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Fantômas se Déchaîne
Fantomas Strikes Back
Fantomas Minaccia il Mondo / Fantômas Revient / Fantomas gegen Interpol
France / Italy 1965
produced by Paul Cadéac, Alain Poiré for Gaumont, Produzioni Atlas Consorziate, Da Ma Produzione, Victory Film, Story Film
directed by André Hunebelle
starring Jean Marais, Louis de Funès, Mylène Demongeot, Jacques Dynam, Robert Dalban, Albert Dagnant, Christian Toma, Michel Duplaix, Olivier De Funès, Florence Blot, Robert Le Béal, Pietro Tordi, Henri Attal, Dominique Zardi, Jacques Marin, Max Montavon, Jean Michaud, Mino Doro, Yvan Chiffre, Eric Vasberg, Antoine Baud, André Cagnard, Arturo Dominici, Bob Morel, Antoine Marin, Bob Lerick, Pierre Palfray, Albert Daumergue, Gérard Moisan
screenplay by Jean Halain, Pierre Foucaud, based on the novels by Pierre Souvestre, Marcel Allain, music by Michel Magne
Fantomas, Fantomas (Jean Marais)
review by Mike Haberfelner
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Always make sure of DVD-compatibility!!!
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Inspector Juve (Louis de Funès) is honoured for getting rid of
Fantomas (Jean Marais) in the previous
movie - but even during the ceremony, he receives a letter from
the villain himself saying "see you soon", and indeed it's soon
revealed that Fantomas has kidnapped an eminent scientist, professor
Marchard (Albert Dagnant), who has been working on a hypnotic gun together
with professor Lefèvre (Jean Marais again), and that's something no
supervillain can do without. Of course, Marchard's findings are nothing
without Lefèvre's contributions, so it's only logical for Fantomas to
want to kidnap Lefèvre as well - and where better than on his train trip
to Rome, thus Juve and his men put him under heavy guard on the train, but
at the same time stay undercover to try and lure Fantomas out into the
open. Meanwhile, Fandor (Jean Marais yet again), a journalist working on
the Fantomas story, decides to replace professor Lefèvre on the train to
... well, not really sure, and he decides to not tell Juve but just his
assistant Bertrand (Jacques Dynam) because ... not sure about that one
either. Anyways, chaos erupts on the train, especially since Fantomas
doesn't swallow the bait but thanks to Fandor's masquerade, everybody
thinks he does. But upon the train's arrival to Rome, Fantomas manage to
snatch Fandor's fiancée Hélène (Mylène Demongeot) and her kid brother
Michou (Olivier De Funès), and by releasing her and keeping him, Fantomas
makes her his accomplice, and so later he has an in on all things that
happen to Lefèvre and pulls through a plan to kidnap the real Lefèvre
while using Fandor dressed up as the professor as a smoke screen for the
police. The whole affair actually gets Juve into a nuthouse, if
temporarily. Then for some reason, Fantomas invites Hélène to a masque,
and of course, Fandor, Juve, Bertrand and Juve's men are coming as well,
and everything of course ends in utter chaos that involves a big brawl, a
shoot-out, death traps, chases, a flying car, Juve falling out of an
airplane (in an areal sequence that would famously become the first of its
kind, filmed by camera operator Jean-Jacques Dubourg while in free fall
himself), and a so-so happy ending, with the good guys getting their hands
on the hypnotic gun but Fantomas escaping - to be back of course. Now
taking the Fantomas movies from the 1960s seriously is not
really an option, they're basically a spoof not only of their source
material but also of the Eurospy genre as such, sparked by the then
popular James
Bond series. That said, the jokes in this movie are a tad
hit-or-miss, and some of the slapstick is too over-the-top, but then
again, Louis de Funès screen persona, that hadn't become too much of a
cliché then, is good for quite a few laughs, and seen through the glasses
of nostalgia, this one's actually pretty entertaining - not always for the
right reasons might you, but fun still.
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