Le mort qui tue

By far the best episode in Feuillade's extravaganza.It features a very strong screenplay which does not fall apart in the first reel.The longest (at a running time of about 90 min) episode,it delivers the goods.All the characters are present :besides the usual suspects (Fandor,Fantomas,Juve),the movie features Lady Beltham,Sonia Danidoff,the false warden and the dregs of society with a lot of shady characters who seem to come from Eugène Sue's "Les Mysteres de Paris" . The story is extremely well told and I really think that if one of the five segments can grab today's audience ,it is this one.It's so absorbing and so fascinating it can be watched independently of the others.

A young painter is falsely accused of murder.He is killed in his cell,but his corpse disappears and when a crime or a theft is committed,the Police find his fingerprints in the place.(Hence the title: the killing corpse)

It will not surprise anyone,Souvestre/Allain's novel was their best too,even superior to their first effort the first part of which was not transferred to the screen,which was really a pity.It did include a love affair between Fandor and Elisabeth Dollon :they had even planned to get married but finally the girl discovered Fandor's secret ( his real name was Charles Rambert and in the past...) and their break up was inevitable. In the movie Fandor is only an attentive escort and there's not a single kiss ,even on the cheek.

Juve goes underground and is absent for most of the movie.In the two last episodes his appearances would be even shorter.