Judex (1916-1917)

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Judex (1916-1917) – L. Feuillade

Louis Feuillade mastered the serial format in the heyday of the silent era (most notably with Fantomas and Les Vampires) and this is his third major work (that is still available to be seen).  The story begins with Favraux the unscrupulous banker (a villain for all time, it seems) receiving threatening notes from an unknown character, Judex, who plans to avenge Favraux’s past misdeeds if he doesn’t donate a portion of his millions to charity.  Of course, he doesn’t and the banker is subsequently struck down dead! His daughter, in penance for her father’s evil ways, does donate the money.  But then it turns out that Favraux is not really dead – only kidnaped and imprisoned in a secret underground cell by Judex.  A couple of bad characters (including femme fatale Musidora) discover this and plot to recapture Favraux and force him to share his wealth (once reclaimed) with them.  And on and on it goes for 5 ½ hours across 12 or 13 episodes.  Although each episode does not end with a fabled cliffhanger, the story contains a number of twists and is generally full of adventure.  Georges Franju remade it (at a more modest length) in 1963 and tightened things up and added a bit of a surreal flourish.  However, the original stands well on its own, even if it is less daring than Les Vampires.