Protéa
About Protéa
The police prefect of Messenia is ordered to get a copy of a secret treaty between Celtie and Savonia. Protéa and her partner, the Eel, go into Celtie in a string of disguises and take the paper from the foreign ministry. On the way out she works as an animal trainer in a menagerie while the Eel is dressed as a monkey. They finish the escape as Celtic officers, pass an army post, and are brought to the prefect, who recognizes them and congratulates them.
Cast & crew
More about Protéa
Victorin-Hippolyte Jasset directed it at Éclair, with studio sets and outdoor locations. It is in four parts and runs 50 minutes. A timed copy runs 49 minutes 12 seconds. It opened in September 1913, after Jasset's death. Josette Andriot plays Protéa, in a close black jersey, using jiu-jitsu and changes of costume. Lucien Andriot photographed it. Lucien Bataille, Charles Krauss, Henri Gouget, Jacques Feyder, Mévisto, and Émile Chautard are billed. Four more Protéa films followed at Éclair through 1919.
Themes
Making
Jasset died before the September 1913 release. Andriot stayed in the part through four later Éclair films and left the screen after the 1919 entry.
Reviews
A 1913 reviewer wrote that whatever this most dauntless of women dares to do, she undertakes it with a smile on her lips.
Look
Lucien Andriot, Josette Andriot's brother, photographed the Éclair sets and the outdoor chases.
Preservation
A print survives.
Notes
- The name is the Greek Proteus, the god who changes shape.
- Andriot had no stage training. She came to Éclair as a rider, cyclist, and swimmer.
- Irma Vep, in Feuillade's Les Vampires, reached the screen in 1915, two years after this jersey.
- The last of the series, Protéa V, or L'Intervention de Protéa, was directed by Jean-Joseph Renaud in 1919 and ran 1,350 meters.
Scenes
- Protéa and the Eel take the treaty from the foreign ministry.
- She plays the animal trainer while he is dressed as a monkey.
- They walk in as Celtic officers and the prefect congratulates them.
Also available
- Wikimedia Commons (Protéa (1913).webm)
