“FRANCE’S ANSWER TO BOND”

By Raymond Benson

Way back in 1911, French writers Marcel Allain and Pierre Souvestre created a super-villain who became a worldwide phenomenon in literature, comics, and film—Fantômas, a master of disguise, thief, killer, and head of his own network of criminals. The two authors wrote 32 books featuring the character, and then Allain alone continued with 11 more. There was a serial of silent films made in France beginning with Fantômas (1913, directed by Louis Feuillade and starring René Navarre). Over the last century, more films, comics, books, and television series were produced, leading up to the hugely popular reboot of the character in the 1960s.

After the success of the first James Bond film Dr. No (1962), the French studio Gaumont quickly got into the act of making their own answer to what was becoming a phenomenon. Once From Russia with Love (1963) proved that 007 wasn’t a one-shot wonder, director André Hunebelle and writers Jean Halain and Pierre Foucaud plowed ahead with the first of what would become three of France’s biggest box office hits. Significantly, the creators took a more humorous approach to the material, creating a send-up of the Bond pictures while inventing their own special world of espionage and crime. It was if a 007 film of the 60s had been directed by Blake Edwards.

The filmmakers especially struck gold with the casting choices, actors who would remain in their roles for all three pictures—

Jean Marais, the handsome and renowned sex symbol from French art house movies (and more) plays Fantômas, usually wearing a blue skintight mask and delivering a signature slow, evil, but genuinely amused laugh—but Marais also plays the “hero” of the movies, Jérôme Fandor, who in the trilogy is a rather different character from previous iterations. Here, Fandor is a journalist who is constantly in pursuit of Fantômas and the spectacular stories about the arch villain for his newspaper. Never mind that Fandor also has the prowess, physicality, and know-how of a James Bond—he can fight, rappel walls, create fanciful disguises as well as his nemesis, and so on.

Of special note is the casting of Louis De Funès as police Commissaire Juve, who has also made it his life’s mission to capture Fantômas. Juve is inept and bumbling and, in a way, France’s answer to The Pink Panther’s Inspector Clouseau. While Funès had made many films prior to the Fantômas trilogy, the actor suddenly shot into the stratosphere of popularity and became one of the country’s top comedic stars. His energetic, frustrated, and explosive portrayal of Juve steals the show in all three movies—he is very, very funny.

Thirdly, the female foil for everyone in the stories is gorgeous Mylène Demongeot as Hélène Gurn, a photographer for Fandor’s newspaper and the journalist’s girlfriend. She’s smart, sophisticated, and sexy, and the writers manage to find important plot points for her in all three pictures. Jacques Dynam also appears in the trilogy as L’inspecteur Bertrand, Juve’s right hand man, who is just an incompetent as his boss and the source for much of Juve’s exasperations. There are other regulars, such as Robert Dalban as Fandor’s superior at the paper, but it is these four actors that we come to know and love over the course of the trilogy.

Fantômas appeared late in 1964, around the time that Goldfinger was hitting the screens. This picture establishes the relationships between all the characters and illustrates how the villain uses disguises (with very impressive makeup work on Marais) to pull off thefts, including impersonating both Fandor and Juve. The Bond influence is palpable. Fantômas’ lair resembles the Ken Adam sets of Dr. No, especially No’s dining room, and there is an abundance of the not-quite-sci-fi gee-whiz technology going on.

Fantômas Unleashed (Fantômas se déchaîne) was released in late 1965. This one especially capitalized on Bond for its use of gadgetry, which Juve hilariously introduces to the police force but eventually utilizes in an ingenious way in the climax of the film. In this picture, Fantômas is developing a weapon that will use telekinesis to get people to do his bidding. This reviewer found the second film of the series to be the most fun to watch, the funniest, and the most well-made of the bunch. The cinematography (all three films are in widescreen Scope) was very impressive, and the picture included what apparently was the first filmed Scope skydiving action scenes (shot by free fall camera operator Jean-Jacques Dubourg) that predates the pre-credits sequence of Moonraker by fourteen years! There is also a car that turns into a plane, antedating the one in The Man with the Golden Gun by nine years. Sacré bleu!

Fantômas Against Scotland Yard (Fantômas contre Scotland Yard) was released in early 1967 and is the wildest and weirdest of the threesome. Our intrepid heroes pursue Fantômas to Scotland and a “haunted” Scottish castle, where there are plenty of hijinks involving mediums and phony ghosts and such, as the villain attempts to extort millionaires to pay him “tax” or die. Still enjoyable and a hoot, it’s apparent that the filmmakers probably couldn’t have sustained the success had the series gone on. De Funès was receiving offers for bigger and better things, and Marais had other interests to pursue as well. While recasting and retooling the James Bond series was fine for Eon Productions, breaking up the band and bringing in new talent would not have been wise for Fantômas.

Kino Lorber’s new 2-disk Blu-ray package presents all three movies in excellent restorations (the second picture looks the best, and the third one, oddly, is grainier than the others). An audio commentary by film historian Tim Lucas accompanies Fantômas, but there are no other supplements except for theatrical trailers of these and other Kino Lorber releases (such as the OSS-117 French films of the 60s).

The Fantômas Three Film Collection is a slice of French cinema history, a reflection of that crazy decade of the 1960s, and a treat for fans of the 007 and Pink Panther flicks. Recommended!

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