Les Vampires is a 1915–16 French silent crime serial film written and directed by Louis Feuillade. Set in Paris, it stars Édouard Mathé, Musidora and Marcel Lévesque. The main characters are a journalist and his friend who become involved in trying to uncover and stop a bizarre underground Apache gang, known as The Vampires (who are not the mythological beings their name suggests). The serial consists of ten episodes, which vary greatly in length. Being roughly 7 hours long, it is considered one of the longest films ever made. It was produced and distributed by Feuillade's company Gaumont. Due to its stylistic similarities with Feuillade's other crime serials Fantômas and Judex, the three are often considered a trilogy.
Fresh from the success of Feuillade's previous serial, Fantômas, and facing competition from rival company Pathé, Feuillade made the film quickly and inexpensively with very little written script. Upon its initial release Les Vampires was given negative reviews by critics for its dubious morality and its lack of cinematic techniques compared to other films. However, it was a massive success with its wartime audience, making Musidora a star of French cinema. The film has since come under re-evaluation and is considered by many to be Feuillade's magnum opus and a cinematic masterpiece. It is recognised for developing thriller techniques, adopted by Alfred Hitchcock and Fritz Lang, and avant-garde cinema, inspiring Luis Buñuel, Henri Langlois, Alain Resnais, and André Breton. It is included in the book 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die.
Plot
Episode table
Episode 1 – "The Severed Head"
Philippe Guérande (Édouard Mathé), a reporter working for the newspaper "Mondial" who is investigating a criminal organisation called the Vampires, receives a telegram at work stating that the decapitated body of the national security agent in charge of the Vampire investigations, Inspector Durtal, was found in the swamps near Saint-Clement-Sur-Cher, with the head missing. Being turned down by the local magistrate (Thelès), he spends the night in a nearby castle owned by Dr. Nox (Jean Aymé), an old friend of his father, along with Mrs. Simpson (Rita Herlor), an American multimillionaire who desires the property. After waking up in the night, Philippe finds a note in his pocket saying "Give up your search, otherwise bad luck awaits you! – The Vampires", and discovers a mysterious passage behind a painting in his room. Meanwhile, Mrs. Simpson's money and jewels are stolen in her sleep by a masked thief, but Philippe is suspected of the crime. Philippe again visits the magistrate, who now believes his case, and they trick Dr. Nox and Mrs. Simpson into waiting in an anteroom. At the castle, Philippe and the magistrate find the head of Inspector Durtal hidden in the passage in Philippe's room. Back in the anteroom, they find that Mrs. Simpson is dead and that Dr. Nox has vanished. Her pocket contains a note from the Grand Vampire saying that he has murdered the real Dr. Nox and is now assuming his identity.
Episode 2 – "The Ring That Kills"
The Grand Vampire, in disguise as Count de Noirmoutier, reads that ballerina Marfa Koutiloff (Stacia Napierkowska), who is engaged to Philippe, will perform a ballet called The Vampires. To prevent her from publicizing the Vampires' activities and to deter Philippe, he gives Marfa a poisoned ring before her performance, which kills her onstage. Amidst the panicking crowds, Philippe recognizes the Grand Vampire and follows him to an abandoned fort and is captured by the gang. They agree to interrogate Philippe at midnight and execute him at dawn. Philippe finds that the Vampire guarding him is one of his co-workers, Oscar-Cloud Mazamette (Marcel Lévesque). They decide to work together and capture the Grand Inquisitor when he arrives at midnight. They bind and hood the Grand Inquisitor, and set him up for execution in place of Philippe. At dawn the Vampires arrive for the execution, but the police raid the lair. The Vampires escape, but as they flee they mistakenly execute their own Grand Inquisitor, who turns out to be the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court.
Episode 3 – "The Red Codebook"