The Vampires: The Severed Head

1915 33 minutes

Open in new tab

About The Vampires: The Severed Head

Philippe Guérande, a reporter for the newspaper Mondial, is investigating the gang called the Vampires. He lets the office usher Oscar Mazamette off for taking the file, because of Mazamette's children, then follows a telegram to Inspector Durtal's headless body in the swamps near Saint-Clément-sur-Cher. The magistrate will not help, so Guérande stays at the castle of Dr. Nox, an old friend of his father, where the American Mrs. Simpson wants to buy the house. A warning from the Vampires is in his pocket, and a passage behind a painting hides Durtal's head. By morning Mrs. Simpson is dead, Nox is gone, and a note says the Grand Vampire killed the real doctor and is using his name.

More about The Vampires: The Severed Head

Episode 1 of Louis Feuillade's ten-part serial Les Vampires. French title La Tête coupée. Gaumont (Société des Établissements L. Gaumont) produced it. Comptoir Ciné-Location was the original distributor. Released 13 November 1915. The episode table gives 33 minutes. A video copy runs 31 minutes and 4 seconds. The Cinémathèque française lists 40 minutes. Feuillade wrote it; the Cinémathèque also credits Georges Meiers. Édouard Mathé plays Guérande. Marcel Lévesque is Mazamette. Jean Ayme is billed as the Grand Vampire and as Dr. Nox.

Themes

  • A file stolen at the newspaper
  • A headless inspector
  • A doctor who is not the doctor
  • Philippe Guérande
  • Mazamette
  • Inspector Durtal
  • Dr. Nox
  • Les Vampires

Making

Feuillade opens the serial on a police inspector's missing head and on a respectable doctor who is the gang's chief in another man's clothes.

Look

The Cinémathèque française credits Georges Guérin. English film pages name Manichoux.

Preservation

The episode survives, including a copy on Wikimedia Commons. Running times in circulation are 33 minutes, 31 minutes 4 seconds, and, at the Cinémathèque française, 40 minutes.

Notes

  • While Guérande sleeps, a masked thief takes Mrs. Simpson's money and jewels, and Guérande is suspected.
  • The Cinémathèque also bills Rita Herlor as Mrs. Simpson, Delphine Renot as Madame Guérande, Stacia Napierkowska as Marfa Koutiloff, and Maurice Luguet as the newspaper's director.
  • The warning in his pocket reads: "Give up your search, otherwise bad luck awaits you! – The Vampires.
  • This chapter is the first episode, not a later one. Irma Vep is not in it.

Scenes

  • Guérande finds Durtal's head in the passage behind the painting.
  • Mrs. Simpson is dead in the anteroom, and the note says the Grand Vampire has taken Dr. Nox's identity.

Influenced by

  • Fantômas

Also available

  • Wikimedia Commons (Les Vampires - La tête coupée (1915).webm)

Quotes

Give up your search, otherwise bad luck awaits you! – The Vampires