Fantômas III: Le Mort Qui Tue

After a body disappears from inside the prison, a series of crimes take place, all seemingly by the dead man. With Juve presumed dead, Fandor (Georges Melchior) must investigate alone. Will Fantomas finally be brought to justice?

Being a Fantomas story, we pretty much know that Fantomas is the man behind all the horrible crimes... but the real question is how is he doing it? How do you successfully frame a dead man? Surely I cannot give it away, but the twists and turns are excellent and the series really picks up here -- this is not only the centerpiece, but perhaps the climax of the entire run.

I am not sure if you should watch this without having seen the first two parts, but if you saw those, you absolutely must give part three a chance.

Despite the rave reviews from the other fans on here, I feel compelled to speak some truth and even this out a bit from a more objective standpoint. While this is indeed the longest of the Fantomas films--or serials, really. While the first two films move at a fairly quick pace, the third plays as more of a mystery, with Fantomas rarely on the screen. This is especially a shame, as he now finally dons his Executioner hood, looking more diabolical than ever, yet he unfortunately has an estimated total of five minutes screen time with this new attire.

While the murder/mystery storyline is at first compelling and interesting, it quickly dissipates into a boring, convoluted mess. For starters, gone is Fantomas' disguise gimmick from the beginning of the first two serials. While not imperative, it served as an interesting look into the titular evildoer himself with some impressive effects, and as sort of a recap of the character himself. The most egregious aspect of the film isn't the story itself, but Feuillade's bland, static direction. Scenes go on for far two long, with the average shot length well over thirty seconds. While the camera blocking is at times well placed in its execution, each and every scene drags, testing the viewer to keep focused on characters or actions that matter, most of which are simply superfluous.

While the resolution is quite grisly in the motives and actions of Fantomas himself, the ending feels anti-climactic and rushed compared to the previous outings of suspense and mystery. While it's a necessary film to view in the series, be warned, for it's also the worst.

Le Mort Qui Tue (1913)

*** (out of 4)

Also known as THE DEAD MAN WHO KILLED and THE MURDEROUS CORPSE (the DVD title), this third entry in the five-part series runs the longest at 90-minutes and so far it's the best of the three. With Inspector Juve out of the way it's up to reporter Fandor (Georges Melchior) to try and locate Fantomas (Rene Navarre) and his crime ring. Jacques Dollon is behind bars where he's murdered only to have his body disappear shortly after wards but the crime takes an additional twist when we get another murder victim who has a fingerprint from Dollon on her. Of course it's important to know the information from the first two films but at the same time I think you could show this entry to people as is and they'd find themselves entertained. The added running time really allowed the writers to go into more details about some of the characters and we get several scenes that are expanded to let the action take its time so that we can get more development with the characters and this helps add to the drama. There are a couple twists and turns that I won't ruin but they're all handled extremely well and I really loved the final ten-minutes when things really start to pick up the pacing and gets you excited to see how the next two films are going to play out. Melchior appeared in the previous two films but this was the first time he got to be the star and he does a good job with it. He certainly makes his character interesting and helps keep the film moving. Navarre is perfectly comfortable with the role of Fantomas and we get some nice support from Luitz-Morat and Renee Carl. Feuillade's direction is a tad bit better than in the previous two films and I'd say he adds a nice touch a drama in several scenes including one beautifully shot sequence in a tunnel outside the jail. Even if you weren't bowled over with the first two films, this one here works well enough on its own to make it worth viewing.

It's funny to meet this famous french franchise at this date and that's precisely my motivation to pick it up! I expected to discover the 1st versions of Fandor, Juve and for sure Fantomas. Of all those early 5 movies, i chose this one because the cover and title was similar to the big mystery french stories and that's indeed what the movie is: a nervous, parisian mystery, a genre in which french cinema excels unlike its poor drama... From all the old french movies i saw so far, this one looks the more modern with a lot of action, sets.. Paris has few moments but they are beautiful from a vintage view. The criminal mind is as devious as the later ones and with his hood, Fantomas is as frightening! Honesty this movie has aged like a very good french red wine and you can taste like a national treasure (even if we saw that France has always been this old country not that open to the new technology!)

In this third installment of the "Fantomas" film serial, things seem to take a much darker turn. While the previous two installment certainly have their darker moments, this film has a much darker overall tone for a majority of its running time.

While I must admit that I found "Juve Against Fantomas" to be more entertaining and, therefore, better, "The Dead Man Who Killed" definitely had the most interesting story out of all the "Fantomas" films that I've seen so far. A lot of people consider this to be the best film of the "Fantomas" serial, but I must yet again say that I prefer "Juve Against Fantomas" based on the sheer amount of entertainment value and memorability that that film presented me with.

I have to refrain from giving this addition to the series a 10, even though it is quite excellent, just because I found it to be a bit too slow in parts to get that high a rating. But even if it is slow at times there's still plenty of excitement and suspense throughout the film, as well as an engaging mystery.