Le Mort qui tue (1913) - film review

Miraculously, the journalist Fandor has survived his latest confrontation with the villainous master criminal Fantômas.  His friend and collaborator Inspector Juve is less fortunate – it appears that he was crushed to death in the explosion at Lady Bentham’s house.   Fandor returns to work and immediately engages himself in another bizarre case.  A ceramics artist who was arrested for murdering one of his clients has been found strangled in his cell.  A short while later, the artist disappears from the prison and his finger prints are subsequently found on the neck of the Princess Danidoff, following an assault in which she was robbed of a priceless pearl necklace.   In his investigation, Fandor uncovers a dastardly scheme of staggering genius, which can only be the work of one man: Fantômas!

Le Mort qui tue is the third, and in some ways the most sophisticated, of the five Fantômas films by Louis Feuillade.  Not only is it an exemplary silent film for its time, it is also a masterpiece of suspense and intrigue, possibly the earliest example of what we would recognise today as the suspense thriller, or the true French polar.  In contrast to the preceding instalment, Le Mort qui tue has much darker, almost macabre feel to it, a curious mix of Phantom of the Opera and Sherlock Holmes.

The film carries off where the previous film in the series (Juve contre Fantômas ) ended.  Inspector Juve has disappeared, as, apparently has Fantômas.  Rather than resolve the loose ends left dangling at the end of the previous film, this one immediately launches into a bizarre murder mystery which seemingly has no relation to it.  Whilst this is frustrating – Feuillade knows perfectly well that is audience are constantly wondering what has happened to Juve and Fantômas – the story is so intriguing and well crafted that it quickly takes over our attention.  It is very rare that you come across a film of this level of plot sophistication from the pre-WWI era.

Although it is the longest of Feuillade’s Fantômas films, its use of suspense and the ingenuity of the plot makes it feel like it is the shortest.  The acting is superlative, and the cagoule-wearing Fantômas is by now a truly frightening creation, capable of anything, with a band of silent black-clad henchmen to spread his terror.  By anyone’s standards, this is an extraordinary and memorable film, the stuff of both legends and nightmares.

© James Travers 2001

See also:
Fantômas
Juve contre Fantômas
Fantômas contre Fantômas
Le Faux magistrat



Write a review for this film...

What do you think of this film?