Main Cast: Jean Marais, Jean Marais, Louis de Funès, Mylène Demongeot, Robert Dalban, Jacques Dynam
Release Year: 1964
Country: FR/IT
Run Time: 105 minutes
Plot
This movie is the first in a trilogy that parodied the popular silent Fantomas serials of director Louis Feuillade, which followed the adventures of the titular master criminal created by writers Pierre Souvestre and Marcel Allain. After a daring jewelry heist signed "Fantomas," police commissioner Juve (Louis de Funès) goes on national television claiming that Fantomas doesn't exist and that there is no reason for public concern. Riding the wave of public interest, journalist Fandor (Jean Marais) publishes a bogus interview with the master criminal. Fantomas (also played by Jean Marais) doesn't appreciate the joke and kidnaps Fandor to teach him a lesson. A master of disguise, he pulls an even more daring robbery wearing the Fandor mask. Comic relief is provided by commissioner Juve's awkward attempts to capture the elusive arch-criminal. ~ Yuri German, All Movie Guide
Henri Attal; Jean-Roger Caussimon; Françoise Christophe; Pierre Collet; André Dumas; Bernard Musson; Henri Serre; Dominique Zardi; Andrée Tainsy; Rudy Lenoir; Hugues Wanner
Credit
Paul-Louis Boutie - Art Director, André Hunebelle - Director, Jean Feyte - Editor, Alain Poiré - Executive Producer, Paul Cadeac - Executive Producer, Michel Magne - Composer (Music Score), Marcel Grignon - Cinematographer, Gil Delamare - Special Effects, Jean Halain - Screenwriter, Pierre Foucauld - Screenwriter
Fantômas is a 1964 film starring Jean Marais as the arch villain with the same name opposite Louis de Funès as the earnest but outclassed commissaire Paul Juve. In the film Juve teams up with journalist Fandor, also played by Marais, trying to catch Fantômas but never quite succeeding. It was France's answer, in 1964, to the James Bond phenomenon that swept the world at around the same time. It is the first of a trilogy of Fantômas films that became extremely successful in Europe and found success even in the United States and Japan where fan websites exist to this day.[1]Mylène Demongeot plays Hélène. Hélène Gurn is the girlfriend of Jérôme Fandor, Fantômas' arch enemy.
The general tone of the films is more light-hearted than the original Fantômas novels. Commissaire Juve, as played by Louis de Funès, becomes a comedic character, much different from his literarycounterpart.
Men Hunt Him Down....Women Look Him Up!....Super Thief....Master Lover....He's out to ransack the world!
Synopsis
Fantômas is a man of many disguises. He uses maquillage as a weapon. He can impersonate anyone using an array of masks and can create endless confusion by constantly changing his appearance. In the first episode of the series he is unhappy with Fandor, because of a fictitious interview the journalist wrote about him. He takes his revenge by abducting Fandor and threatening to kill him. He then uses his formidable makeup skills to commit a spectacular crime while disguised like Fandor. When commissaire Juve joins the chase, chameleon-like Fantômas promptly commits a crime wearing a mask looking like Juve. In the end Fandor, Juve and Fandor's girlfriend Hélène are all on the master criminal's trail, all to no avail as the man of a thousand masks finally manages to escape.
