Fantômas se déchaîne

Fantômas se déchaîne (French pronunciation: [fɑ̃tomas sə deʃɛn], English: Fantomas Unleashed) is a 1965 film starring Jean Marais as the arch villain Fantômas opposite Louis de Funès as the earnest but outclassed commissaire Juve and the journalist Fandor, also played by Marais. It was France's answer, with the Fantômas trilogy starting in 1964, to the James Bond phenomenon that swept the world at around the same time.[2] It is the second in the trilogy of Fantômas films,[3] that became extremely successful in Europe and Soviet Union and found success even in the United States and Japan. In this film Jean Marais also plays professor Lefebvre.

Fantômas se déchaîne
French film poster
Directed byAndré Hunebelle
Haroun Tazieff
Written byPierre Souvestre (novels)
Marcel Allain (novels)
Jean Halain (adaptation)
Pierre Foucaud (adaptation)
Produced byPaul Cadéac
Alain Poiré
StarringJean Marais
Louis de Funès
Mylène Demongeot
Music byMichel Magne
Production
company
Release date
  • 8 December 1965 (1965-12-08)
Running time
93 minutes
CountriesFrance
Italy
LanguageFrench
Box office$31.6 million[1]

Plot

In the second film of the trilogy Fantômas kidnaps distinguished scientist professor Marchand with the aim to develop a super weapon that will enable him to menace the world. Fantômas is also planning to abduct a second scientist, professor Lefebvre. Journalist Fandor develops an ingenious scheme whereby he disguises himself as Lefebvre and attends a scientific conference in Rome, Italy to lure Fantômas into attempting to kidnap him.

The plan seems to work until commissaire Juve steps into the fray and as usual messes things up, although Juve redeems himself by saving the troupe with an array of special gadgets which he has developed especially for his hunt for Fantômas. Yet, once again Fantômas escapes in style, using his Citroën DS with retractable wings that converts into an airplane in what amounts to one of the most unexpected and spectacular scenes of the genre.[4]

Cast
ActorCharacter
Jean MaraisProf. Lefebvre / Fantômas / Fandor
Louis de FunèsCommissioner Juve
Mylène DemongeotHélène Gurn
Jacques DynamBertrand
Robert DalbanNewspaper Editor
Olivier de FunèsMichou

Release

The film premiered in France on 8 December 1965.

It was the sixth most popular film of 1965 in France, after The Sucker, Goldfinger, Thunderball, Gendarme in New York and Mary Poppins and before God's Thunder and The Wise Guys.[5] It had admissions of 4,412,446.[6]

The Fantômas trilogy
TitleRelease date
Fantômas4 November 1964
Fantômas se déchaîne8 December 1965
Fantômas contre Scotland Yard16 March 1967

References
  1. "Fantômas se déchaîne (1965) - JPBox-Office".
  2. Dimitris Eleftheriotis (25 January 2002). Popular Cinemas of Europe: Studies of Texts, Contexts and Frameworks. Bloomsbury Publishing. p. 84. ISBN 978-1-62356-955-6.
  3. Kate Ince (22 July 2005). Georges Franju. Manchester University Press. p. 55. ISBN 978-0-7190-6828-7.
  4. Picture of the Fantômas Citroën DS with retractable wings through Internet Archive
  5. "1965 Box Office". Box Office Story.
  6. "Box Office Figures for Jean Marais films". Box Office Story.
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