Fantomas contro Fantomas

After a famous silent series of films by Feuillade (1913) a so -so remake by Paul Fejos (1932) ,another mediocre remake in 1946 by Jean Sacha (1946) proved successful (in spite of an absurd cast :Simone Signoret as Fantomas' daughter !)hence this sequel three years later.

Robert Vernay is more gifted in the popular saturday-night-at-the movies genre than Sacha : his adaptations of Dumas (two versions of "le comte de Monte Cristo ) and Balzac ("le père Goriot") are estimable .His camera movements give his pictures substance ;besides,he knows to how use his settings (the old Nazi torture chamber with is pool full of acid ) .

The screenplay is a free(and I mean free) adaptation of Pierre Souvestre -in both movies of the forties ,he is not given any credit , one can wonder why- and Marcel Allain 's series of book ;and pretty good directing does not make up for the muddled desultory script and an undistinguished acting ; in this cock and bull story, Fantomas and a wicked surgeon change innocent human beings into zombie-killers ....

Odile Versois , Marina Vlady's sister, has a very short scene in which she throws the documents out of a train ; her second film,hair in braids , her name appears in big letters in the cast and credits though.

Apart from Feuillade ,the best Fantomas was made (for TV) by Claude Chabrol ,in the seventies,with an ideally cast Helmut Berger.

Nobody dared in reviewing this Fantomas, directed by Robert Vernay. I don't know any great title by this director, except Le Comte De Monte Cristo. Fantomas Contre Fantomas is not a masterpiece, but is nervous enough, especially the ending. And for lovers of old France like me, we see a lot of settings in Paris that have completely changed today (Bercy, La Seine, La Bastille, ...) or disappeared (Michelin panels). These old movies are documents when shooting on location. That's why I love watching old french movies even if there are not masterpieces. Fantomas Contre Fantomas is worth a look. I don't know why this Fantomas is so unknown, it is unfair, because the ending is great and scary.