Fantômas contre Fantômas (1914)
Directed by Louis Feuillade

Film Review

The plot thickens with this, the fourth instalment in Feuillade's epic Fantômas series of films, based on the popular novels of Souvestre et Allain.  Picking up from Le Mort qui tue (1913) Juve and Fantômas are now suspected of being one in the same man (which is quite plausible given Juve's clever subterfuge in the previous Fantômas film).  Later the real Fantômas (or is it Juve after all?) sets up a fund so that he can be captured!  As these bizarre chain of events unfold, the viewer is constantly challenged and surprised, an essential formula for a successful thriller, showing how well Feuillade and his writers understood the genre even when it was still very much in its infancy.

Possibly the most convoluted of the five films, Fantômas contre Fantômas relies almost entirely on a single plot device, that of the mistaken identity, which it does almost to death in numerous subtle variations on the theme.  Although, as a result, this film appears more contrived than the others, it serves as an excellent example of the prototypical mystery thriller.  What marks it out as a classic are some memorable set pieces.  These include the grimly surreal “bleeding wall” scene and the somewhat comical masked ball, where the viewer has to contend with no less than three identically-dressed Fantômases.

The film's title was originally “Le Policier apache” (which translates as “The Crooked Policeman”), after the novel on which it was based.  It was re-titled to the far more enigmatic title Fantômas contre Fantômas to appease the censors.  Feuillade would wrap the series up with the next and final epsiode, Le Faux magistrat (1914).

Film Synopsis

For years, the redoubtable Inspector Juve has been engaged on a personal crusade to bring the arch-criminal Fantômas to justice - in vain.  The public have had enough and now Juve finds himself the victim of a virulent press campaign in which he is accused of being the notorious crime lord.  In the face of such a fierce onslaught, Juve can offer no resistance and he is soon under arrest.  As he languishes in prison, it is left to his friend Fandor, the one journalist who is on his side, to try to clear his name - by exposing the real Fantômas.  As Fandor embarks on his own investigation, the French police welcome the assistance of an American detective named Tom Bob in their search for a missing debt collector. 

In fact Tom Bob is none other than Fantômas, up to his old tricks yet again.  Lady Beltham, Fantômas's former lover and devoted accomplice, can hardly believe her eyes when Tom Bob calls on her.  All too willingly does she agree to do her master's bidding, which this time involves organising a grand masked ball for charity.  The purpose of this event is, ostensibly, to raise a large sum of money to assist in the arrest of Fantômas.  Realising who is behind the ball, Fandor decides he will attend, in the guise of the arch-criminal himself...