Barrabas
About Barrabas
A 1914 prologue opens Louis Feuillade’s serial. The rest sits in 1919. Rudolph Strelitz, called Barrabas, runs an underground gang. Lawyer Jacques Varèse is after him because his father, Rougier, was guillotined for a murder he did not commit: the killing of Laure d’Hérigny, mistress of a missing American millionaire. Dr. Lucius, one of Strelitz’s men, kidnaps Jacques’s sister Françoise. Strelitz tells Jacques that Rougier was his father, and calls the case a heritage of blood, madness, and crime.
Cast & crew
More about Barrabas
Feuillade wrote, directed, and produced the 12-episode serial. Maurice Champreux edited. Gaumont distributed it. Wikidata dates a release to December 1919. The English Wikipedia files it as a 1920 serial. The prologue runs about 77 minutes. Episodes 2 through 12 run about 38 to 40 minutes each. A total of 525 minutes is on record. Fernand Herrmann is Jacques. Gaston Michel is Strelitz. Blanche Montel is Françoise. Edmund Breon is Dr. Lucius. Édouard Mathé is Raoul de Nérac. Georges Biscot is Biscotin. Albert Mayer is Rougier.
Themes
Background
The prologue is 1914. The gang plot is postwar 1919, which is the year the catalog gives the serial.
Making
Feuillade builds the revenge across twelve chapters instead of one feature. The guillotine is already in the past. The kidnapping of Françoise is what keeps Jacques inside Strelitz’s reach.
Music
Silent.
Preservation
The serial survives, with a recorded total of about 525 minutes.
Notes
- Some synopses call the lawyer Claude. The cast list names Jacques Varèse.
- Jeanne Rollette is Biscotine. Lugane is Simone Delpierre. Lyne Stanka is Laure. Violette Jyl is Noëlle Maupré.
- Laurent Morléas is Laugier. Olinda Mano is the child Odette.
- An Internet Archive copy is filed as silent-barrabas.
Scenes
- Rougier goes to the guillotine for Laure d’Hérigny’s murder.
- Dr. Lucius takes Françoise.
- Strelitz tells Jacques that the dead man was his father.
Also available
- Internet Archive (silent-barrabas)
