, Orpheus and a number of adventure films such as The Count of Monte
Christo and Man in the Iron Mask.
Fantomas vs Scotland Yard (1967) – 5.0
This third and last film in the trilogy of Fantomas from director Andre Hunebelle
sort of skids off the road and falls into tedious territory. The first two
films were at best only ok with a few highlights of action or weirdness but
this one is just silly with Juve seeing ghosts and running around a castle
in Scotland. Yes, Scotland. For some reason they take the film to the highlands
of Scotland which perhaps to a French audience in the 1960's was exotic,
but I love seeing films shot in Paris.
All the usual characters are gathered together again - Fantomas with a plot
to extort money from the richest men in France; Inspector Juve acting like
a nincompoop; Fandor who disappears for much of the film and Helene played
by the blonde bombshell Mylene Demongeot. They all run around a lot and not
much else. All in all this trilogy was a disappointment - it should have
been much better.
