Judex
About Judex
The banker Favraux has ruined a family. The son takes the name Judex, Latin for judge, and, in a black cape, sets out to punish him. René Cresté plays Judex. He kidnaps Favraux and falls in love with Favraux's daughter Jacqueline. Diana Monti (Musidora) and her gang try to take Favraux's money. The story was released as twelve episodes.
Cast & crew
More about Judex
Louis Feuillade directed from a script he wrote with Arthur Bernède. He shot it in 1916. Gaumont released the twelve episodes in 1917. Before each episode, the story ran in the daily Le Petit Parisien. Yvette Andréyor, René Poyen, Édouard Mathé, Louis Leubas, Marcel Lévesque, and Gaston Michel are in the cast. The serial runs 315 minutes.
Themes
Background
Gaumont put the episodes out in 1917, during the war, with a parallel serial in Le Petit Parisien.
In film history
The cloaked avenger in the serial is cited as one model for The Shadow and for Batman.
Making
Feuillade answered complaints about the criminals in Les Vampires by building this serial around a cloaked avenger instead of a gang.
Audiences
It was a commercial success in France, enough for Feuillade to make La Nouvelle Mission de Judex the following year.
Music
Silent on release. Robert Israel later wrote a score for a restoration.
Preservation
The twelve-part serial survives and is on the Internet Archive as silent-judex.
Notes
- Musidora had just played Irma Vep in Feuillade's Les Vampires.
- Feuillade made a sequel the next year, La Nouvelle Mission de Judex.
- Maurice Champreux remade it in 1934. Georges Franju remade it in 1963.
- The Internet Archive identifier is silent-judex.
- Robert Israel later composed a score used with some restorations. The 1917 release was silent.
Scenes
- Judex, in the black cape, kidnaps the banker Favraux.
- Diana Monti's gang moves in on the money while Judex is drawn to Jacqueline.
Influenced
- La Nouvelle Mission de Judex (1918)
- Judex (1934)
- Judex (1963)
Also available
- Internet Archive (silent-judex)
