The William Barker productions of this period come as a bit of a surprise. Jane Shore (1915) is really quite a major historical drama and, although based on a now rather forgotten eighteenth-century play, not at all the "stage-reconstruction" that one might expect. And this film is - albeit a lot of silly nonsense - a really rather exciting and enjoyable thriller.
Although Britain was being swamped at this time by US films (the curse of the common language) and losing large numbers of directors and actors to Hollywood, the British film industry somehow manged to remain curiously uninfluenced by US models, preferring European ones, esentially North European ones, a tendency that was increased by strong ties at this time with the Dutch film industry and later (amazingly right up until the very eve of the war) with the German industry.
The influence of French films was also important but often came via Germny. The young Hitchcock for instance was enormously influenced by German films (and indeed served an apprenticeship there) but, through the German models (Lang for instance) also imbibed the influence of Feuillade and the great French serials of this period.
Those wonderful films (Fantômas, The Vampires and Judex particularly) have for some strange reason not received their due in modern times from anglo-saxon commentators and critics but they were silent films that the French always prized as classics even during that long dark age when people might have looked blank at the mention of Alice Guy, George Méliès, Germaine Dulac or Michel L'Herbier, when even the names of Gance and Epstein would have been little more than names and when even such a famed star as Max Linder was close to being forgotten. Through all that terrible period of ingorance, the French never forgot Feuillade....
It is true that the Feuillade serial present a certain problem for the critic. They defy formal analysis and are not even really the sum of their parts, each element performing a remarkable act of brinkmanship by which, by some peculiar magic, Feuillade prevents them going over the top in whichever direction, from tipping into foolish comedy, into self-parody or into total absurdism. Yet, confound the critics as they may, the quality of thee films is beyond doubt. And the proof is evident. Of all the innumerable attempts to emulate the example of Feuillade, none succeeded in quite pulling off the same trick again and to this day the Feuillade serials remain in an absolute class of their own.
This film is very evidently influenced by Feuillade. Gadegts galore (including a poison-gas bracelet), disguises (a bit feeble) and a wealth of secret panels and passages. No car chases, it must, and nobody ever gets put in a laundry basket. But, those omissions apart, the basic pattern is there. But this film does not manage the brinkmanship and goes over the top in several directions. But what is fascinating is the way it combines the Feuillade scenario in everything that concerns the two (remarkably careless) master/mistress criminals but attempts to combine it with a traditional British-style police procedure/detective drama in everything that concerns the rather short arm of the law. For all his careful pursuit of clues and manipulation of his little magnifying class, the detective never actually seems to get anywhere and it is his female assistant who is central in solving the mystery - largely by accident. But this is not the cheerful blundering of Inspector Juve (the actor was actually a Scotsman) and Jerôme Fandor) in Fantômas or of Philippe Guérande and Mazamet in The Vampires. Here we are supposed to take our Sherlock Holmes seriously.
Needless the two sides remain a mismatch from beginning to end but watching it is fascinating and Trapped by London Sharks is not a film to be missed.
