Fantomas 3: El muerto que mata

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.