Fantomas Returns!

French criminal mastermind Fantomas, the brainchild of crime writers Marcel Allain and Pierre Souvestre, first entered the world of screen in cinematic pioneer Louis Feulliade in the 1913 silent serial. Since then, the ever-popular arch-villain has been bestowed with numerous screen adaptations over the years - though decades might be a better word. In FANTOMAS RETURNS! he is depicted as never seen before, sporting his trademark disguises and surrounded by 1960’s kitsch-pop. This Limited Edition box set contains three Fantomas adventures, newly restored in Blu-ray and with a Collector’s booklet. Jean Marais takes on the dual role of villain and investigating journalist, aided by bumbling Superintendent Juve hilariously portrayed by Louis de Funés.

First up is FANTOMAS from 1964 and no time is lost when said supervillain truly exposes himself as the French version of Lon Chaney’s ‘Man of a thousand faces’ reputation. Within the first few minutes of the film’s opening, Fantomas (in disguise of course) manages to steal some expensive jewelleries by handing the manager a cheque which, after the thief makes off with a dame in tow, turns out to have been signed with invisible ink and soon changes to the actual signature: Fantomas, thus rendering the cheque worthless. Enter seasoned journalist Fandor (J. Marais), who longs for the ultimate headline but has little to go by, except that Fantomas (also Marais) always seems to wear a full-head blue latex mask underneath all his various other masks. Together with his attractive assistant Helene Gurn (Mylene Demongeot), who not only happens to be his love interest but works for the same newspaper, he stages a photo session in a graveyard wearing a black mask and cape, with the photo making it onto the front page and wrongly claiming that Fantomas has been captured on camera and even uttered a few sentences. This not only draws the attention of well-meaning but ultimately bumbling (not to mention neurotic and hysterical) Commissaire Juve (de Funés) but the ire of Fantomas himself, who isn’t in the least bit amused that thanks to Fandor, blatant lies are published about him. Thus he decides to teach Fandor a lesson by kidnapping him and wearing a latex mask which looks like the journalist…and then committing some truly outrageous crimes. Juve is now convinced that Fandor leads a double existence and decides to expose him as the criminal mastermind. Soon though, Juve gets a taste of his own medicine when Fantomas commits more crimes, this time wearing a latex mask resembling Juve. Cue for a cat-and-mouse game during which Fandor, Juve and Helene try to capture the master criminal, who always seems one step (if not two) ahead…

In the second adventure, FANTOMAS UNLEASHED (1965), Fandor, Helene, Juve and his sidekick Michel Betrand (Jacques Dynam) find themselves confronted yet again with Fantomas and this time ‘round, Fantomas is bolder and more dangerous than ever before. You’d swear that they would have learned some lessons by now regarding our megalomaniac cum supervillain but no, they still step into practically every single trap that Fantomas holds in store for them. This time, his latest evil masterplan involves the kidnapping of a widely respected scientist, Professor Marchard (Albert Dagnant) and for good reason: Marchard is on the verge of developing a nifty little weapon which Fantomas, with the help of Marchard’s expertise, plans on turning into a super-weapon with which he can hold the world at ransom. Not content with the original plans, Fantomas plans to kidnap another scientist, Professor Lefebvre although journalist Fandor has the genius plan of disguising himself as Lefebvre in the hope of getting kidnapped by Fantomas, and catch him that way. The plan seems fool-proof and Fandor (in disguise as Lefebvre) even attends a bigwig conference in Italy to carry out the plan. How did you guess that Fantomas is already waiting in the wings and to add to the mayhem, eager Commissaire Juve also turns up - ready to arrest the disguised Fantomas. Of course, he arrests the wrong one (namely Fandor) while the real one escapes with a precious formula and apparatus. Soon, all hell breaks loose and we’re treated to the usual high-octane shenanigans and brilliant stunts. It’s great fun and suffice to say, Fantomas escapes the clutches of law yet again.

FANTOMAS VS SCOTLAND YARD (1967) is the final instalment and this one is a complete riot, taking place in a Scottish castle in the Highlands. Fantomas is up to his usual capers when he turns up in a castle to sort out some legalities as he deals with master of the manor, Lord Rashley (Jean-Roger Caussimon) but within minutes, he reveals his real identity and forces Rashley to sign a contract, namely paying some sort of ‘life tax’ which is a tax the filthy rich should pay him, otherwise he will bump them off. Now there’s an idea… Fearing for his life, Rashley signs but that’s only opening a can of worms because Rashley (fluent in French, apparently) is aware of Inspector Juve, Fandor, Betrand and Helene and invites them over to bonnie Scotland to help him trace Fantomas. Unbeknownst to Lord Rashley, his eccentric wife Lady Rashley (Francoise Christophe), who believes in the spirit world and in ghosts, has a secret affair with young André (Henri Serre), Lord Rashley’s assistant and well, André is in cahoots with… Fantomas! Enter ghostly sightings (staged to drive the already neurotic Juve even more on the brink of a nervous breakdown) and a parallel plot in which a Mafia head honcho (Guy Delorme) thinks that Fantomas’ idea of blackmailing the rich into paying a ‘wealth tax’ is genius. So he and his gang plan on bumping off Fantomas, but make his victims believe that he is still alive and then cash in on the scam. Unfortunately for the gang, Fantomas is already among them, thanks to André, who also works for them, being a total rat. Enter fox hunts, more ghosts, our French heroes in kilts and what have you. It’s laugh-out-loud and if you’re wondering whether Fantomas manages to escape again: what do you think?

Unfortunately, a fourth sequel never came to fruition as behind the scenes, Jean Marais and Louis de Funés didn’t get on (thankfully, it’s not evident on screen). Marais is fantastic as the villain Fantomas (he had his voice dubbed to make him sound different from his Fandor character) though his alter-ego Fandor isn’t quite the match. De Funés steals the show with his neurotic antics and at times it feels as if he really did suffer a nervous breakdown (he died of a heart attack in 1983).

As ever with Eureka, this release is limited to 2,000 copies and comes with various Bonus Material, including audio selections, audio commentaries, video essays and trailers.